Shalun Line

Shalun Line 沙崙線
TRA Shalun Station as seen from THSR Tainan Station
Overview
Type	Heavy rail
System	Taiwan Railway Administration
Status	In operation
Locale	Tainan City, Taiwan
Termini	Zhongzhou Station, Rende District Shalun Station, Guiren District
Stations	3
Operation
Opened	January 2, 2011
Owner	Taiwan Railway Administration
Character	Elevated
Technical
Line length	5.3 km (3.3 mi)
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge

The Shalun Line (Chinese: 沙崙線; pinyin: Shālún xiàn) is a branch line of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) Western Line in Tainan City, Taiwan. It was built to link the Western Line to the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) Tainan Station, speeding up transit times between downtown Tainan and the THSR station, with services running from Nanke Station or Tainan Station to Shalun Station, next to the THSR station. The line opened on January 2, 2011.

The Shalun Line was proposed as a solution to the lack of a rail connection between the Tainan metropolitan area and the Taiwan High Speed Rail station in Guiren. Originally, in plans developed in the 1990s, the Red Line of the planned Tainan MRT system was designed to address this issue, but financial considerations meant the MRT project had to be shelved indefinitely. After public consultation the Executive Yuan decided to prioritize a regular rail link between the THSR and TRA rail systems. The initial budget for the construction of the Shalun Line was NT$5.8 billion.

With the exception of the end of the junction with the Western Line, the line is completely elevated. Work was originally planned to be completed in 2009, but due to flood prevention work on Erren River, which crosses under the rail line, the completion date was pushed back to January 2011. There have been some complaints from local residents that the increased number of trains passing through Tainan will increase the number of times road traffic must stop at level crossings to let trains pass. The line has three stations: the existing TRA Western Line Zhongzhou Station, which was renovated and modified as a junction station, and the newly built Chang Jung University, and Shalun Stations.