Life on the MRT 2017

Two and a half minute VR video of the trip to the Taoyuan Airport MRT from the driver’s POV (speed up video)

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Yes because the Taoyuan mayor personally planned, built and drives the MRT himself.

It makes sense now.

Might have trial runs during Lunar New Year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDG6nKAUsSY

Don’t know if they are open to the public.

The answer appears to be yes, the public will be able to ride for free during the trial period, but with some restrictions.

All being well, full commercial service could start late Feb/early March.

Looks like they’re finally instituting the color scheme. I mean they’ve always had different colors for different lines, but the actual colors were never officially spelled out, either in English or Chinese. Just recently they added the abbreviations for the colors. I was surprised to see the yellow line labelled with an “O,” which can only be orange. :confused:

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Holiday opening of airport line “unlikely”. :expressionless:

Meanwhile, some people are already disappointed with the result.

It seems there’s nothing new here, and it’s probably not going anywhere. But it is an amusing article.

“For example, the ISO 3166 standard does not spell Kaohsiung as ‘Gaoxiong,’ just as it retained the spelling for Hong Kong, rather than ‘Xianggang,’ after the territory was handed over to China in 1997,” Yu said.

Yes, but they’re pushing for Tongyong Pinyin, not Wade-Giles! What is it, Gaosiung? Gaosiong? :idunno: (Oops, it’s Gaosyong!)

And then there’s the comment:

Agree with them! Taiwan is Taiwan, we are not China. Second language should be English!

Is the commenter really agitating for station names like Filial Piety Revival, Trust Justice Peace Harmony, and on the airport line New Farmstead Auxiliary Metropolis Heart? :ponder:

Coming soon: EasyCard in a smartwatch.

I noticed on the LED displays in the cars that they added numbers for the stop like r2 bl5 br5 g6.

So, they’ve replaced the numbered lines with lettered lines.

Great. Name changes: the bane of travel writers.

The Chinese is unchanged. The English reads like Taipei Zoo BR1.

Left over in the bargain basement…

What do you gusy think of the round map? I think it is quite cool.

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I saw this when it went up on PTT, I think it’s much clearer than the current one. Good for tourists, but I’m trying to place the map onto Google maps and it just…doesn’t work for me.

The relative distance and location between stations on the concentric circle MRT route is considered more accurate than the official map. In addition, the circle route also offers a simpler and easier to understand concept of the MRT route network.

This sounds like a textbook case of cultural differences. Whether or not it’s better for tourists depends on where the tourists are from. :2cents:

Yes, it’s good to know that I can stroll from Maokong to Xiangshan just as easily as from Taipei Main Station to Zhongshan </sarcasm>

“More accurate” is just baloney, it’s less accurate by design. But the point is that it doesn’t matter, by throwing away geographical accuracy it’s quite a lot clearer.

I don’t think Taipei MRT is so complex it really needs this, or station numbers for that matter, but it’s a nice experiment.

i find it less clear, less accurate, more complicated and less aesthetically pleasing. maybe because i have a decent sense of direction i prefer the real one which is more accurate to the real map?
i think its unnecessary too. the taipei mrt is quite a manageable size. its not very complicated at all.

but hey i know some people have zero sense of direction, such as my gf and might find something like this more appealing. does nothing for me though.

Now it is still manageable. Has anyone seen the layout when the Circular Line opens? Or beyond?

Their goal is a Tokyo spiderweb.

Looks a bit like a spiral galaxy, or a swastika. Or one of those inserts they used to put inside 45s.

Doesn’t look much like Taipei at all.

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I think it’s crap. I could barely tell which station is which.