I use the HSR a lot and frankly its become a joke. First of all the stations, they are miles away from where they say they are. I wonder if someone from Ryanair was involved in this. For example the station for the airport says Taoyuan. In fact it is nowhere near the aiport or Taoyuan. Taichung is miles out of the city and is in fact halfway between Taichung and Changhua. The only station where it is actually where the name says it is, is in Taipei.

Take the aiport station. If you go from Taichung to the aiport by car or bus it normally takes 1hr 45 min /2hr. So from any downtown hotel to the HSR station in Taichung lets say 20-30 min depending on traffic. Dont even consider using the free shuttle unless you have a lot of time on your hands. You then go and buy a ticket. First of all you need a week off work to study all the different fares that seem to change as fast as the wind direction. Dont try booking on line as the booking system is a joke, they actually ride on the back of the EVA Air website which is totally uncustomer friendly.

So from leaving your hotel and getting to the platform it is now about 45 minutes.

You then get on the train and if you are in business class then you have a fighting chance to get to the aiport in less than 45 minutes from when you get off at Taoyuan. ( More later on this )

If Busines class is full or even half full, dont expect much service as they simply cant handle giving out a free drink and a bag of nuts.

You arrive 45 minutes later into Taoyuan station and this is where the fun begins.

From here to the airport you have to use a Ubus shuttle. Sounds easy hey ?? dream on !!!!

I mentioned that Business class has its benefits, well this is where you find out what they are.

The shuttle bus to the aiport is useless. First of all it can only take about 25 passengers fully loaded. God help you if you are travelling with anything bigger than a small suitcase as they forget to put trolleys in the HSR stations.

If you are in Business class, the carriage stops right next to the escalator, get your best Nike shoes on and go for it as once they have the bus full, which they also charge you for, you will have to wait for another one to come along or pay about 500 NT$ to use a taxi. The Ubus shuttle service does not follow a timetable or have anyway to handle more than a bus load of passengers at a time. I have know people wait up to an hour to get on a shuttle. ( yes I know the timetable is outside but come on this is Taiwan, Timetables are for reference not following )

So from leaving your nice hotel in Taichung, you spent 45 minutes getting to the platform, 45 minutes to get to Taoyuan station, then it takes from 30 to 60 minutes to get into the aiport, just pray there is no traffic jams when you get on the freeway from the station as this section in the mornig and evening rush hours is a car park.

The time saving you make by using the train goes right out of the window with all the messing about getting to and from the stations. It is in true Taiwan style they built the stations miles from anywhere and it is a known fact a lot of governemt people involved with the project did well selling land they bought not too soon before the project went ahead and the stations somehow got located at these god forsaken places. How they did not build it into the aiport or even have a rail link is beyond me.

Also on another note pay attention. Taiwanese like to save a dollar or two when they can. On a weekend they have a special price for trains after 9pm out of Taipei. So from early evening until 9pm the trains run empty, guess what, try getting a train after 9pm, its standing room only becasue the tickets are about 30 NT$ cheaper. You will see many people at Taipei station hanging around for hours to take the later train to save a small amount of money.

The cost of using the train to a dedicated bus service is way more expensive, for 250 NT$ you go from downtown Taichung to the aiport in say 1 hr 45 min. For three or four times the price you can use the train - go figure.

Finally the whole system of buying a ticket is a joke. It is cheaper to turn up and extract from the ticket desk what will be the cheapest ticket for your travel. Dont expect them to tell you the right answers unless you ask the right questions and it often pays to ask the same question twice. They charge you more for booking on line than turning up at the station and its no wonder the trains either run almost empty or packed as they seem to think that having customer pre pay and book their travel is not as good as letting them pay when they turn up at the station. Seems cashflow is not important in this sector !!

Also in economy, they have carriages with seats that are resreved so you know where you are sitting or non resreved which is a total free for all. Guess what, reserved cariage is usually empty and non resreved sardine can style. Dont you think someone wopuld figure out it is far better for the business an passengers if they get people to book on line and pay in advance than offering tickets that are cheaper if you just turn and walk on.