The Ministry of Culture is on Saturday next week to launch a special tourism train service on the Yilan Line between Nangang Station in Taipei and Yilan Station as a warm-up activity for the annual Creative Expo Taiwan next month.
Tickets for the Blue Creative Expo tourism train service are to go on sale from 10am tomorrow on the Web site and offices of Lion Travel Service Co, the ministry said in a news release yesterday.
The ministry’s Preparatory Office of National Railway Museum is organizing the service, which is to run for nine consecutive days.
Photo courtesy of Lion Travel Service Co
There are to be two services each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, the office said, adding that each service can accommodate 160 passengers.
The morning service is to depart from Nangang Station and stop at Houtong (猴硐), Dali (大里) and Yilan stations, while the afternoon service is to start from Yilan Station and stop at Toucheng (頭城), Rueifang (瑞芳) and Nangang stations, it said.
The one-way fare is NT$450 per person, which includes the train ticket, guided cultural tour of the Houtong or Toucheng stations and a lunchbox specially designed for the trip, it said.
The service is to be run by the “blue trains,” as they are called due to the blue color of the car’s exterior, which had been restored by the Taiwan Railways Administration after they were retired in 2020 after 50 years of service on the South Link Line.
The Blue Creative Expo tourism train would be the first time for the renovated trains to come to northern Taiwan as they now regularly run services between Pingtung County’s Fangliao Station and Taitung Station, known as the Breezy Blue tourism train service.
The Blue Creative Expo tourism train consists of passenger cars and exhibition cars, where history related to the blue trains and the research conducted by the office are to be displayed, the ministry said.
The guided tour would bring passengers to movie scenes in classic Taiwanese films such as A City of Sadness (悲情城市), A Flower in a Rainy Night (看海的日子) and Island Etude (練習曲), it said.
This year’s Creative Expo Taiwan is to be held from Sept. 22 to Oct. 1, featuring exhibitions, performances and experiential activities including the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, the Preparatory Office of National Railway Museum, Taipei Expo Park, Huashan 1914 Creative Park and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
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