[quote=“SchwaiGuy”]If you guys only knew how bad I’m dying for that orange line . . . I live in Daliao without a scooter. Does anyone know where exactly the Daliao depot is? I’ve never seen the subway run past Fongsahn.
Schwaiguy[/quote]
Dailao? I am in Chiao Tou and my stop is 5 min from me hehe, u can check online for the exact stop I bet they have it already. and why don’t you have a scooter? should get one
Don’t be a sissy … why would it be dangerous? You think they gone open a MRT line that is going to collapse or trains explode … the only danger is from the huge crowd, free for all …
If I recall correctly, only the muzha line had problems. And maybe that was because it was Taiwans first mass transit . And it was a rather avant garde one too. Rubber tires running on raised concrete. Plus the cars were already five years old by the time the line was finished and running. Plus the cracks that happened to some support structures. It was stopped for some time after the initial few weeks. I remember it was for over six months I think, while they attached steel rings around a lot of the concrete structures. It withstood some pretty large quakes already hasnt it? Including , and not limited to the 921 quake which was MASSIVE.
I was on it within the first few hours of opening. Thought it was cool !
People travelled up from the south just to ride on it. IT was like the very first escalator that was in installed in Taiwan. Massive crowds !!
The Kaohsiung line should be safe. They already had their cave ins during construction.
i’m going for a ride today…i’ll take my camera and report back later on tonight…
Well…I’d have to say that I’m impressed. I’ve been to a few of the major cities in Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei), and the Kaohsiung MRT is as nice as any of them.
The buildings are clean, and modern looking. The facilities are bright, and there are lots of signs everywhere, as well as lots of maps. Plenty of ticketing areas, and getting around within the stations is a breeze. Next to nothing was confusing about anything in the stations.
The trains are immaculate, although they are brand new, so that is expected, but the one thing I noticed was that I actually felt cold after a few stops because the AC was so strong. Also, even though the trains/stations were crowded with hot, sweaty people enjoying the warm day, there was lots of good air circulation throughout. I would almost even say that it smelled better underground than it did on street level.
There are no shops, or stands, or even advertisements in the MRT stations/trains yet, but I imagine this will change over time. Right now everything is clean, and white, and bright.
The “Central Park” Station is the one with the huge escalators, and nice waterfall. It is quite a nice station, but not surprising with everyone wanting to take a ride, the queues were pretty big today.
The “Formosa Blvd.” Station is by far the most beautiful. The 4 glass structures, when completed will each have a laser beam and all 4 will point toward the middle of the intersection of JhongShan Rd. and JhongJeng Rd. and will intersect high above the intersection. Within the station there is a beautiful stained glass mural that runs 360 degrees around the middle of the station. According to the tour guides who were talking today, the main theme of the mural is “reincarnation”.
The “Kaohsiung Airport” Station is unique with is glass walls, that are shaped like ocean waves. Each wall contains many layers of glass stacked up on top of each other, and then carved out into a wave design.
All in all an enjoyable day, even with all the crowds. Enjoy the pictures below.
SWEET !! Pretty Cool designs !! A Great addition to Kaohsiung .
nice report! I gonna go ride it today
Nice shots Big Wally. The Formosa Boulevard station looks great - the times I’ve seen the outside during construction I’ve thought (and said earlier in this thread) that it’ll look amazing, but I never expected the inside to look like that. Great.
Have yet to actually ride it so my response is about the above ground stations only:
THEY’RE FUGLY.
Who designed the above ground stations? There’s no continuity among any of the stations. Several look like olympic ski jump ramps, others look like a fallout shelter from WW2 only above ground.
The Wufu Rd and Zhongshan Rd. stop looks like a giant UFO, and is across from some of the ski jump ramps.
Further up north of course is IMO the worse of the lot. Zhongshan Rd. and Zhongzheng Rd. looks like futuristic teepees. They’re hideous.
When I have time I’ll take photos of all the above ground stations, doubt they’ll turn out quite as well as Wally’s but oh well.
I’d also love to know if some of the spelling errors on their website (www.krtco.com.tw) are also on the actual stops, ie “Word Game” stop.
The time for mass transit stations to look identical may have passed. I think that being creative and having different designs per station has its benefits. Distractions sure for the first time user, but. Once you see each building, you will rememeber it well.
