So I thought I'd give a review of the High Speed Rail (HSR) in Taiwan. I hadn't seen many reviews about it, and thought people might like to know. I frequent the Japan-Taiwan part of the world often for my consulting work. Previously I had already been on the Shingansen in Japan and had found the bullet train there fascinating. I would find my chance this time around, during the Lunar New Year Holiday.

A client of mine put me up at HotelOne. I asked Concierge about how I could get a ticket to Taipei and she said that they could help me in getting a trip and that I would pay them, instead of blowing taxi money to and from the station. Rewind to Wednesday when I checked out and would recieve my ticket. The Concierge could not provide me with a ticket but provided me with a reservation number and said that there were some short steps to take at the self-check station there.

I thought Fine, what's the worst that could happen. The hotel had comped my ride to the HSR station, which I guess is a perk that I get for logging ~35 hotel stays in the past year. The driver apologizes ahead of time for driving a Volvo S80 instead of a Mercedes S320, not a big deal.

So the ride was about 25 minutes into Taichung County, where the station is located. I would've paid easily about ~$300 New Taiwan Dollars (NT, ~$10 US), so I am glad that they arranged for the ticket on my behalf.

Upon arriving at the station, at the off-load point (entrance to station), traffic had backed up onto the ramp area. This place was packed to the brim. This was a slightly bad impression, even not being on the HSR. No police directing traffic. Taxis appearing to pick up passengers after dropping them. My ride had to triple park (idle, what have you) while he quickly helped me with my bag, said thank you and got back in his ride in under 5 seconds. This part, compared with other high speed rail systems in this area (I am talking about Shingansen and Hong Kong Aiport Express), is incredibly unsatsifactory, with Hong Kong's Airport Express an excellent model of how they separate taxis and buses.

I entered the station. Very impressive. Very modern. I proceeded to the self-check station. There were about 7 of them around me, so no need to wait for some person who might have difficulties or might not use a computer as much as I do. So I enter my reservation number and after a quick prompt I push "yes" and my ticket is printed. WOW. Less than 2 minutes I have my ticket in hand and am ready for my first time on the HSR. For the route, Taichung-Taipei is $700 NT (~$22 US). Compare that distance wise with the Shingansen, Tokyo-Shizuoka on that line is about $6,180 yen ($~57 US), almost twice the cost.

I proceeded to the top of the station, to see if I could see any mountains or anything appealing for a quick snapshot. Not really. So I decided I could use some air and did not go back down for a coffee. I noticed the safety personnel actively patrolling and blowing their whistle if small kids were caught near the yellow line unattended. Very well done. At about 2 minutes to 2:00 pm, my train arrived.

The cabin was very well lit and comfortable. It had 3-2 seating, so no cramped feeling and plenty of space while seated. sitting down, the seat was almost past upright, something which I felt might be incredibly uncomfortable had I fallen asleep without reclining. At 2:00 pm sharp, we were off. It was an incredibly gloomy day, as it had been raining and quite miserably cold the few days prior so I could not take many photos. I decided to get out the ipod and watch some Poker After Dark.

Now one thing I noticed that struck me as odd was that as I put my upright stand holding my ipod on the tray table, everytime we went into a tunnel, the vibrations increased and the my ipod started wondering around on the table. Annoying, wonder if this kind of thing happens on the ICE or the other high speeds around Asia.

I had planned to take a few pictures entering Taipei County after the stop at Taoyuan HSR station. No dice. The HSR started going underground and would for the duration of the trip into Taipei Main Station. Oh well.

The train arrived at 3 PM, exactly one hour after I had boarded. Very punctual and on-time. I was impressed and would look forward to my return trip, next part coming shortly.

Train 415 Taichung-Taipei.
Top Speed: 258 kilometers per hour (~160 mph)