Taipei City is collaborating with Taiwan Railways to develop the Nangang train station and its surroundings. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je and Taiwan Railways Director Chou Yung-hui signed a letter of intent on Friday to pave the way for the project.
Taiwan Railways will provide the land, while the Taipei City government will be in charge of planning, developing, and logistics. The goal is to build a railway station north of the Nangang Exhibition Center station, and to build public housing. That would help turn the area into one of the anchors of a northern Taiwan biotech corridor.
Mayor Ko said the Nangang area is already home to Academia Sinica which is the nation’s top research institute. Taiwan’s health ministry, and the city’s department of health will also move into the district in the near future. Ko says an extension to the high speed rail line will facilitate commutes between Nangang and Hsinchu’s Industrial Park, which is Taiwan’s silicon valley.
“The Nangang station will soon serve as the terminal station on the high speed rail line, and it will then take only 35 minutes to travel from Nangang to Hsinchu," said Ko.
"There will be more than 50 trains per day, making it possible to develop a biotech corridor in northern Taiwan.”