The reason that all of the stations look different is intentional. They actually commissioned many different famous engineers and artists from around the world to give each station a unique design.
I spoke with a film maker at the Formosa Blvd. station who was there completing a 3 year documentary about many of the different artists. He has been following them around for 3 years, from inception of the design, to creation, installation, and now finally unveiling. He said it has been a long project, but to be able to travel around the world on the KCRT’s budget, and make this documentary was very fulfilling.
None the less, this is the reason why all of the stations have a different look to them, each one was independently designed.
I did not intend to say that each station should look identical. What I mean is that, again, IMHO, there should be something that ties the stations together. What that is I’ve no idea, and I’m not saying I could do a better job (I can’t even draw stick figures correctly).
To me the majority of the stations do not appeal to me aesthetically. But again, that’s just my opinion.
I do agree with your sentiment though that it will be easy to remember each stop, that is definately true.
[quote=“BigWally”]The reason that all of the stations look different is intentional. They actually commissioned many different famous engineers and artists from around the world to give each station a unique design.
I spoke with a film maker at the Formosa Blvd. station who was there completing a 3 year documentary about many of the different artists. He has been following them around for 3 years, from inception of the design, to creation, installation, and now finally unveiling. He said it has been a long project, but to be able to travel around the world on the KCRT’s budget, and make this documentary was very fulfilling.
None the less, this is the reason why all of the stations have a different look to them, each one was independently designed.[/quote]
I appreciate the response BW. While watching the construction of many of the sites I was wondering if it was one designer or many, now I know.
Although I’ve only lived here for 2 years I’ve come to appreciate and like Taiwan and more specifically Kaohsiung more and more (even with the warts it has, like any city). I’m glad the MRT is complete (red line at least) and that so much work has gone into making it unique and something that the citizens of Kaohsiung can be proud of. And I will most likely start using the MRT in many cases rather than driving my wife’s car or my scooter, easier to not hassle with parking, safer and cheaper.
I’d be interested to hear more about the documentary as well.
It’ll be interesting to see if the new MRT system can charm the people out of their scooters:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/03/11/2003404999
[quote=“Icon”]It’ll be interesting to see if the new MRT system can charm the people out of their scooters:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/03/11/2003404999 [/quote]
The bus system down here does suck. My wife and I would both gladly take the bus except for her to transfer she would have to wait 30+ minutes and for myself probably 45 minutes.
The MRT will help in that my wife’s office isn’t far from one of the orange line stops, but for myself it’s of no use to get to work.
The Kaohsiung MRT (KRTC) is going to have a really hard time getting locals off their scooters. Unlike Taipei, K-town is an extremely terrible city to be a pedestrian in. Sidewalks around the MRT stations all but disapear within a block in any direction. If you live a bit too far away to walk along the roadside gutter, dodging scooters and stray dogs, then you’ve got to contend with the local buses; a very small step up from third-world chicken buses. No bus shelters to hide from the rain or sun either and very limited places to park your scooter at the station if you want to park-n-ride.
My wife works directly above one of the main stations on the new north-south line and was looking forward to taking the MRT until she did the math:
MRT($20) + bus($12) each way is $64 per day = $1400 per month for her.
Scooter 30min each way costs her $600 a month for gas and is 15 minutes quicker each way. Plus, she can stop off anywhere she wants along the way picking up her milk tea and misc. other stuff.
K-towns lack of rainfall, warmer temperatures, and wider roads just make scootering a much better option than it is in Taipei. As the one local girl was quoted in the Taipei Times: “It will be nice for the tourists I guess.”
Don’t have any direct link but my wife heard that they’ll end the free MRT rides and start charging on April 7th. Also heard that they’ll begin test runs on the orange line in June, so hopefully the orange line will open in August or so?
I just spoke with my engineer friend, who used to work for the system and still has friends working on the orange line, and he said the likely opening date for the orange line will be october rather than august…
and yes, its true, you have to start paying for your rides starting the monday after tomb sweeping long weekend
Have they been testing the ticketing system all this time? It seems that would cause the biggest snags as they seem to have different gates for different kinds of tickets.
What they are testing is people’s patienece. They are employing a “warning first, fine later” system regarding the “no eating nor drinking on the MRT” policy. From what I saw on the news, it seems this is going to be a rather difficult issue. Fried chicken, throw semi-empty glasses on the floor, etc… Really discouraging.