Taking the High-Speed Train: Taipei to Kaohsiung
Christine is sitting on the Taiwan HSR eagerly clutching her ticket, as we await departure from Taipei on the 11:00 express to Kaohsiung. It only stops a couple of times, and we arrive in Kaohsiung Zuoying Station on time in only 1 hour 36 minutes.
Inside the train the coaches are wide, fairly comfortable and quiet. We booked tickets so we pretty much had the carriage to ourselves for the largest part of the journey. The train is divided unofficially into three classes: Business Class, Reserved Standard, and Unreserved Standard. While the first distinction is obvious, the second is less so until you find out what it really means, courtesy of rather brusque treatment by the stewardess.
Lunch is served (at NT$120). Two traditional lunchboxes served with Pork or Chicken. A little lackluster in flavor or heat, but we were eager to eat them nevertheless. Who can resist the charm of having eaten the fastest lunchboxes in Taiwan.
Another surprise: Photography from the cabin was actually quite possible and resulted in a lot of images that showed the countryside. Things go so fast, so I had to cut down on the pointing and speed up the clicking. Still…
And in the tunnels, it was quite eerie… like this picture taken in the window!
Finally, I managed to photograph the speed we were traveling at: on occasion it reached 293km/h but most of the time hovered between 250-280km/h.
We finally arrived in Kaohsiung.
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Now I’m jealous! The only train I’ve been able to ride is the Virginia-to-DC commuter train. It’s not bad, but certainly not as cool as your high-speed ride.
Same in the UK, Andrew. We used to have pretty cool trains but speeds have stayed similar… seems though we are going to get the Bullet trains in the UK running in the South East. That’ll be great! Isn’t there an extensive rail network there?
Europe’s busy expanding it’s highspeed train service… and Taiwan still has to build five more stations! Plans are full ahead!