Tickets for trains operating at peak travel times during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday were sold out after the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) opened the booking session early yesterday morning.
The four-day holiday begins on Sept. 19 and ends on Sept. 22.
The TRA said 102,155 tickets were sold within the first minute after the session began, which meant 1,702 tickets were sold per second.
Travelers snatched up all tickets for southbound or eastbound express trains operating between 12pm on Sept. 18 and 12pm on Sept. 19, as well as those for northbound express trains operating on Sept. 22, the railway agency said.
Passengers purchasing tickets online must complete the transaction within two days or their booking would be canceled, it said.
The TRA also said it started testing on Tuesday the first two sets of the EMU800 trains that arrived last month. The new trains are expected to start ferrying passengers during the Lunar New Year holiday next year.
The agency has purchased 296 EMU800 train carriages from Japan, with delivery expected to be completed by January 2016.
The train is also known as the “smiling train,” as the locomotive is decorated with a yellow line resembling a crescent moon on the front. It can operate at a maximum speed of 130kph, which is faster than the current commuter train service.
Twenty-five percent of the seats on the new trains will be priority seats. Cyclists can take their bicycles with them on board the first and eighth carriages of the new trains.
Meanwhile, the TRA introduced three new cruise train tours to Gueishan Island and Mr Brown Avenue in Taitung County. Booking for the tours, which will start in the fourth quarter, opens at 9am today.
TRA data showed that cruise trains had an average usage rate of 89.21 percent in the first half of the year. The customer satisfaction rate was also high at 93.5 percent.
All three new package deals are two-day tours covering transportation, board, accommodation and guided tours, with two of them leaving from the north and one departing from central Taiwan. Tours are priced from NT$4,350 to NT$4,950 per person.
The Gueishan Island package includes a boat tour around the island for passengers.
Mr Brown Avenue is a country road filled with rice paddies. It was first made famous by a TV commercial featuring Mr Brown coffee and recently garnered widespread attention again due to an airline commercial featuring Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武).
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
NINTH MONTH: There were 11,792 births in Taiwan last month and 15,563 deaths, or a mortality rate of 8.11 per 1,000 people, household registration data showed Taiwan’s population was 23,404,138 as of last month, down 2,470 from August, the ninth consecutive month this year that the nation has reported a drop, the Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday. The population last month was 162 fewer than the same month last year, a decline of 0.44 per day, the ministry said, citing household registration data. Taiwan reported 11,792 births last month, or 3.7 births per day, up 149 from August, it said, adding that the monthly birthrate was 6.15 per 1,000 people. The jurisdictions with the highest birthrates were Yunlin County at 14.62 per 1,000 people, Penghu County (8.61
RSS