A student in Hualien who caught the wrong train on Friday ended up traveling about 582km before arriving home, rather than her typical 16km journey.
According to a Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) official, the student, studying in a vocational high school in Hualien City, was trying to catch a train to her home in Sincheng Township (新城), Hualien County, after school.
At Hualien Station, she was supposed to board a northbound Chukuang-class train departing at 6:50pm, which was scheduled to stop at Sincheng Station at 7:03pm.
Instead, she mistakenly boarded the northbound Tzuchiang-class express train, which left the station at 6:45pm. It was not until the train went through Sincheng Station that she realized she was on the wrong train, whose next stop was Cidu Station in Keelung’s Cidu District (七堵).
Having no mobile phone, the student could not reach her parents. Neither did she dare report the problem to the on-board train personnel.
Meanwhile, her mother, who had became anxious over the whereabouts of her daughter, went to Sincheng Station at about 10pm to look for her daughter. The staff then ascertained which trains the student could have boarded and eventually reached the conductor of the Tzuchiang-class train the student was on.
When the girl’s train was about to arrive at Jhunan Station (竹南) in Miaoli County, its final destination and about 290km away from Sincheng, the conductor contacted the staff there and asked them to watch out for the girl. The staff at Jhunan Station eventually located the student at about 11pm.
As there was no train to Sincheng until early the next day, Jhunan deputy station master Chen Lai-pan (陳來潘) took the student out for dinner and let her spend the night in the station’s staff lounge.
TRA staff then arranged for her to take a Tzuchiang-class train leaving at 5:48am on Saturday, which arrived in Sincheng at 10:28am, and she was reunited with her mother.
According to TRA staff members, the student was normally picked up by her mother after school. However, her mother was busy that day, so she was supposed to take the train by herself.
While the student said she took the wrong train because she was not familiar with the system, the TRA staff said the mix-up could have happened because it was dark and both Chukuang and Tzuchiang-class trains are orange, and they depart from Hualien Station at about the same time.
In a final word of advice, Jhunan Station master Shao Hong-sung (邵宏松) said all passengers should feel free to ask for assistance at any time.
“When you discover you are on the wrong train or miss your stop, you can talk to our staff on board or those at a train station. They will help you catch the right train,” Shao said.
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