The Taiwan High-Speed Rail (a.k.a. Taiwan “shinkansen”) was finally completed, and I took the train after 1 week of operation. Surprisingly there were tickets available and the tickets (half price right now) were inexpensive -- only NT$500 (about USD $15).
It took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to go from Banchiao (near Taipei) to Chiayi, Despite the problems presented in the media, it was a smooth ride and a good experience. Inside, the car felt like a Japanese shinkansen. This will make the south of Taiwan much more accessible for tourists.
As another example of a “last mile” problem, it took almost as long to get to my destination (by bus and taxi) after I arrived at the Chiayi high-speed station, which is a distance away from the city center.
3 comments:
john
did you notice that nowhere on the orange ticket do the words or logo appear for the HSR train? No one word about who issued the ticket! Major barnding mistake for collectors and tourists, no?
also, you did not go to Tainan but if you do one day, you will see that the Tainan station LOOKS EXACTLY like the Chiayi station because they are exact replicas of each other, designed by same architect. WHY?
During the long Lunar New Year holiday last month, thousands of people
had a chance to try out the new bullet train service in Taiwan, and
for local people and expats alike, the high-speed rail experience
seems to have garnered high marks across the island. English-language
blogs and websites are full of personal reports and photographs of the
new train line, a recent Google check of the Internet shows.
According to Yuji Sasaki, 43, a Japanese national visiting Taiwan
during the holiday period, the high-speed rail in Taiwan is
"comfortable, convenient and clean." Sasaki said that he enjoyed his
train trip from Taoyuan to the Kaohsiung area, noting that he found
the Hsinchu Station to be the most architecturally eye-pleasing among
all the stations on the bullet train line.
"The service was friendly and warm, from the ticket clerks to the
station staff to the on-board employees," Sasaki said, comparing the
Taiwan high-speed line favorably with the Japanese Shinkansen in his
home country. "I was just curious about two things: why were the
Tainan and Taibao stations designed and built in more or less exactly
the same architectural styles, it gave me a feeling of deja vu, and
why do the orange tickets for the train not state that they were
issued by the Taiwan High Speed Rail company? I couldn't find a logo
or a brand name on the ticket at all, and as a train ticket collector,
this disappointed me. I hope they fix it in the future."
For Alex Reed, 35, a Canadian English teacher in Kaohsiung, the new bullet
train experience is worth the price. "I loved the trip north from
Kaohsiung up to Panchiao," he said in a recent email. "But for me, the
best part, was the route from Taichung down to Chiayi, as the train
zooms down a long curving chute as it descends from the Bagua Mountain
range in northern Changhua County down to the flat plains of Yunlin
County. It's like riding a roller coaster during that descent, and
fun. I could also see the red arched Beikang Tourist Bridge from the
windows of the train as we passed through the Yunlin-Chiayi border,
and as we crossed into Yunlin County from Changhua County, I could see
the long, red-colored Shiloh Bridge, too. From the elevated tracks of
the bullet train, the views of Taiwan are indeed beautiful."
Celia Bertin, 55, a French writer from Paris who was visiting Taiwan
with her American husband during the Lunar New Year, also gave the
high-speed train high marks,
noting: "Taiwan should be proud of its new bullet train. It's just as
nice as our train in France, and the bullet train in Japan, too. Just
from the standpoint of a tourist, I loved riding the new train here in
Taiwan. It made my short stay in Taiwan into a real adventure."
Bertin said that the "Kiss and Ride" parking signs she spotted at some
of the high-speed rail stations were "cute and romantic", adding that
she had never seen such signs before in France. "Kiss and ride is such
a good idea," she said. "It turns Taiwan into a very romantic place,
in my eyes."
Thanks for mentioning the "kiss and ride" signs. I noticed that too -- it seemed cute, if a little out of place.
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