I saw some photos outside the station before, looks good if it’s the same as the drawings. Kao Main is looking good now, but it was bad before the underground platforms where done. Taoyuan city as far city plan is poor, hope the station will help.
Tainan became a very nice city over the last few years. For example 水交社 i love that area. Wish I had the money to buy in 2015 when first came here, pricing since 2015 has risen a lot.
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I think the fact kaohsiung got its ass kicked for massive corruption and construction disasters of the MRT, made them at least make sure their corruption of the TRA rail construction wasnt so obvious. Especially given the massive explosion , which went basically unpunished, happened between the two. I hope your taoyuan system can just be ugly instead of deadly 
I personally think the new system of tear down histoic cool buildings to rebuild future geimy rust bucket “modern” ones will be a massive regret. Cade in point: taichung train station 
or have they saved parts of the old one?
Totally agree. The new “Green Corridor” over the former Kaohsiung railway tracks is an amazing forest with walking and bicycle paths and the new underground stations (like the Museum of Contemporary Arts) are beautiful. The City Government is even repurposing the old railway bridge over the Love River into a pedestrian/cycling-only crossing. Plus the integration with the tramway between Gushan and Neiwei and the dismantling of the horrible Zhongshan Rd flyover.
Progress is never a win-win situation for all, but honestly when I see today’s Kaohsiung, walk along the Love River or run through the old tracks at night I can’t but praise Frank Hsieh’s vision for a green city 30 years back 
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I gotta agree. When i first came to taiwan, kaohsiung was truly a shithole. Really disgusting. I still quite dislike cities in general, but of all the major cities in taiwan, there is no doubt kaohsiung has the most promise in the next decade or 2, even moreso than taipei i think. Who knows. Either way, the improvements are night and day! Everytome w go there i am still thinking about the changes it ha been making. Its still polluted as all hell an lots of horrendous industry as expected. But love river can actually be walked along, that alone is a milestone! Funny how these normal freedoms of cleanliness become something amazing after we became “developed” for a short period.
“thanks, korea fish, for all those street lights” says the chinese party followers teehee.
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The Station Building was saved and is visible on Google Street View.
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I feel for people getting forcibly evicted, but you can’t build anything in Tainan without an old house or historic site being in the way. As much as I like that city it needs infrastructure improvements badly, and it’s impossible to fix anything there without pissing someone off.
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Thats awesome. Last time.i was there they were building the new one and we saw a bunch of stuff going on with the old cool one. I thought it was a goner for sure. Relieved they kept it.
Walking isn’t an issue, but 8 months of the year it is lol.
I was thinking more about money related corruption, sinkholes, construction failures etc. But yeah, walking 10 mins i guess is bad for some as well
Kaohsiung has always been a temp hot spit kind of city. The popular central districts changing every decade.
Regardless, i find the kmrt absolutely fantastic and quite convenient. Granted i am not in a wheelchair or somehow physically disabled and can manage walking on the craziness that is the side of the street haha. This is all changing fast there though.
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You should at least have a problem with the spelling.
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This would be more convincing if they’d stop running diesel trains through all those newly underground Kaohsiung stations.
Admittedly the surface air in Ktown can be spectacularly bad, but not quite as bad as it gets in those stations.
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The protesters in Narita have a few things to say no doubt
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Amen only electric trains allowed underground pls
Dam I am old enough to have used the old train stations in Taipei Taichung and points south
…….in steam trains !!
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My goodness, that is stupid.
Even the brake dust becomes enough of a hazard on underground systems
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are the western routes not fully electrified yet? I heard they were. east is all electrified, but the work trains, military etc still run diesel.
wow, steam trains! Thought that way long time ago
Yeah I came on the tail end of the steam trains just before they retired the last ones
Right after I had to park the horse and give up my cowboy hat….hard to rob the electric trains ….ya know……stage coaches were the way to go the steam trains were the last straw really
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Not true (or wasn’t a couple of months ago, I’m in The Yook at present, witnessing the disintegration). Diesel multi car units in Mountain Line livery in regular use through Ktown stations (and Tainan, though that was still above ground). Presumably they will pack it in eventually, but Taiwanese have low awareness of air pollution, and the trains look fairly new, so it might be a while.
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