Actually it’s not pointless , certainly if you were Hakka you appreciate it.
Tonight after work, on the Orange line, this one Buddha Penguin was giving me the hairy eyeball, grinning like a lemur on methylated spirits. I kept trying to avoid eye contact, but she was frigging relentless. Just as she was heading at me, intent on some freakish type of dharmic engagement, I kind of snarled
“Back off, cueball, I’m frigging Tribe”
I figure it would be cruel to encourage false hope, right?
Right.
Guy
I love the English language.
And in tune with recent happenings, has anyone noticed the new video ad played on MRT stations in which a foreigner in close up testimonial camera form tells us why Taipei’s MRT is so great, especially compared to… the London Underground?
for people sticking up to racists i prefer the london subway. for basically everyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyytttttttthinggggggggggg else i prefer the taipei mrt!
Pretty much. Not sure about sticking up to racists–they would presumably be well armed and ready to attack, making the process rather more difficult–but the NYC subway might have the comforting clacking and screeching noises and unsurpassed views of urban and industrial blight going for it.
I guess it’s useful now it has more stations/lines. I almost never used it when I lived in Taipei because it didn’t really go anywhere, and because Taiwan has enough taxis to render it pointless. And main station is utterly painful to change trains at. Why would you put yourself through that if you didn’t have to?
I like the book ads and funny looking people but for everyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyytttttttthinggggggggggg else I agree 
.
erm, the Taipei MRT is a different beast now, it’s pretty comprehensive and the best way to get around, line switching is usually painless, goes out to the wilds of New Taipei City and Taoyuan soon… although the bus routes are pretty great for rounding it off still.
I guess it just freaks me out a bit, the claustrophobia and crowds. Buses, I don’t mind, but there’s really no point in Taipei city. But the underground, nope, I’m a wimp. I can only do it for a few stops on the same line. 
It’s funny how whenever I make plans with friends on whether it’s convenient for them via MRT. The rule of thumb is 1 transfer (that’s not from any line up to the brown line). If there’s more than 1 transfer and they gotta walk up to the brown line, fogeduboutit
It’s funny how whenever I make plans with friends on whether it’s convenient for them via MRT. The rule of thumb is 1 transfer (that’s not from any line up to the brown line). If there’s more than 1 transfer and they gotta walk up to the brown line, fogeduboutit[/quote]
You can do 1 transfer between any pair of lines except Orange and Brown, since they don’t intersect.
The worst transfer station is Nanjing/Fuxing. I avoid it if at all possible.
Transferring at Taipei Main Station isn’t so bad if you are at the right place on the train when it arrives. For example, if going from the red line to the blue you should be at the very south end of the red line train when it stops (the front of a train going to Xiangshan or the back of a train to Danshui). Then you can exit and walk straight onto the big escalators that go all the way up to the concourse, and at the top the escalators down to the blue line are right in front of you. If going from blue to red you can learn which doors on the blue line train will place you directly in front of the correct escalators up to the middle of the concourse.
But it doesn’t matter so much now there are so many other transfers stations to use.
[quote=“Chris”]
You can do 1 transfer between any pair of lines except Orange and Brown, since they don’t intersect.
The worst transfer station is Nanjing/Fuxing. I avoid it if at all possible.[/quote]
I really do not understand why the lay out of Nanjing/Fuxing is how it is. It’s nice for the people that work in the area, they can skip a lot of above ground crossing streets and traffic and get to their exit, but for anyone that’s transferring, it’s seriously a 5 minute walk from green to brown line. (That’s a guestimate. I’m actually very curious as to how long it actually takes). I also avoid it like the plague when I take the MRT and also do not put anyone through that much walking.
The worst transfer is at Zhongshiao Xinsheng -a hike and a mess, as in clash of the masses- and then there is this Songjiang station that has the exits/entry for different lines on separate sides which means if you enter from the wrong place… there goes your money. Not suitable for early morning haven’t had my coffee yet commuters.
If you know what you’re doing at Zhongxiao Xinsheng, it’s not so bad. The key is to be at the correct end of the Orange Line trains to zip up to the Blue Line. But man I imagine they wish they had a do-over with the inadequate size of the Blue Line platform at that station. The size of the Orange Line platform is comparatively massive!
Guy
I wonder how much of a problem they’re going to have with that in the future. Zhongxiao Fuxing has been too crowded for a long time - and even the platform escalators at the new Taipei 101 station can’t handle the passenger load when a train comes in.
Navigating the crowds at Taipei Main is a bit too much for me. Back when I had to commute on the Staten Island Ferry, I complained it was the closest you could get to feeling like cattle, but Taipei Main must be something like a bacterium feels.
None of the other stations ever bothered me. You can go on some pretty long treks changing trains in NYC too.
I’m guilty of being caught out by songjiang Nanjing a couple of times. Then you have to hike under the line and then come
Up the other side. The station itself is massive, maybe they
Thought it would have more demand than it did.
Mentioned it before but some of the stations out to Xindian heaving these days, fortunately finally getting the gates installed.
The system will start to suffer from its grest success in increasing ridership, some
Riders may switch back to buses on some routes, buses being pretty darn good in Taipei!
The NYC system in fact consists of a number of independent companies that were eventually merged together into a single system. IIRC, many routes were designed to compete with–and not complement–each other. Hence some of the long treks.
What’s Taipei’s excuse? Mostly, I think, the scandals involved in the building of the Brown Line in the 1990s. IIRC, it was not originally intended to be elevated. They chose to do so to speed things up. Some unpleasant transfer points in the system are a result.
Guy
[quote=“afterspivak”]
What’s Taipei’s excuse? Mostly, I think, the scandals involved in the building of the Brown Line in the 1990s. IIRC, it was not originally intended to be elevated. They chose to do so to speed things up. Some unpleasant transfer points in the system are a result.
Guy[/quote]
It was a nightmare when being built in the 90s. That’s when I hadn’t moved back and was still just visiting during the summers. When they were doing Da An to Zhongxiao Fuxing stretch, it was non-stop pounding and grinding at the wee hours of the day. Mind you I was still young back then and needed a lot of beauty sleep.
I personally think Zhongxiao Xinsheng (the blue line platform) is much worse than Taipei Main Station. The platform for the blue line is ridiculously tiny for the volume of people that transfer there. Luckily, I think more than half of that traffic is just transfers. I remember that station not being very crowded before it was made a transfer station.