Tainan -----> TienMuâŚis it now doable on the HSR?
Whew! Thatâs good news, thanks Xtrain. It looks like we were getting all excited about nothing.
Who was it that got us started on all this talk of standing anyway? Oh yes, I seem to recallâŚ
Yes, each car has 96 seats and 345 standing places ⌠business class has 45 seats and only 120 standing places ⌠:roflmao:[/quote]
These 2 troublemakers again. It figures.[/quote]
It started as a joke ⌠and someone picked it up as serious ⌠others kept stirring it ⌠
donât want to point fingers ⌠:roflmao:
By a combination of HSR and MRT, yes. Get the HSR to Taipei Main Station, then switch to the Danshui (red) line of the MRT, heading north. MRT trip will take 15-20 minutes.
You do realise though that this also means more of us Taipeites sojourning in your mythical city, buying up property and stealing all the wimmin? 
Sorry to pot stir here, but the local TV news is saying there wiill be standing. And we all know the local TV new is always right eh.
I also heard the Cha Yi stop is not finished. Has anyone stopped there?
[quote=âTaffyâ][quote=âTainanCowboyâ]Tainan -----> TianmuâŚis it now doable on the HSR?[/quote]By a combination of HSR and MRT, yes. Get the HSR to Taipei Main Station, then switch to the Danshui (red) line of the MRT, heading north. MRT trip will take 15-20 minutes.
You do realise though that this also means more of us Taipeites sojourning in your mythical city, buying up property and stealing all the wimmin? 
[/quote]Taffy -
Thanks for the directions.
Re:Visits - Those loud clothes and big-city talk will let us know who you are. 
Ah, that reminds me of the second time we went to Hualian. We decided it would be more relaxing to take the train over than fly. My wife went and booked trains tickets in some special tourist car to go there⌠which had a karaoke system that was blaring the whole way there. Good lord, I was about ready to strangle someone by the time we arrived.
[quote=âChickenâ]Sorry to pot stir here, but the local TV news is saying there wiill be standing. And we all know the local TV new is always right eh.
[/quote]
Brilliant ⌠you pay 1,460 NT$ to stand up 90 minutes âŚ
Ah, that reminds me of the second time we went to Hualian. We decided it would be more relaxing to take the train over than fly. My wife went and booked trains tickets in some special tourist car to go there⌠which had a karaoke system that was blaring the whole way there. Good lord, I was about ready to strangle someone by the time we arrived.[/quote]
One more reason to fly or drive your own car âŚ
Ah, that reminds me of the second time we went to Hualian. We decided it would be more relaxing to take the train over than fly. My wife went and booked trains tickets in some special tourist car to go there⌠which had a karaoke system that was blaring the whole way there. Good lord, I was about ready to strangle someone by the time we arrived.[/quote]
One more reason to fly or drive your own car âŚ[/quote]
As long as there is no karoke system in the car as I once experienced. The driver was singing loudly, chewing his binlang and almost jumping of his chair on the road to Ilan⌠and most of you know THAT road condition 
[quote]Sorry to pot stir here, but the local TV news is saying there wiill be standing. And we all know the local TV new is always right eh.
I also heard the Cha Yi stop is not finished. Has anyone stopped there?[/quote]
Sort of between a rock and a hard place when the press/media give opposing info. Anyway, I called he 28th floor and she asked the girl in front of her because her husband works for Taiwan High Speed Rail and she says âno standing ticketsâ. I wouldnât bet the farm but I think the odds are back in our favor.
Our train most definitely stopped at Chiayi Station. We were there only a few minutes though. Maybe the station is surrounded with iron bars or chicken wire, but there are definitely trains that stop there.
I donât think itâs finished yet. The âChiayiâ stop doesnât actually stop in Chiayi City. It stops in Taibao City, Chiayi County. Whoâs idea was that? :fume:
I donât think itâs finished yet. The âChiayi (Jiayi)â stop doesnât actually stop in Chiayi (Jiayi) City. It stops in Taibao City, Chiayi (Jiayi) County. Whoâs idea was that? :fume:[/quote]
The taxi union?
I donât think itâs finished yet. The âChiayiâ stop doesnât actually stop in Chiayi City. It stops in Taibao City, Chiayi County. Whoâs idea was that? :fume:[/quote]
The taxi union?[/quote]
Them and the legislatorâs son who owned all that previously worthless land out in the sticksâŚ
[quote]Taiwanâs Bullet Trains Canât Outrun Controversy
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 28 â The sleek, bulbous-nosed new bullet trains here look like they are designed to whisk passengers across wide-open spaces. But on this congested island, they represent the start of a 180-mile-per-hour commuter train system.
After a quarter century of planning and construction, the system is scheduled to open on Jan. 5. It will tie together cities and towns where 94 percent of Taiwanâs population lives, offering an alternative to clogged highways and the air pollution the vehicles on them produce.
For some urban planners and environmentalists, the project is an example of how Asia may be able to control oil imports, curb fast-rising emissions of global-warming gases and bring a higher standard of living to enormous numbers of people in an environmentally sustainable way.
Passengers who travel on a fully loaded train will use only a sixth of the energy they would use if they drove alone in a car and will release only one-ninth as much carbon dioxide, the main gas linked to global warming. Compared with a bus ride, the figures are half the energy and a quarter of the carbon dioxide, train system officials said.
But the systemâs enormous cost â $15 billion, or $650 for every man, woman and child on Taiwan â has made it a subject of dispute. And a series of commercial disputes since the project began in 1980 has produced a remarkable hodgepodge: French and German train drivers who are allowed to speak only English with Taiwanese traffic controllers while operating Japanese bullet trains on tracks originally designed by British and French engineers.
The system has become so complex that the leader of Taiwanâs consumer movement is calling for citizens to boycott it entirely until extensive safety data is released.
âCherish your life, donât be a guinea pig,â Cheng Jen-hung, the chairman of the Consumersâ Foundation, said in an interview. . . .[/quote]
nytimes.com/2007/01/04/world ⌠aipei.html
Sorry if this is a stupid question; Iâve never been on a high-speed train before (being British where only sloooow trains exist). Do they have seat belts? Wouldnât it be really important to have seat belts in the event of a crash? If you were standing up during a crash, youâd be screwed wouldnât you? And presumably the people who were sitting near you who you fell on top of too.
$650 per person is a huge figure!
âCherish your life, donât be a guinea pig,â Cheng Jen-hung, the chairman of the Consumersâ Foundation, said in an interview. . . ."
Well, thats reassuring 
[quote=âButtercupâ]Sorry if this is a stupid question; Iâve never been on a high-speed train before (being British where only sloooow trains exist). Do they have seat belts?[/quote]Havenât ridden on the Shinkansen, but TGV trains donât have seat belts. I donât think it would make much difference in a crash at those speeds, TBH.
Ok, just wondering. Iâm no physicist. 
Shinkansen doesnât have seat belts either as far as I recall. Not much point really as the accident risk is low since HSRs travel on their own tracks, usually without any crossings. Besides, people would probably not wear it anyway unless you force them to (whichever way you would do that on a train without having some attendants).
Wow I didnt know it cost so much for the HSR project⌠And its been worked on since 1980? Thats pretty amazingâŚ