The Dongshi line () was a railway line of the

Taiwan Railways Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...

. The line was a branch line of the

Taichung Line The Taichung line (), also known as the Mountain line (), is a line of the Taiwan Railway Administration, which one of two parallel lines in Central Taiwan section offsetting to inland mountain area. It has a total length of 85.5 km, all of w ...

and stretched between

Fengyuan Fengyuan District () is a district located in north-central Taichung, Taiwan on the south bank of the Dajia River. Fengyuan district is the third most populated district among former Taichung County, ranking after Dali and Taiping district. Feng ...

and Dongshi in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. After the line's abolishment in 1991, the

Taichung County Taichung County was a county in central Taiwan between 1945 and 2010. The county seat was in Yuanlin Township before 1950 and Fongyuan City after 1950. History Taichung County was established on 26 November 1945 on the territory of Taichū P ...

government turned the route into a paved

bike path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

known as the Dongfeng Bicycle Greenway.

History

The line was first constructed in 1959 to transport lumber from Dasyueshan. It ran a similar route to the defunct Baxianshan Forest Railway between Fengyuan and Eight Immortals Mountain. The entire line was single-tracked and not electrified; the only

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

was at Shihgang Station. When the railway was completed in 1959, a large opening ceremony was held at Dongshi. Former Dongshi station master Weizheng Yang recounted that "Tungshih station was packed with people... not everyone has ridden a train before... at the sight of the steam engine thundering down the tracks, everyone cheered." In Shigang, the tracks cross right above a waterfall, which became a well-known vista point. Aside from transporting lumber, the line also transported passengers, mainly students. The line also transported concrete for the construction of Techi Dam between 1969 and 1974. However, with the closure of lumber industry at Dasyueshan in 1973, ridership sharply declined, causing local residents to petition for the line's closure. The line officially closed down on September 1, 1991. The Taichung County government saw potential for tourism along the route, so a paved bike path known as the Dongfeng Bicycle Greenway was constructed on November 15, 2000, making it the first railway line to be rebuilt in Taiwan. Tungshih and Shihgang stations were refurbished into visitor centers. In 2010, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu proposed that the

Taichung Metro The Taichung MRT (also called Taichung Mass Rail Transit or Taichung Metro) is a rapid transit system in Taichung, Taiwan. In addition to Taichung, it may serve Changhua and Nantou counties in the future. Taichung Metro's first route, the Green ...

Red line to be extended to Dongshi along the former route as part of his "Seven Line Plan".

Stations

During the line's operation, the stations used

Tongyong pinyin Tongyong Pinyin () was the official romanization of Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. Taiwan's Ministry of ...

References

{{Taiwan Railways Administration TRA routes Railway lines opened in 1959 Railway lines opened in 1991 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Taiwan 1959 establishments in Taiwan 1991 disestablishments in Taiwan