Ankeng LRT: A Bridge Crosses the Xindian Creek, The Last Mile Remains in the Community

30-Second Overview: On February 10, 2023, the Ankeng LRT in Xindian District, New Taipei City, began operations. The 7.5-kilometer line with nine stations runs from Ankeng, crosses the Xindian Creek, and connects to the Circular Line at Shisi-Zhang. It was originally designed to provide a fixed outbound route for Ankeng, where population growth had outpaced road expansion and traffic congestion had become a persistent issue for residents and local representatives. In 2025, full-year ridership reached approximately 2.03 million trips, and a 2026 public review noted that passenger volume achievement was only 65.38%. The true story of the Ankeng LRT lies not just in its opening, but in how a single track finds its daily place among hillside communities, existing bus networks, transfer systems, and resident habits. Data sources: New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau, New Taipei Mass Rapid Transit, and United Daily News audit report.

Only One Ankeng Road: Rail Demand Grew Out of Traffic Jams

In May 2015, the National Development Council (NDC) reviewed the comprehensive plan for the Ankeng Line light rail system and surrounding land development. The official documentation did not begin with a sleek train, but with a very practical dilemma: the population of Xindian’s Ankeng area continued to increase, while the opening and widening of outbound roads failed to keep pace. Traffic congestion became a recurring issue raised by residents and local representatives. ¹

Later, when Central News Agency (CNA) reviewed the traffic background of Ankeng, it narrowed the problem down to a single road: in the 1990s (Republic of China Year 80), Ankeng’s population surged, but outbound travel relied primarily on Ankeng Road. The road width was insufficient, buses were numerous, and traffic flow was prone to congestion. This explains why residents were waiting not for an isolated station, but for a transport option that could maintain predictability during peak hours. ²

NDC records show that the feasibility study for the Ankeng Line received in-principle approval from the Executive Yuan on July 1, 2013, after which it entered the comprehensive planning phase. Early planning proposed a corridor of approximately 7.67 kilometers, nine stations, and one depot, connecting Ankeng to the Circular Line at Shisi-Zhang. Current operational data describes the line as 7.5 kilometers long, ending at Station K9 (Shisi-Zhang). These two figures belong to different stages—the planning phase versus the completed route—and should not be conflated into a single version. ^{1 3}

The planning documents listed a self-financing rate of 55.18% and total project costs of NT$16.632 billion, with a central government subsidy of NT$3.968 billion. The New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau later clarified that the Forward-looking Infrastructure Program subsidy was NT$3.439 billion, while New Taipei City bore NT$12.664 billion, accounting for approximately 76% of the total cost. Placing these figures in the context of Ankeng’s road network, the question is no longer just "how much did the light rail cost," but rather: when population growth has already occurred but road widening is difficult, should the city reserve space for fixed-rail daily transport? ^{1 4}

📝 Curator’s Note: The Ankeng LRT is most easily written as "a new line leading to a new city." But it is actually the reverse: residents lived in an area with insufficient roads for decades before the rail was slowly pulled into the existing settlements. Understanding this sequence is key to understanding why subsequent transfer and feeder issues cannot be dismissed with the four words "insufficient ridership."

Starting from An-Yi Road, Connecting to the Main Network at Shisi-Zhang

The current Ankeng Line is approximately 7.5 kilometers long, with nine stations. The route begins at the depot at the intersection ofantai Road and An-Yi Road, travels north along An-Yi Road, and turns onto Anhe Road via the Anhe Branch Line. Sections K6 to K8 proceed via an elevated structure, crossing National Highway 3 and the Xindian Creek before arriving at K9 in the Shisi-Zhang area, where it connects with the Circular Line’s Y8 Shisi-Zhang Station. ³

The entire line has five elevated stations and four ground-level stations. A full ride takes approximately 21 minutes. The front section (K1–K5) is close to An-Yi Road and existing communities, while the rear section runs along Anhe Road, the Xindian Creek, and the Shisi-Zhang area. This is not a long line, yet it must repeatedly adjust its posture among residential areas, roads, bridges, and rivers. ^{2 5}

Several key dates for the Ankeng LRT illustrate how it transformed from a policy document into a daily public facility:

