The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) yesterday said that starting on Sunday for a period of two weeks, passengers using the new Shalun Line (沙崙線) in Tainan will be able to board trains free of charge.
The 6.52km branch line connects the Tainan TRA station on the Western Line (西部幹線) to the Tainan High Speed Rail (HSR) Station. It begins at Jhongjhou Station, stops at Chang Jung Christian University Station — located on campus — and terminates at Shalun Station.
From Shalun Station, passengers can transfer to the Tainan HSR Station by walking through a 34m underground passage.
PHOTO: TSENG HUNG-JU, TAIPEI TIMES
An inauguration ceremony will be held on Sunday to celebrate the new line’s launch, the TRA said.
The free train service will start immediately after the ceremony.
Pilot services will be launched from Nanke Station on the Western Line, and from Shalun Station at 3:18pm, it said.
To facilitate transfers between the Western main line and the Shalun branch line, the TRA has arranged for 70 commuter trains to operate daily either between Nanke or Tainan TRA stations and Shalun Station. The estimated travel time is about 22 minutes, which contrasts with the 50 minutes it takes to make the same journey by bus.
All stations along the branch line are equipped with multiple-card-reading machines, the TRA said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS