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TRA adds Japanese announcements at Taipei train station

Japanese speakers in Taiwan will be able to take the train with more confidence following the introduction of public address announcements in Japanese at Taipei Railway Station.

"This new service is expected to benefit as many as 21,000 passengers per month who only understand Japanese but want to travel by train," station master Lee Young-shen (李永生) said.

Japanese tourists find traveling by train to be one of the best ways to get around Taiwan, Lee said, but they often run into problems because of a lack of information provided in their language.

"We decided to announce train information in Japanese because Japanese tourists often got lost, either taking the wrong train or getting off at the wrong destination," Lee said.

Noting that 90,000 passengers pass through Taipei Railway Station each day, Lee said he was confident that the station's multilingual services benefit travelers of other nationalities.

With the introduction of Japanese, the station now announces each train's departure time, platform number, train number and destinations in five languages: Mandarin, Hoklo, Hakka, English and Japanese.

"The station even alerts travelers when trains are approaching in Japanese for their safety," Lee said.

Train delays are not yet part of the station's Japanese repertoire, but the station master said the service would be improved with time and had already received plaudits from travelers.

The Taiwan Railway Administration also hopes to strengthen the language skills of train conductors, Lee said, to help overseas travelers get around Taiwan more easily.
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