Taiwan HSR from Taichung to Taipei
At this point in our holiday it was time to visit the capital city Taipei. We have been here many times so we wouldn’t be visiting any of the main tourist sites but mainly catching up with friends and family.
The best way to travel is by High Speed Rail as it is so much faster than driving from Taichung (50 minutes compared to 2 hours plus depending on traffic).
The HSR is very similar to the Japanese train system and much of the equipment was supplied by Japanese companies. The Japanese built much of Taiwan’s rail system although the HSR is a much more recent addition. It is worth travelling on the other trains in Taiwan and seeing some of the original stations and other parts of the country. We have done this before and I would highly recommend it, particular the trip through the mountains in the North East and around to the East Coast.
Like Japan, the HSR offers standard and business class with standard having reserved and non-reserved seats. There is a food and drink cart that comes through although there are plenty of food options at the stations too.
For this trip I decided to take business class. A standard reserved seat is TWD700 and business TWD1250 for this trip from Taichung to Taipei. They serve you a complimentary drink and snack in business and the seat is larger with a foot rest and a different design to the standard carriage. There is nothing wrong with the standard seats and I usually travel in standard.
The train was quite full with nearly all seats in business taken. Shortly after boarding the attendants came to offer a choice of drink (oolong tea, coffee, water, juice or soft drink) and a snack (savoury fish snack mix or sweet potato biscuit sticks). The sweet potato sticks were surpassingly good and went very well with my oolong tea. They offer free wifi on the train although this was somewhat impacted by the number of tunnels we went through. The drinks cart comes through regularly and you can ask for refills. There are also more substantial items for sale.
The HSR route is not particularly scenic but it is a very comfortable and efficient way to travel North to South in Taiwan.