The Alishan Express is getting a makeover, with its four cars decorated in Ikawa Line livery to mark the 40th anniversary of the partnership between the Alishan Forest Railway and Japan’s Oigawa Railway, the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office said on Friday.
The Oigawa Railway became the railway’s first international sister railway when then-Forestry Bureau director-general Hsu Chi-yu (許啟祐) and former Oigawa Railway Co president Taizo Goto signed the agreement in Chiayi County on Jan. 24, 1986.
Both railways are renowned for spectacular mountain scenery, century-old history and cultural heritage, the office said.
Photo courtesy of the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office via CNA
The international friendship deepened over the following decades, with both sides continuing exchanges in train maintenance, railway operations, tourism promotion and cultural legacy preservation, it said.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the friendship, the four cars of the Alishan Express would be colored red in the livery of Japanese trains running on the Ikawa Line of the Oigawa Railway, the office said.
The repainted Alishan Express train begins running on Friday and runs between Chiayi and Alishan stations, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office via CNA
Passengers boarding the train can travel through Alishan’s misty highland forest, which is expected to evoke an air of the Oigawa Railway charm, it added.
Trains running on the Oigawa Railway in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture feature Showa vintage passenger cars pulled by a steam locomotive, as well as wooden seats, vintage ceiling fans and onboard novelty items, which would all be recreated for passengers on the Alishan Express, the office said, adding that various excursion packages such as a dinner trip, a nighttime voyage, or a booze cruise would also be offered.
Office director Wang Chao-pao (王昭堡) said this is the first time that the railway’s trains would imitate the livery of a foreign train, honoring the 40-year friendship between the railways.
The railway would continue to engage in technical and cultural exchanges with the Oigawa
Railway and jointly promote railway tourism, he said.
The railway is Taiwan’s first national cultural landscape area.
It connects 20 train stations that are characterized by their natural, ecological, industrial or cultural significance, extending for more than 70km from the
Chiayi Station at an altitude of 30m to Jhushan Station (祝山) at an altitude of 2,451m.
It was listed as one of the world’s 200 most significant railway journeys in Epic Train Trips of the World published by Lonely Planet last year.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS