Taipei, March 24 (CNA) Britain's experience of privatization and re-structuring of its rail industry will be helpful to Taiwan in development and reform of its own rail system, said British experts at a seminar held in Taipei Friday.
Led by Jeremy Candfield, Director General of the U.K. Railway Industry Association, a mission that includes ten British rail companies discussed past experiences in railway projects in a seminar on "Railway Technologies and Expertise from the UK."
Taiwan has invested a great deal in its rail industry, which includes a high-speed train, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) systems in several major cities and an upgrade of its rail system, said Candfield.
But he also realized that Taiwan "faces problems such as its commercial future and safety [issues] in the railway industry."
Citing the U.K.'s experience, Candfield said the country's railway industry had also taken "hits" in the mid 1990's, experiencing a stable decline in the number of railway passengers. Fortunately, privatization and re-structuring changed the whole situation.
"All the charts have moved in a completely different direction after that," said Candfield. "Over the last ten years, the [number of] passenger kilometers has gone up 40 percent. We saw record-breaking infrastructure investment. And the safety performance indicators have continued to improve."
"And most expertise now is in the private sector, with much of that in the supply industry," he added.
Regarding the cases of railway sabotage that occurred recently in Taiwan, Candfield said: "We also had some serious cases in the UK, which were believed to have been carried out by somebody who knew what they were doing."
To solve the problem, Candfield said, more railway police were deployed and more close-circuit televisions set up in every station, although there's nothing much that can be done in the countryside, he said.
The seminar was organized by the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei (BTCO) and co-sponsored by a number of government organizations, including the Bureau of High Speed Rail, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp. and the Kaohsiung MRT Bureau.