Planning of the Taichung MRT started in 1990 with a study conducted by the Taiwanese Bureau of Housing and Urban Development. The study was completed in 1998 and suggested the implementation of three routes. The project was formally approved by the Executive Yuan of the ROC government on 23 November 2004. The city government signed a joint development contract with the Taipei City Government on 12 December 2007. Meanwhile, the Taichung City Government started their own planning of more lines and decided that the much cheaper BRT system would be the future of mass transit in Taichung. Since the corridor of the originally proposed Red Line is partially served by the TRA mass transit construction, the Blue Line corridor was chosen as a first step to implement BRT in Taichung. Construction of the first line, the Green Line, had been paid for and was expected to begin in October 2007, though it was pushed back and started construction on 8 October 2009. The section of the Green Line is now scheduled for completion by 2020 and will include 18 stations. On March 9, 2011, Kawasaki Heavy Industries announced that it had won a joint order with Alstom Transport SA and CTCI Corp. to supply 36 units consisting of two-car, driverless trains totaling 29.5 billion yen. While Kawasaki will oversee construction, Alstom will focus on signaling and CTCI will supply the electrical system.
Proposed network
Green Line
The MRT Green Line Wuri - Beitun is currently being constructed as an elevated railway with driverless electric trains. It will be about long. Original plans included 15 stations and a depot, but because of pressure from the Taichung City Government the station count was increased to 18. It will stretch from Songzhu Road in Beitun District of Taichung along Beitun Road, Wenxin Road, and Wenxin South Road to the High Speed Rail Station in the Wuri District. It is expected to cost NT$53,491,000,000, and will be built by the Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems. Test runs are anticipated by late 2018 and formal operations by 2020. The line passes through Nantun and Xitun districts. The planned total cost for the project is NT$51.39 billion, which is split between the local and central government.
Blue Line
The Taichung City Government cites LRT being five times cheaper to build than MRT, and BRT in turn being five times cheaper than LRT. For this reason, the first MRT line in Taichung is being built as an elevated line, and future lines are planned to be built as BRT with the possibility of later upgrading to grade-separated modes of transit. The system began its operation in 2014, between Providence University and the Taichung Railway Station. It ran along the busy Taiwan Boulevard, on a designated lane made specifically for BRT. Bus stations were built on the divider between the fast and slow lanes on the road. It was the first articulated bus system in Taiwan. The service ended on 8 July 2015 due to the new policy announced by Mayor Lin Chia-lung on 30 March 2015. The designated BRT Lane was changed to an ordinary bus lane, allowing other buses that operate primarily on Taiwan Boulevard to use the lane. The articulated buses that originally ran the route became known as bus route 300. Currently it is a designated bus lane for multiple routes. A MRT system running the same route is currently being planned.
Orange Line
A fourth line was planned in 2009 to connect the city with Taichung Airport. However, after multiple proposals to build a MRT and BRT line were rejected by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the city government turned to an LRT system. The system is still being planned.
