Relocating Songshan

Songshan airport will be closed, there’s a tidal wave of money to be made out of it.besides, Taoyuan certainly does have the capacity to handle all flights when upgraded (unlike some other capital cities).

The airport MRT will be around 35 mins into the city.
The narita express in Tokyo takes over an hour!
Taoyuan airport will also be connected to the high speed rail in Taoyuan and there’s plenty of rezoned land around that area. It’s going to happen.

If the plane crashed into a building probably would be shut faster.

The Skyliner actually takes 40 minutes from Narita to Tokyo, but I understand your point.

the bus is long? its always been around an hour for me. the bus station is like 5 minutes from my house too so that adds a lot to the convenience. when the airport mrt line is open i will still have to get to taipei main station which will add about 20 minutes to the trip (ten minutes to get the station, and ten minutes to get to taipei main) and then add some more time to navigate around taipei main station and the difference in time and convenience could be negligible for me. we will have to wait and see though, the option to do a check in and baggage drop off in taipei main sounds great… could reduce my airport stress levels a lot!

If you can check in at Taipei Main Station and get to the airport in 35 minutes, will be awwwwweeeeeeesssssssssommme.

If you get stuck in traffic -meaning any rush hour, say 7am or 7pm flights- it can take up to two hours. Once I had a poor pal planted like a tree at Taoyuan because I took the hotel bus. Another time thank goodness I had taken a limo because the guy just dropped out of the highway -after some McGiver moves- and into some backroads, otherwise I wouldn’t have caught my flight -I am talking about stretching for miles on end, 5kms an hour, bumper to bumper. Bus also has for me the disadvantage of losing sight of your luggage… which might be permanent.

MRT takes all the guesswork out. Point to point, time allotted is time assured. Bags on sight at all times.

That is the beauty of Songshan, even with the Brown line transfer. Smooth, easy. I am not sure the line to Taoyuan Airport will be that fast as desired, but it will be a fixed time.

tru dat. my stress levels just start rising when the traffic is lodged still, even if it is on time. im a terrible traveller.

Take the HSR to Taoyuan then and then use the free bus from there.

Little chance of that getting delayed too much.

I usually allocate a lot of time for any trips to the airport, my regular flight would be a friday 8pm one, so there I usually leave at 4:30, giving me 90 minutes to reach the airport. That’s normally plenty and anyways, you can still check in even if you only have one hour left before it flies.

As long as it becomes a huge PARK.

As long as it becomes a [strike]huge PARK[/strike] limited green space with a hotel/shopping center/luxury housing/obnoxious arena/any other scheme that allows folks with money to make more money.

There, I fixed that for you.

Guy

Songshan Cultural Park is a disgrace. Well not disgraceful, but really pushing the boundaries of what consitutes a park. Its a pond with a department store.

Would this really happen in our life time? I’m all for Songshan to be “relocated”, but you think it could happen under Mayor Ko? Maybe the next Taipei Mayor won’t like the idea and it’ll just get scrapped.

I’ve never flown out of Songshan, but I know that friends and family all enjoy the convenience of it when flying to China for business or to see family.

It would be super nice for that area to be converted into a park and be connected with the riverside park on the other side of Bin Jiang Rd.

Please remember they cut down centennial trees for that monstrosity. Plus the new building destroyed -well, by eroding the base and weakening the structures- the historic buildings inside… :fume:

I could not care less about songshan airport. I took the airplane there once, and honestly taoyuan airport is not that far. Who wants an airport so close to a city center? Last time they clipped a bridge and landed in the river. Next time they land inside your appartment building. See how convenient you think it is then.

To door service, great. Taipei is surrounded by mountains and we have planes burning lots of kerosene taking off and landing in this bowl? Wonder what a closure would mean to the air pollution here. I expect to see the surrounding mountains a fair bit more clearly once it’s gone.

Lol

I travel out of Taoyuan regularly and very rarely have been delayed, it takes about 45 mins on the 3 out of Taipei. Taxi is about 1000-11000 ntd. You can park for a 100 NTD a day currently at the airport. That’s an amazing deal. The only time you could get stuck or a bit delayed is around 6 pm or weekends. The taxis into Taipei are quite expensive at around 1,3000+, with the MRT about to open these issues should largely be avoidable.
The problem at the moment in Taoyuan is they are rebuilding the second runway so
Delays or an hour or more both ways have been ongoing for a year.

[quote]Take the HSR to Taoyuan then and then use the free bus from there.
Little chance of that getting delayed too much.[/quote]

Your point is solid: until the airport MRT is up and running, this is the best way to minimize the chance of getting stuck in traffic. The bus from Taoyuan HSR to TPE is however NT$30 and has been for a while. It’s still very reasonable given their regular and punctual service.

Guy

Taxis to and from the airport is a rotten deal.

I usually get brought to and fron the airport by a Merc350s, this one is 800 going to and 900 going back. He wants you return flight number in advance, though.

Songshan update: nothing.

Taoyuan update: another flood (but just “minor” this time).

i’ve walked around that whole area to the east of yuan shan to the airport. its a wasteland. i felt pretty disappointed to be exploring an area thats still within central taipei that was so crappy.