Alishan Forest Railway
| Alishan Forest Railway | |
|---|---|
Class B 28t Shay locomotive No.31
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| Overview | |
| Locale | Chiayi County, Taiwan |
| Coordinates | 23°30′36″N 120°48′15″E / 23.510092°N 120.804239°ECoordinates: 23°30′36″N 120°48′15″E / 23.510092°N 120.804239°E |
| Termini |
Chiayi Station Alishan Station |
| Connecting lines | Chiayi Station: TRA Western Line |
| Daily ridership | 5500 |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1912 |
| Operator(s) | Taiwan Railways Administration |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 86 km (53 mi) |
| Track gauge | 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) |
| Highest elevation | 2,216 m (7,270 ft) |
| Alishan Forest Railway | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 阿里山森林鐵路 | ||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Ālǐshān Sēnlín Tiělù |
| Wade–Giles | A1-li3-shan1 Sen1-lin2 T'ieh3-lu4 |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | A-lí-san Sim-lîm Thih-lō· |
The Alishan Forest Railway (Chinese: 阿里山森林鐵路; pinyin: Ālǐshān Sēnlín Tiělù) is an 86 km network of 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge railways running up to and throughout the popular mountain resort of Alishan in Chiayi County, Taiwan. The railway, originally constructed for logging, is itself a tourist attraction with unique Z-shaped switchbacks, 50 tunnels, and over 77 wooden bridges.
The narrow gauge lines were originally constructed by the Japanese Colonial Government in 1912 to facilitate the logging of cypress and Taiwania wood. Passenger carriages were first added to the trains in 1918. The first motive power was a Shay locomotive purchased second hand from the Kiso Forest Railway in Japan. Eventually the railway acquired 20 Shay locomotives.
Eventually, diesel railcars supplemented the steam engines on the passenger services. In the 1980s, 10 Hitachi-built diesel-hydraulic locomotives were delivered and replaced the railcars and remaining steam engines.
The completion of the Alishan Highway in 1982 led to the loss of many rail passengers to faster and cheaper buses and the rail became primarily a tourist attraction.
Accidents on the line have resulted in a number of fatalities over the years. On 24 April 1981, a collapsed tunnel resulted in nine deaths and 13 injuries. On 1 March 2003, 17 people were killed and 156 injured when a train derailed near Alishan Railway Station. On 27 April 2011, five tourists, including three from mainland China, were killed and 113 people injured in a derailment.
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Wikipedia