The Ministry of Transportation completed its inspection in January 2023, granted operating permission on February 2, and officially opened on February 10. Before opening, officials estimated that commuting time from Ankeng to Taipei City could be reduced by up to 15–20 minutes, with daily entry and exit volumes of approximately 53,000 trips in the opening year. These were pre-opening estimates, not realized operational results. ^{2 3}

The trial operation on February 10, 2023, was also recorded by English-language media Focus Taiwan: passengers could ride for free until March 12. For a local rail line that had waited nearly 30 years, free trial rides served as a public test, allowing residents to exchange the question "will it be convenient in the future?" for an actual round trip. ⁹

Anxin Bridge: Delivering Ankeng to Shisi-Zhang

The most recognizable object of the Ankeng LRT may not be the stations, but the Anxin Bridge crossing the Xindian Creek. According to CNA, the bridge adopts a single-tower asymmetric cable-stayed design, crossing a river channel of approximately 400 meters. The total bridge length is 502 meters, with a maximum span of 225 meters and a tower height of 130 meters. ¹⁰

The constraints below are specific. The Xindian Creek area already has the Circular Line bridge, Zhong’an Bridge, and Xiulang Bridge. To avoid increasing the number of piers in the water—which would cause water level rise—Anxin Bridge could only have two piers. The construction team therefore adopted a three-span continuous cable-stayed bridge and installed a fixed tower crane on the riverbank. The bridge had to grow outward section by section; it could not first build a temporary trestle and then dismantle it after construction ended. ¹⁰

The same route also crosses the Huanhe Road and National Highway 3. The construction team could only utilize the time window after the last bus left until early morning traffic returned to complete traffic maintenance, site entry, construction, and withdrawal. Engineering reports also noted that pile positions and existing sewage, gas, and water pipe data were inconsistent, causing construction to break a sewage pipe. ¹⁰

These details make "crossing the Xindian Creek" more than just a route description. The Ankeng LRT must pass through not a blank map, but a city that already has bridges, buses, pipelines, and resident routines. Every segment of new rail must first secure space to coexist with existing life.

Butterflies, Fireflies, and a Mountain View from the Window

The Ankeng LRT also places the "mountain city" where passengers can see it. CNA reports that the train’s exterior livery is inspired by Ankeng’s mountains and forests and the ancestors’ practice of building cities along the mountains, with large side windows in the carriages. The nine stations and the depot use the design concept of "a stage of light and green, a guardian station for home and mountain." ¹¹

At Shisi-Zhang Station, "Flying Ankeng" places 80 butterflies of various colors into the station structure. On the platform, "The Firefly’s Way Home" consists of 1,000 micro wind turbines that glow when the wind blows. These works are not just about making stations pretty; they place Ankeng’s natural narrative onto the path commuters pass daily. ¹¹

The New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau’s 2025 award announcement elaborates on this design language: station structures respond to the沿线 landscape with "Four Seasons Corridor," natural light, and perforated designs, using imagery such as "Wind-Collecting Tea Pavilion" and "Green Tunnel" for different station areas. This is the official engineering and design statement; it explains how stations were planned, but does not directly prove that passengers are more willing to ride as a result. ⁷

Anxin Bridge thus gains another layer of meaning. The design imagines white waterbirds spreading their wings over the Xindian Creek, with the tower, trains, river, and Circular Line bridge all appearing in the same line of sight. Here, the rail is not only responsible for getting people to the next stop, but also reconnects the riverbank landscape that was previously severed by expressways. This is a viewing perspective provided by design reports; it cannot replace the measurement of traffic benefits, but it explains why a bridge becomes part of local memory. ¹¹

📝 Curator’s Note: The Ankeng LRT’s public art does not bring nature into the stations; rather, it reminds passengers that this line must cross mountains, rivers, roads, and communities. When the greenery outside the train window is not just a background, but a living space that the route must carefully navigate around, the stations begin to have a local character.

