Aerial photo of Taiwan high-speed railway falsely shared as 'Thailand road tunnel'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 31, 2023 at 11:36
- Updated on August 31, 2023 at 11:39
- 2 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
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"This is Thailand. The prosperity that some people say we don't have," reads the Thai-language caption to the photo shared on Facebook on August 25.
The post says the image shows the kingdom's Khaoyai-Tublan car tunnel.
The photo has also been shared with a similar false claim in Thai-language Facebook posts here and here and in English posts on Reddit here and here and on Pinterest here, here and here.
However, images of the Khaoyai-Tublan tunnel online here, here and here show a twin tunnel track unlike the single tunnel track in shown the posts (archived links here, here and here).
Other posts here, here and here have shared the same photo with the claim it shows the Hsuehshan Tunnel in Taiwan.
The photo actually shows the portion of Taiwan's high-speed railway passing through the island's central Changhua county.
A reverse image search on Google found a similar photo on the website of Taiwan-based construction firm Continental Engineering Corporation (CEC) which says it shows the "Taiwan High-Speed Rail" project (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the one published on the CEC website (right):
A keyword search on Google also found the photo in a report titled "Taiwan High Speed Rail & Its Impact to Regional Development" (archived link).
It appears on the third page of the report which was published on the website of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign .
The location of the photo matches imagery of the Taiwan high-speed railway on Google Earth.
Below is a comparison between the photo in one of the false posts (left) and Google Earth screenshot showing the Taiwan high-speed rail in Changhua (right):
The Taiwan High Speed Rail consists of one line that runs about 350 kilometres (220 miles) along the west coast of Taiwan from Taipei to the southern port city Kaohsiung.
The railway has been in service since 2007 according to the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (archived link).
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