Trains

Always an adventure in Taiwan.  Today I spent the day in the office, and witnessed a traffic accident.  If Tara hadn't stopped to talk to the English guy, we could have been right in the middle of it.  Long story.

Anyway, I wanted to do a post about the trains.  I spent 27 years in Orrville, and trains are not a big deal.  Except now, I ride one at least once a week.  There are advantages and disadvantages.  It's cheap and reliable, and a good way to see the rest of the country.  The only downside is that during rush hour, they're usually delayed, and since it's my only form of transportation, I have to plan around the train schedules.

There are three types of trains:  Ordinary, Express, and High Speed Rail.   Express trains are slightly more expensive, but if you get them early enough, you get an "assigned seat."  I've only ridden the HSR once, but it was pretty nice.

Tongxiao train platform.

Sometimes they come through to check tickets, sometimes they don't.  In the larger stations, you have to run your ticket through the machine before you can get to the platform, and again when you get off the train.  You have to keep the tickets for the entire journey, otherwise you get charged the price of the ticket, plus a fee.  Unless you can't find the ticket at your destination.  and you wait for the conductor to leave the post and slip through the gate.  True story.

Commuter train ticket on the left, express ticket on the right.

View from the Coast Line

The timetable at the Zhunan train station.  All the Chinese words I know how to read, I've learned at the train station.  I've gotten pretty good at figuring out the schedules, and I don't have to ask before I get on a train anymore.  I've figured out what the right stops are, whatever direction I'm going, but there's still that uneasiness until I know for sure that I'm on the right train, headed in the right direction.  I've only gotten on the wrong train once, and hopefully, that'll be the only time.