A friend of mine who is headed to Tainan from the US texted me to ask for some help last night. In a few weeks, she'll be arriving at TPE on CI 15 from SFO, which is scheduled to land at 20:25. Looking at the HSR timetables, the last train from Taoyuan which stops at Tainan leaves at 22:35. I told her to plan for an hour to get off the plane, get through immigration, grab her checked luggage and go through customs. That would put her at approximately 21:30 but she'd have to wait for the shuttle bus along with a twenty-five minute ride to the station. I've also been looking at the possibility of the highway buses but individual bus companies' websites are poor and the airport website doesn't have specifics in regards to the schedules. In addition, I've been reading that the bus ride down to Tainan is approximately four hours, so the bus doesn't exactly seem like the best idea.

What would people recommend? Is there a decent chance of catching the train or should she plan on spending a night at the airport Novotel/Taoyuan/Taipei?