Sales of Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) and high-speed rail (HSR) tickets for travel during the New Year’s holiday from Dec. 29 to Jan. 2 start today, the railway operators said.
The TRA said in a news release on Sunday that it would add 116 trains to meet an expected spike in demand during the holiday.
The additional trains include 23 EMU3000 Tze-Chiang Limited Express and Puyuma Express services, and 12 EMU 900 Local Express services along the east and west coasts, it said.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
Four Tze-Chiang Express trains would also be added to ensure that residents of Hualien and Taitung counties can travel easily to and from their hometowns during the holiday, the TRA said.
People whose national ID number starts with the letter U or V — proof that they are residents of the two counties — and their spouses and first-degree relatives would be given priority when purchasing Tze-Chiang tickets, the agency said, adding that reservations for those tickets begin tomorrow.
Detailed information about the additional services is available on the TRA Web site, the release said.
TRA ticket sales for train cars accommodating families with children are to be temporarily suspended from Dec. 29 to Jan. 2, the operator said.
The additional services would boost TRA’s daily transportation capacity by 6 percent during the five-day holiday, it said.
The highest daily number of passengers during the holiday is expected to exceed 80,000, it added.
Meanwhile, ticket reservations for HSR trains over the holiday period also starts at midnight today, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said on Wednesday.
In addition, 105 services — 49 southbound and 56 northbound — are to be added to the 740 scheduled journeys to meet increased demand, the company said.
Some of the extra trains would run between Nangang Station in Taipei and Taichung every hour during specific time frames; southbound between 3pm and 8pm on Dec. 29 and 1pm to 7pm on Jan. 1; and northbound between noon and 9pm on Jan. 1, THSRC said.
The company said that it would add two later southbound services on Dec. 29 and three more northbound services on Jan. 1.
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