A Train Carries Not Just People, But Connects to Five Bus Lines

The transport capacity of the Ankeng LRT is not determined by trains alone. Data from the New Taipei City Tourism Network records that Ankeng LRT trains consist of five carriages, with a maximum capacity of 265 people. It is a 100% low-floor train, with a maximum speed of 70 km/h. Passengers use electronic tickets or platform ticket machines, and entry/exit and door operations have their own usage rules. ⁵

More importantly, the same official page lists five feeder lines coordinated with the Ankeng LRT: Ankeng Line 1 runs from Erbaizi Botanical Garden to Taipei Little City; Ankeng Line 2 runs from Liming Qingjing to Rose China City; Ankeng Line 3 runs from Green Field Fragrant Slope to Anzhong Road; Ankeng Line 5 runs from Wucheng Community to Gengshen Ankeng Hospital Campus; Ankeng Line 6 runs fromantai Road to the LRT Twin Cities Station. These feeder buses are included in the New Taipei/Taipei NT$1,280 public transport monthly pass, and YouBike stations are available at each stop. ⁵

This system arrangement reveals a frequently overlooked fact: the Ankeng LRT is not intended to replace all buses, but to divide "deep community access" and "fixed cross-district travel" into two layers. Buses are better at drilling into hillside communities, while the light rail provides a main line unaffected by traffic flow. If the schedules of the two do not align, waiting time will eat away at the speed of the rail.

On the first anniversary of opening, the New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau’s published operational adjustments illustrated this point. Starting February 26, 2024, short-distance trains during the morning peak (06:30–08:30) were changed to full-line runs, with headways shortened to 6–8 minutes. The afternoon peak (17:00–20:00) also became full-line runs, with headways increased to 8–10 minutes. Other times and holidays maintained an average of approximately 15 minutes, coordinating with the two-way transfers of the Circular Line. ⁶

This is not simply "adding more trips." It represents the operator observing which sections have passengers, which need feeders, and which transfer directions bring passengers in, then redistributing capacity via headways. The rail is built, but the transport service only begins to learn the residents’ timetable.

Saving Twenty Minutes Requires First Finding the Feeder

The pre-opening claim of "saving up to 20 minutes" is attractive, but it does not answer the first question every resident faces: how long is it from your doorstep to the station? CNA interviewed Ankeng residents before opening, recording that some stations are still distant from densely populated communities. One resident noted that walking back to the community from Rose China City Station involves a 10–20 minute uphill climb. Others felt that going to Taipei City requires taking a feeder, then the light rail, then transferring again, which may not be more convenient than the original direct bus. ¹²

These interviews are not a statistical survey of all residents, but they make the "last mile" visible: an uphill section, a feeder bus, a decision on whether to transfer again. For residents with mobility issues, the light rail’s low floor and fixed route may be safer than buses. For those accustomed to riding motorcycles or taking direct buses, an additional transfer may cancel out the speed gained by the rail. ^{5 12}

The New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau also listed several unforeseen changes during planning: the Ankeng LRT opened amidst post-pandemic changes in commuting behavior, with public transport market share declining and motorcycle ownership increasing; declining birth rates resulted in fewer school-age children along the line than predicted; and surrounding development and the Erbaizi Botanical Garden were still in progress. The official statement listed these factors as the background for ridership falling short of expectations, proposing improvements in feeder buses, pedestrian environments, scenic tours, and surrounding development. ⁴

Here, two things must be distinguished: government explanations can clarify why planning assumptions were rewritten by reality, but they cannot treat "future improvements" as "current convenience." The rail arriving in Ankeng only means the main line is complete. Whether residents can avoid detours, wait less, and walk safely is the answer to whether they will board daily.

2.03 Million Trips in 2025: Convenience Begins, Habits Are Still Forming

New Taipei Mass Rapid Transit announced that the Ankeng LRT’s full-year 2025 ridership stabilized at 2.03 million trips. The same announcement noted that the Ankeng LRT focuses on commuting and feeder demand, continuously operating via the "Xiaozi Card" (commuter-oriented ticket). ¹³

A July 2026 public report further cited the New Taipei City Audit Division, stating that the Ankeng LRT’s 2025 passenger volume achievement rate was 65.38%, and ticket revenue reached 70.02% of the budget. New Taipei Mass Rapid Transit responded that the combined 2025 ridership for the three lines—Circular Line, Tamsui-Xinbei Industrial Park LRT, and Ankeng LRT—was approximately 30.11 million trips, achieving approximately 93.5% of the annual budget target, and that feeder adjustments, fare discounts, and surrounding development would continue. These two pieces of information do not cancel each other out: the overall network can hit new highs, while the Ankeng Line still faces its own operational pressures. ⁸

Placing the 2025 figures back into the planning data reveals the gap, but first, the time scales must be aligned:

Putting "2.03 million" and "69,000" together easily becomes a sensational judgment of failure. But a more accurate description is: actual usage of the Ankeng LRT remains below planning expectations, and those expectations themselves are divided into opening year, target year, annual budget, and single-line/network scales. Mixing these scales only creates disputes, it does not help us understand why ridership is not growing.

The next phase of the Ankeng Line may not be a new track, but the pedestrian environment from K7 to Sunshine Sports Park, feeder bus schedules, the clarity of transfers at K9 Shisi-Zhang, and whether the areas around stations can form daily destinations where people are willing to stay. Train speed is calculated by engineering; willingness to use it must be supplemented by the city slowly.

A Silver Award Station, and an Unfilled Ridership Table

The 2025 Global Excellence in Construction Awards listed the Ankeng LRT in the "Public Sector Infrastructure / Environmental Comfort Engineering" category for the Silver Award. The New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau views this as international recognition of design, engineering, and sustainability concepts, noting that the Ankeng LRT is the second light rail line in Taiwan (after the Tamsui-Xinbei Industrial Park LRT) to receive this specific international award. ⁷

Awards and ridership appear like two conflicting report cards: one affirms bridges, stations, landscapes, and urban aesthetics; the other reminds us that passenger volume and ticket revenue have not yet met expectations. In fact, they measure different things. The Construction Award asks how engineering was designed, constructed, and integrated into the environment. Operational performance asks how many people make this line their own path daily.

The common saying is that if stations are beautiful, trains are comfortable, and the route connects to the Circular Line, ridership will slowly catch up. But this causal sequence is too simple. The problem for Ankeng residents is not that they have no rail, but the slope between stations and homes, feeder costs, and transfer costs. The problem with planning data is not a lack of vision, but that the pandemic, motorcycle ownership, declining birth rates, and surrounding development progress changed the original assumptions. ^{4 12}

A closer understanding to reality is: the design award proves that the Ankeng LRT has learned how to put mountains, rivers, and urban engineering into the same line. The ridership review reminds it that it has not yet learned how to connect every resident’s way of leaving home to this line. The former is the completion of hardware and environment; the latter is the daily stickiness of public transport.

After the Rail Is Built, the City Begins to Fill the Last Mile

The Ankeng LRT’s journey from the Executive Yuan’s in-principle approval in 2013 to its official opening in 2023 spans a decade. If we push back the local history of waiting for the metro, CNA interviews even described residents’ expectations as "nearly 30 years." ^{1 12} What remains in this time is not just a 7.5-km line and 9 stations, but a mountain city’s process of striving to be seen by the network.

Its contradiction is also clear: Ankeng needs rail, but cannot rely on rail alone to solve traffic. Trains can cross the Xindian Creek, but they cannot climb the hill home for everyone. A NT$16.632 billion public project can connect the city, yet it must still face small yet stubborn issues like bus routes, pedestrian safety, transfer times, and resident habits. ^{1 4 10}

Therefore, the most memorable image of the Ankeng LRT may not be the ribbon-cutting at the opening ceremony, nor just the 130-meter-high white tower of Anxin Bridge, but whether, after getting off at K9, someone can successfully find the next leg of the journey. When the rail is no longer seen just as a line from Ankeng to Shisi-Zhang, but as a continuous sequence of actions in the community—walking, waiting, transferring, and going home—this mountain city light rail truly begins to arrive at the people it serves.

Further Reading

New Taipei Mass Rapid Transit: Ankeng LRT Route Map; New Taipei City Metro Engineering Bureau: Four Rings and Eight Lines Ankeng Line; New Taipei City Tourism Network: Understanding the Ankeng LRT System; Central News Agency: Ankeng LRT Special Report

References