The Puyuma Express train will be launched on Feb. 6, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday.
TRA transportation department chief Du Wei (杜微) said testing of the first set of the new tilting train was nearly complete.
He said the train would be used to transport passengers heading to the east coast for the Lunar New Year holiday, adding that the second set was still under testing.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
Each train consists of eight carriages, he said.
The first service is scheduled to depart from Shulin (樹林) Train Station at 9:40am on Feb. 6. The train will enable the TRA to add 56 trains during the nine-day holiday and provide an additional 2,000 seats daily.
Du said cabins No. 4 and No. 5 offer eight sets of table seats, with each accommodating four passengers. Two of the four passengers at the table seats would have to sit facing opposite the direction in which the train is heading.
Du said those wishing to buy tickets for the table seats must purchase four tickets at a time, adding that the TRA only accepts orders online or at station ticket counters.
“The seating arrangement in the cabins makes it easier for friends or family members to talk each other or play poker,” Du said. “Some people might feel uncomfortable if they sit next to or face a stranger the whole journey.”
However, Du said the TRA would accept orders from non-group travelers if there were still seats left in these two cabins within three days before departure.
Those heading to the east coast during the holiday can start booking tickets on Tuesday next week.
To ease congestion at peak hours, the TRA also announced it will offer four night express services on Feb. 7, Feb. 8, Feb. 15 and Feb. 16.
On Feb. 7 and Feb. 8, the night train will depart from Shulin at 11:28pm and arrive at Hualien at 2:35am.
The trains running on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 will depart from Hualien at 11pm and arrive in Shulin at 1:50am.
Passengers taking the night trains will get a 30 percent discount, the TRA said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS