The Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is a 350km long high speed railway running down Taiwan’s densely populated western coast. The system connects Taiwan’s 3 largest cities – Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, offering a much faster alternative to the mainline Taiwan Railways network. Now in its 18th year of operation, the Shinkansen-derived system (and Asia’s second high speed railway) has survived initial struggles to dominate long distance travel on Taiwan’s western coast.

While the THSR is best known for its routings between major cities, the system also offers intercity rail access to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport via Taoyuan station. My recent trip to Taiwan brought me to the mid-island city of Taichung on the regular speed Taiwan Railways Tze-Chiang 3000 service, and I had to make the journey back northwards to the airport to catch my flight home. It was the perfect opportunity to make use of the THSR’s speeds.

Buying my tickets

There are a few ways to buy THSR tickets – on their website, at a Taiwanese convenience store, in person at the station, or on their mobile app. For foreign tourists, buying on the website may prove to be the better option because of discounts (more on that below) and simply because of convenience, unless you are fluent in Mandarin Chinese and don’t mind a last minute run to the ticket counters.

Now about discounts – In short, THSR offers limited quantities of early bird discounts (10%, 20%, 35% off respectively) on certain trains (click here for THSR’s own explainer); Another discount is the 15% Klook discount (click here – this is not a sponsored link), available only to non-Taiwan residents. Both these discounts require using the THSR website to purchase the tickets (or to complete the ticket purchase after buying the Klook discount voucher). Non-discounted prices are much higher than their Taiwan Railways equivalent, but you are paying for the sheer amount of time savings.

As with my Taiwan Railways tickets for the Taipei – Taichung routing, I found Nick Kembel’s guide on THSR tickets to be really helpful.

Departure from Taichung HSR station 高鐵台中站

Like most dedicated high speed rail network, the THSR runs on its own set of tracks and stations separate from the mainline railways. In Taichung’s case, the THSR has its own Taichung THSR station some 8-10km away by road from the Taiwan Railways Taichung station. The system is still connected to local public transit: via Xinwuri 新烏日 station on the Taiwan Railways network, and HSR Taichung Station 高鐵臺中站 on the Green Line of the Taichung Metro.

In a decidedly non-Urbanist Wanderer move, my travel partner and I opted to catch an Uber to the station to avoid having to drag our bags more than we already had. It was a short 20 minutes’ drive, and we were dropped off at the station’s very airport-coded driveway.

Past the glass doors and away from the idling cars, we stepped into a station concourse located in the cavernous space underneath the platforms and tracks.

There was plenty of space here containing everything passengers may need – ticket counters, ticket machines, shops, restaurants, departure boards, and so on. There were even stalls for THSR branded merchandise and lunch boxes (biàndāng 便當 or the more well-known Japanese term “bento” ). The space was big enough that it really seemed like THSR could fit a mini-mall on this level to maximise retail revenues if they wanted to, but I must commend their restraint in favour of better passenger flow.

Ticket collection at Taichung HSR station

Thanks to the Klook discount requiring a passport verification, I had to queue at the ticket counters to collect my tickets. This was much faster than expected, and I got my tickets within 10 minutes.

I also thought it was really cool how counters could switch to serving a different category of passengers in the queue when needed – they simply displayed the change on the electronic displays overhead and passengers got the hint.

Impressions of the station hall

I liked the efficiency of the station layout. The station hall’s vast expanse had excellent crowd capacity, but designers clearly took into account the crowd flow. There were two sets of ticket barriers – one for each end of the train with the car numbers signposted. Passengers entered the station hall in the middle of the building and then turned left or right depending on their car numbers; They could also tap in at anytime to access the waiting area beyond the barriers instead of having to wait for a designated time. All these meant passengers wouldn’t have to crowd a single set of ticket barriers at departure time, which contrasted with the more restrictive design choices made for Halim station on Indonesia’s Jakarta-Bandung HSR. It was really worlds apart.

I’ll admit I did spend some time looking at the Departures & Arrivals board just looking at the service frequencies. Seeing the Shinkansen-based system show more than 5 movements within an hour with varied stopping patterns was really something to behold.

Boarding the THSR

With less than half an hour left to go to our departure time, we decided to head “airside” (trainside?). As with the space before the barriers, there were seats for waiting passengers and a variety of shops. Things were much quieter here though, as it seemed passengers preferred to spend more time at the station hall before passing through the barriers. Still, it was good to see the station prepared for higher crowd levels both before and after the ticket barriers.

Heading up the escalators, we stepped onto the island platform serving north-bound services (railways in Taiwan are left side running unlike the roads). Signage pointed to the car numbers and seat rows accurately, something possible because THSR operates only a single type of trainsets.

THSR runs a very tight operation, and our train pulled into the station 3 minutes before the scheduled departure time. We completed boarding within that short timespan, and our train then whizzed away from Taichung right on time.

Onboard Cabin & Amenities

THSR’s 700T trainsets operate as a 12-car set with a 2-class configuration onboard, consisting of Standard Class 標準車廂 and Business Class 商務車廂. All tickets bought in advance come with an automatically assigned seat reservation, although there is no choice of seat. Tickets bought on the day of travel gives access to the designated non-reserved cars, which are displayed on the departure boards at the stations.

THSR Standard Class 標準車廂

Standard Class onboard the THSR are in a classic Shinkansen derived 2 – 3 configuration. All seats are aligned with the windows and are rotatable to face the direction of travel. The windows also have individual pull-down shades, which is a very airplane-esque design.

Every seat features a tray table and excellent amounts of legroom. There are no movable headrests on the seats, of course, but I found the seats quite comfortable for the system’s travel times (trains run end to end in just under 2 hours). This being a train from the early 2000s, power plugs are located only in cars 4 and 12 instead of under every seat. I don’t think it’s a must given the travel times, but it’s a nice-to-have when your batteries run low.

THSR’s cabins have a restrained design language quite unlike the nice and flashy cabin interiors of Chinese-built Indonesian WHOOSH trains. It really shows the age of the design, but the cabin has held up really well over the years, and this is a testament to its build quality and THSR’s maintenance standards.

If looking at the cabin isn’t your thing, then you’re in luck. Taiwan’s population density means the THSR whizzes past a healthy mix of urban-suburban-rural areas. The resulting views are quite the exercise in contrast.

Onboard amenities – Toilets

The trainsets are equipped with toilets on odd-numbered cars (Cars 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11). The toilets are well-equipped but are also showing its age like the rest of the cabin. The one I visited was kept very clean, and the raised polka dot rubber flooring kept my feet steady in the small space.

There is only one accessible toilet onboard in Car 7, which puts it roughly equidistant from both ends of the train. I didn’t have the time to check this one out though.

Onboard Catering

THSR trains do not have a dedicated dining car. Instead, there are vending machines in Cars 1, 5, and 11, and staff onboard also run trolley services; Like it’s slower mainline cousins, THSR sells it’s own selection of bentos. As far as I can tell, these are sold both onboard and in stations, although the stall at Taichung HSR station was closed that morning.

We weren’t keen on the catering this time. Instead, we kept breakfast light with sandwiches and pastries from Taichung’s Hong Rui Zhen 洪瑞珍 bakery – I do recommend them!

Arrival at Taoyuan HSR station 高鐵桃園站

With THSR’s tightly run operation keeping us on track, our train pulled into Taoyuan station right on time after 42 minutes’ of travel time. As I stepped onto the spotless underground platforms some 123 kilometres north from where we started, I got the distinct sensation that I had just taken a high speed metro line instead of an intercity train. The journey was just that fuss-free and convenient, and the THSR’s maturity as a system was obvious.

From the platforms, it was another 15 minutes’ walk to the Taoyuan station on the Airport MRT / Taoyuan MRT lines. That’s effective last-mile connection right there.

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot to learn from the THSR for cities aspiring to its own HSR system. Public perception of high speed rail often focus on speed and time savings, but equally important are the processes at the start and end of the journey. The THSR trains were fast and saved travel time, but its station design, fuss-free departure and arrivals process ultimately combined to make the THSR an excellent travel option for the masses. Tickets do cost a lot more than the alternatives (like the Tze-Chiang 3000 on the mainline), but it’s easily justifiable given the time savings.

Crucially, the THSR was also never meant to operate in isolation and it’s connections to local public transit really positioned it as an integral part of Taiwan’s public transport network. I’d dare say that the THSR wouldn’t be as successful without its transit connections, simply because even getting to the THSR stations on the city outskirts wouldn’t be as convenient. Will this be something other cities take heed of? Only time will tell.

This was only my first visit to Taiwan, but yet I already find myself planning my next visit with the THSR factored in. That’s how impressed I was with the system.