Mahster.com - Eric Mah's Official Propaganda Site! - Riding Taiwan's High Speed Rail

I took a trip to Taichung at the end of January on Taiwan's recently opened High Speed Rail (HSR) line. Tickets were being offered at half price just before the official opening of the line and I decided to try it out. A trip that normally takes around two hours by bus was done in under an hour. Boy, was that fast!

Getting on the train

Taiwan's High Speed Rail line officially opened in February of this year after much delays and controversy. The line runs down the lenght of Taiwan from Taipei in the north to Kaoshiung in the south. A four to five hour trip by car from Taipei to Kaoshiung can now be done in a little under two hours on the HSR. A trip from Taipei to Taichung in central Taiwan can be done in about an hour.

The HSR line was supposed to be running in October of 2005, but there were many problems in construction and the project schedule was pushed back by over a year. I have a friend who's father was a foreign consultant for the project and he said that local contractors would ingore the advice of the consultants, resulting in trouble like settling of the columns that support the tracks. The HSR system for the most part is based off of Japan's Shinkansen "bullet train" system with minor support systems being provided by European companies.

HSR ticket, at half price -- around US$10

When I boarded the train and sat in my seat, I noticed that the whole car was abuzz with a slight humm and vibration, like the floor was some huge airconditioning unit churning away. Well, there was a huge air conditioning unit running somewhere, but you'd imagine that it wouldn't cause the car to vibrate so much. I was thinking the designers did that on purpose so you wouldn't notice the vibration and shaking of the train while it was actually running. The humming and vibration made it feel like you were sitting on a lot of power waiting to be unleashed.

The train was prompt and we started moving at the time stated on the ticket. The train made stops in Taoyuan and Hsinchu, and along the way it did seem to go fairly fast. Though it was already dark out, I could see the street lights near the side of the train tracks whiz by. Though it seemed that we were going faster than a car would on a highway, it really didn't feel all that fast.

Inside the train. Looks like an airplane, doesn't it?

Only after we pulled out of the Hsinchu stop and headed off for Taichung did it feel like the driver opened the throttle up. The street lamps then really started to whiz by. Distant lights seemed to also be moving fast at this point.

I once rode the Shinkansen bullet train in Japan a number of years ago and that was a fast train ride. I couldn't even see the things close to the track clearly since they were passing by so fast it all looked like a blur. The mountains in the distance were coming into and disappearing from view at an unbelievably fast rate.

About 15 minutes into the trip, I realized that being on that HSR train reminded me of being in an airplane. It sounded and felt almost just like an airplane. The seating and layout played a big part in this too.

When the train neared Taichung at about 50 minutes into the trip, it followed along a major highway. It was then I realized just how fast we were going. The train had already slowed considerably and seemed to crawling along compared to the speed it was just traveling at but we were still passing all the cars on the highway. Not until the train slowed even more did cars match our speed.

Tourists! Wait! I'm taking a photo too!

I was staring out the train window the entire time and soon before I knew it, the show was over. I definitely must take the trip again during the day to see just how fast that train is.

Update: Check out the video of riding the HSR!

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 02 May 2007 )

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