Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) and Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) are to run additional trains during next year's Lunar New Year holiday, the companies announced.
The Lunar New Year transportation period will last 12 days from Jan. 23 to Feb 3.
THSRC is scheduling 368 additional trains, with 200 heading southbound and 168 going northbound, resulting in a total of 2,246 scheduled trains.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
From midnight on Thursday, passengers can reserve tickets through the T-EX mobile ticketing app, THSRC’s partner convenience stores, the company’s website, and ticket counters and vending machines inside stations.
The company announced extra late-night trains, which arrive at end stations after midnight, as well as early departing trains that leave their starting stations at 5:30am, although the company did add that passengers using such trains should make plans in advance for transportation to or from the stations.
All trains will have two to eight non-reserved seating cars, it said.
The company also said that passengers with regular tickets during the 12 days of the Lunar New Year holiday will have access to non-reserved seats and have their validity period extended by nine days.
This means that a regular 30-day pass expiring on Feb. 18 can be extended to Feb. 27, for example.
TRC announced it would operate 302 extra trains around the country, with bookings for numbered trains on eastern routes to open on Thursday midnight and for western routes on Friday at midnight.
Reservations for real-name trains on the Eastern Line will be made available Saturday at midnight for residents in Hualien and Taitung counties or those whose national ID numbers begin with a “U” or “V.”
TRC also announced that for the Lunar New Year travel period, it will suspend sales of family car tickets and sell them as regular seating instead.
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