A second rainless morning in a row, but we didn’t have time to enjoy it. We had to catch the 11:18 High Speed Rail train to Chiayi, so we could catch the 1:30 forest railway to Alishan. The trip to Alishan is one we’ve taken several times before, but this is the first time we’ve been able to use the High Speed Rail to Chiayi, which knocks hours off the total journey.
The High Speed Rail is only recently completed and is based on Japanese Shinkansen technology. (There was a big stink as it was originally bid to the French/German Eurotrain consortium, but then, for some unknown, probably nefarious – or at least political – purpose, they switched the award to Shinkansen.)
Taiwan has been in desperate need of this for a long time. The island is only about 100 miles long, but it takes 6 or more hours by train to travel along the length of the west coast. The HSR cuts the time from top to bottom (and the two largest cities) to only 90 minutes.
At 300Kmh, the towns, cities and rice fields of Taiwan fly by smoothly, making the journey pleasant.
Being from a part of the world that really doesn’t use trains, this really seems a wonderful way to travel to me. I wish the economics were viable to put these between Phoenix and Tucson or Phoenix and Las Vegas, or Sand Diego, Los Angeles… hell, practically anywhere!
I got a chance to check out the front and the back of the train when we disembarked. There was no sign of splattered, rare birds.
(That’s been a concern, once the trains started running, some rare birds were too slow to get out of the way and got plastered, causing those concerned to try to get the whole multi-billion dollar project scrapped right after it got completed. Personally, I see it as applying darwinian forces on the birds, breeding smarter, faster ones for future generations.)
Technorati Tags: Blog, Railway, Shinkansen, Taiwan, Train, Travel
Ooh goody, a train post!
The big pointy front (technical term) of the train probably means the rare (but slow/stupid) birds simply get neatly divided into two halves rather than being splattered on the screen. If you walked back along the tracks then…well, firstly, the darwinian forces would probably finish you off…but also you might find a trail of rare half birds down each side of the track.
Or maybe not.
I’m hoping there’s going to be a narrow-gauge-forest-railway-post to look forward to?
Ooh goody, a train post!
The big pointy front (technical term) of the train probably means the rare (but slow/stupid) birds simply get neatly divided into two halves rather than being splattered on the screen. If you walked back along the tracks then…well, firstly, the darwinian forces would probably finish you off…but also you might find a trail of rare half birds down each side of the track.
Or maybe not.
I’m hoping there’s going to be a narrow-gauge-forest-railway-post to look forward to?
The Japanese train was chosen, apparently, due to the fact that both Japan and Taiwan are prone to earthquakes. The Japanese have built in certain safety systems that the Europeans have not, because it isn’t a consideration for them, hence the switch.
The Japanese train was chosen, apparently, due to the fact that both Japan and Taiwan are prone to earthquakes. The Japanese have built in certain safety systems that the Europeans have not, because it isn’t a consideration for them, hence the switch.
That’s what wikipedia says, and I couldn’t immediately find something to debunk it. It makes perfect sense to me to go with the Japanese system for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is suitability for earthquake-prone locations.
However, at the time of the switch, I was reading the Taiwanese news as much as possible (which is, notoriously politicized) and it wasn’t quite as cut-and-dry as that.
Commitments were backed out of and there was a lot of allegations of various “reasons” behind the switch.
I’d certainly like to believe that the safety of the passengers was the sole and overriding reason but, Taiwan politics being what they are, it’s tough to separate fact from insinuation.
BTW, Phil, I didn’t catch any photos of the “Kiss and Go” signs, although I did see one as we were running towards the bus.
That’s what wikipedia says, and I couldn’t immediately find something to debunk it. It makes perfect sense to me to go with the Japanese system for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is suitability for earthquake-prone locations.
However, at the time of the switch, I was reading the Taiwanese news as much as possible (which is, notoriously politicized) and it wasn’t quite as cut-and-dry as that.
Commitments were backed out of and there was a lot of allegations of various “reasons” behind the switch.
I’d certainly like to believe that the safety of the passengers was the sole and overriding reason but, Taiwan politics being what they are, it’s tough to separate fact from insinuation.
BTW, Phil, I didn’t catch any photos of the “Kiss and Go” signs, although I did see one as we were running towards the bus.