I. Construction plans for the MRT-Wuri Wenxin Beitun Line began in 1990 with the Provincial Government’s “Taichung Metropolitan Area MRT System Planning,” which was approved by the Executive Yuan in accordance with its administrative principles in May 2009, by which time the people of Taichung had already waited for nearly two decades.
II. According to the July 2004 “Composite planning report for priority lines” by the Bureau of High Speed Rail, Ministry of Transportation and Communications: “with an economic cost-benefit ratio of less than 1, an underground system does not have economic feasibility. The suggested construction style of the priority lines is the overpass-style.”
III. Whether the economic benefit (cost-benefit ratio, B/C) is greater than 1 is an important basis for Council for Economic Planning and Development, Executive Yuan’s assessment of major construction works. An underground system only had economic benefits of 0.98, which means that the benefit is lower than the cost and the cost-ineffectiveness could result in the central government’s disapproval of the underground system. [Note: economic benefit refers to the external benefits of the plan, such as the saved time costs or decreases in accident rates; usually plans with economic benefit cost-benefit ratios less than 1 mean that they are “not beneficial,” and the central government usually would not approve them to be carried out.]
IV. On October 11, 2004, the 1190th commission meeting of the Council for Economic Planning And Development agreed to the arrangement, giving the official name of “Taichung Metropolitan Area MRT System Wuri Wenxin Beitun Line Construction Plan,” and the conclusions are listed in brief as follows: “This plan will be carried out according to the second financial coordination meeting held by former Deputy Premier Lin on August 28, 2003 (abridged: since the self-liquidation ratio of this plan is low, the government has arranged to use the public affairs budget for it): the government has arranged a budget for the plan. However, the operation ratio of this plan is greater than one, and will be operated in the OT method. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is asked to ascertain the OT (operate and transfer) business in the design state”; the Executive Yuan approved this on November 23, 2004.
V. In April 2008, Taichung City Government still had a glimmer of hope for an underground system, and requested that Bureau of High Speed Rail reevaluate the feasibility of the underground system. The evaluation results showed: