Approximately 25,000 train tickets were sold within three minutes when the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) began its online ticket sale for the Lunar New Year holidays yesterday.
The sale yesterday was restricted to the Eastern Line trains, as well as those operating on the South Link (
The administration is sche-duled to start the online sale of tickets for trains traveling along the west coast today.
The administration said in a statement issued yesterday that by 9am, it had sold a total of 220,000 train tickets online and over the phone.
The statement said that Chunghwa Telecom designed the administration's voice and online ticketing systems. To facilitate the ticket sale process, the telecom company expanded the system's capacity. The company also raised the system's security level to bar the entry of hackers.
To ascertain the stability of the system, both the TRA and Chunghwa Telecom dispatched personnel to do some last-minute testing early yesterday morning, it said.
By 9am yesterday, a total of 220,000 tickets had been sold. Tickets for express trains leaving from Taipei to Hualien before 11am on the 6th, 7th and 8th of next month -- the first three days of the Lunar New Year Holidays -- were sold out.
On the other hand, the return tickets for trains operating on the same route between 11am and 4pm on the 9th, 10th and 11th were sold out as well. Seats are still available in other time slots in these three days, the administration said.
A similar situation was also reported for trains operating on the South Link.
The administration said that as of 5pm, approximately 320,000 tickets were sold. It also reminded passengers to pick up the tickets they order and complete the transactions within two days or their requests will be canceled.
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