The scheduled June 2015 demolition of 52-year-old Pingtung Railway Station, known as Agou Eki between 1913 and 1945, has evoked a wave of nostalgia from railway buffs and locals alike.
“Pingtung has had a railway station for more than a century,” station manager Tung Ah-cheng said. “What we call the old station was built in 1962 on the site of a previous one. It has accompanied the inhabitants of Pingtung for five long decades.”
“The skeleton of the new station has already emerged from behind the old one,” Tung added. “The V-shaped steel pillars, which resemble coconut palms, are in place and people are looking forward to its completion.”
As of the end of May, the elevation project for the Northern Pingtung Railway and Pingtung Railway Station was 57.99 percent finished, according to the Railway Reconstruction Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Given that the completion rate is computed based on a 50-50 approach, with construction counted as 50 percent of the project and 50 percent contributed by its successful daily operation, the building work is well underway and the station should be up and running by June next year. As soon as people can take the train at the new elevated station, the old station will be torn down.
Yen Hsiao-tsuei, a former Pingtung resident now living in Taipei City, is one of many saddened by the news. She used to commute every weekday and spent much time at the station when she was a high school student. “I used to hang around the manager’s office as if it were the station rest area. It was a small station with a lot of human interest.” Yen said.
The original Agou Eki Station, built in 1913 during the Japanese occupation era (1895-1945), was named after the local branch of the Siraya aboriginal tribe.
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