Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Taiwan in recent years has undertaken one of the largest public construction projects in its history, building the Taiwan High-Speed Rail, which links Taipei with the southern port of Kaohsiung.

The project had vocal opponents from the beginning, including those who criticized the US$15 billion cost and questioned the need. We heard Taiwanese say they’d never ride it, that it would be too expensive or unsafe.

In December, regular service began on the line, abbreviated as “gaotie” in Chinese. About a dozen trains run the 208-mile run daily from north to south, making only a few stops in the central part of the island en route to Kaohsiung.  We tried out the train for our own trip to Kaohsiung last week, and found it full.  Whatever misgivings Taiwanese may have expressed before seemed to have vanished – just as they did when Taipei opened its mass transit system in the 1990s.

The train is a marvel. We left Taipei’s main train station at 9 a.m. and after only a couple of stops, arrived at Kaohsiung’s Zuoying station 96 minutes later. The ride was fast, smooth and comfortable and the scenery interesting.  Had we taken a traditional train, it would have taken four or five hours. A car would take six or seven hours, while air travel, our previous choice, would’ve taken at least two hours, including check-in and waiting time at the airport and more if you count the ride from Kaohsiung’s remote airport into the city.

A north-to-south ticket is reasonably priced, NT$1,490 one way, or about $45. Kids were half price.

The train has already shaken up local travel in Taiwan. Airlines have cut their prices in order to remain competitive, and it seems likely that not all the domestic airlines will survive the train’s arrival. Meanwhile, the ease of travel from downtown Taipei to downtown Kaohsiung makes day trips and same-day meetings even more possible. During a visit to the Kaohsiung Museum of History, we encountered a group from Taipei who had taken the train south for a half-day (4 hours) of sightseeing.

The Taiwan Railway Administration is aggressively marketing the service, not only through pricing, but also in mass market advertising. In Kaohsiung, we saw a signboard pitching high-speed rail travel for more frequent family reunions.  (see below) The sign showed two photos, one labeled “before the high-speed rail,” showing two pairs of slippers on what looks like a grandparents doorstep. A second photo shows a pile of slippers belonging to kids, parents and grandparents, and says “After high-speed rail.” Many Taiwanese have moved from other parts of the island to Taipei, and the idea of that apparently is to show that the high-speed train can it easier for children to bring their families home for weekends at the grandparents.

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