🚆 Railways | Taiwan High Speed Rail [HSR]

Travel Taiwan Travel
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I had the pleasure of riding the choo choo train today from Panchiao to Kaohsiung (Tsoying Station) and back. It must have been the slow poke train because we stopped at all of the stations in between, so that includes Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi and Tainan. Total time from north to south was 1:57 while coming back took 1:59… must have been a head wind. I believe the fast train can get you to Kaohsiung in 80 minutes. The driver took it up to 300km/hr at some points.

So, the question is no longer when because the time is now. It’s smooth, fast and efficient like it’s supposed to be. Seats are kind of small but they have a business class car with bigger seats for extra comfort if you like. No sense in whining about it, the trains are rolling…

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This morning I was at Taipei Main station and I was one of the first people to get tickets… the machines are only in Chinese, by the way (yay for having friends!).

Here’s my exciting ticket:

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i cant believe the ticket machines are not also in english??? that makes NO SENSE. Brand new multi billion dollar project in a country that wants to make english more common ?? Come on !!!

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how much is a ticket from Kaohsiung to Taipei (return)?

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arion’s tickets say it’s $730 each way. As I recall they are running with half price tickets for the first few weeks, which would make the eventual price $1460 each way.

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Bylooking at his ticket I would say $730 Eh :slight_smile:

but was that the regular price or what that the 1/2 price special. $1460 seems like a lot!!

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Bus fare is around $710 each way and by plane it’s around $1800-2000, so looks about right to me.

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I would pay $1450 to get to Kaohsiung in under 2 hours. Last weekend I paid $850 to get there in 5. My time is definitely worth more to me than a few hundred NT. Why couldn’t this have been running BEFORE New Years? Damn!

Glad to hear that it’s up now, at least. Thanks for the report, Eric. :slight_smile:

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Is standing allowed on these trains? It better not be.

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Yes, each car has 96 seats and 345 standing places … business class has 45 seats and only 120 standing places … :roflmao:

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Yes, each car has 96 seats and 345 standing places … business class has 45 seats and only 120 standing places … :roflmao:[/quote]

are the business class standing places bigger than the regular ones?

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Standing room? FFS! Oh god, I’d rather fly China Air.

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Standing in Business Class? You have GOT to be kidding me?!

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And the slow trains have trailers with cattle class … :smiley:

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Oh no! So we have to pay $1450 for a seat, only to push our way through a crowd of people to get to the bathrooms and then on top of that feel guilty trying to avoid eye contact with Junior who is leaning against our chairs and crying to his mom that he’s tired and doesn’t want to stand anymore. So this High Speed Rail is just a glorified MRT? Oh well, I’ll still pay $1450 to get to Kaohsiung in under 2 hours. Do they serve drinks at least?

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How do you think they or going to make a return on an investment of 640 billion NT$ for the time the contract runs? :laughing:

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Yeah I learned on the train that they would also have standing tickets. But, I’m not sure about the business car. At least the business car has carpeting so maybe that is softer on the feet :loco:

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Yeah, and the next thing we will find out : cattle and chickens are allowed also I presume?
What if I want to take my goat with me in business class? Will the carpet resist the poepoe?
It really does not make sense to have standing tickets. “comfort” was not in scope for this project. Poor Taiwan (again)

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Did people really really expect something different??? Taiwan genius baby :stuck_out_tongue:

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[quote=“ceevee369”]Yeah, and the next thing we will find out : cattle and chickens are allowed also I presume?
[/quote]

And what have you got against Chicken?