High Speed Rail Report

I took the high speed rail back from Taipei a couple of days ago. My impressions:

1. It was pretty easy to buy the tickets and the Taipei station is located in the regular old train station.

2. The seat was a bit uncomfortable at first (perhaps too stiff?) and the handrests were made of hard plastic. Normally I would not care except that the ticket costs NT$ 700 one way, versus NT$ 150 for the bus, so I was expecting better seating.

3. Is Banciao really that important of a city for it to have a stop?

4. The train doesn't seem very fast when you are sitting down in your seat. It seems only moderately faster than a Tz-Chiang Hau. However, when you go between the carriages (where the bathrooms are) you can feel the speed a bit more. It's an exceptionally smooth ride, too.

5. Wow - you arrive in Taichung pretty fast. I'm glad I didn't try to take a nap. It's a one hour trip from Taipei to Taichung, so only bring along one or two beers.

6. The Taichung high speed rail station was basically empty except for a smattering of tourists. The 7-11 had a lot of customers, but look for the McDonald's there to close soon I think.

7. Oh, the station is in Wu Rh - no wonder it's empty...but there were a ton of taxis all waiting. The taxi fare from the station to my house was NT$ 250, and I think I live rather close to the station (via expressway) than most parts of Taichung.

Here's the score:

Bus: bumpy ride, but nicer seats. NT$ 100 for Taxi, NT$ 150 for ticket.

HSR: fast ride, bad seats. NT$ 250 for Taxi, NT$ 700 for ticket.

Overall, if the HSR station was closer, I'd probably take it over the bus, because saving one hour plus is close to being worth NT$ 550. I think their main business will be people living farther south who want to go to Taipei and business travelers. I don't know why they didn't hook it up to CKS Airport because I can see people paying a premium to make a flight. UPDATE: They have a plan that will have some sort of MRT hooking it up to the airport.

Official Site

Wikipedia Entry

The ultimate reason for taking the HSR...if Taipei had a Taco Bell.