Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) is allowing passengers to purchase a single one-way ticket for a non-reserved seat for travel on the same day through its T Express app, effective immediately, the company said yesterday in a press release.
Prior to the new feature, passengers were limited to booking and purchasing non-reserved seats at ticket windows or via ticket machines at high-speed rail stations, and could not do so online or through the app.
However, there are restrictions. Though the app can be accessed anywhere, the non-reserved-seat function would only be available at high-speed rail stations or in their immediate vicinities, the statement said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp
ONE PER PERSON
Each passenger can also buy only one one-way ticket at a time using the app, the company said.
If people want to buy more than one ticket or round-trip tickets, they still have to resort to traditional methods.
To use the service, passengers should head to a high-speed rail station with their smartphones, connect to Bluetooth, open the T Express app, hit the “non-reserved” section at the top of the screen, select the departure and arrival stations and make the payment.
They would then receive a QR code on the app that can be used to get through the departure station’s ticket gate, the statement said.
To be able to use the function, the app has to be updated to its 6.60 version.
The tickets for non-reserved seats, as the THSRC Web site noted, are valid for all trains and non-reserved seats, but are no longer valid after expiry date has passed.
The company recommended that potential users use the smartphone app as close as possible to ticket counters, machines and gates to have the best Internet connection to the non-reserved seat booking feature.
Passengers can use the app to book seats from each station’s opening hour to five minutes prior to the last train’s departure.
For special holiday trains that run after midnight, the booking deadline will be 11:59pm.
THSRC introduced non-reserved seats in November 2007, and opened purchases of such tickets through stored value cards, such as the EasyCard and iPass, in December 2011.
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