Booking Train Tickets

        Compared with other transportation tools, train is more reliable for foreign travelers since foreign travelers can the find train lines on maps and  find the timetables easily. Some train stations are also transfer center at which you can take shuttle bus or metro. Here is some information about train in Taiwan you may need when you travel in Taiwan. 

Topic Summary:

1.Taiwan Railway Journey
  1.1 HSR
  1.2 TRA
2.Booking, Payment,  and Collection
3.App
  3.1 TRA App
  3.2 HSR App

Taiwan Railway Journey

1.Taiwan Railway Journey

        In Taiwan, there are 2 railway systems in Taiwan, Taiwan Railway Administration(TRA) and Taiwan High Speed Railway(HSR). Along the way of HSR, some stations are connected with TRA and Metro stations. Be noted that the same stations of TRA and HSR  may have different names.

Taipei Main Station:
HSR/TRA Taipei Station /Metro Taipei Station

Hsinchu
HSR/TRA Liujia Station, branch line

Taichung
HSR/TRA Xinwuri Station

Tainan
HSR/Salun Statin, branch line

Zuoying (Kaohsiung)
HSR/TRA Xinzuoying Station/Metro Zuoying Station

• 1.1 HSR

Taiwan HSR, Non-Reserved Car is 10(9)~12

        HSR connects major west cities, including Taipei, Taohuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, & Kaohsiung. HSR has only one train type and 2 kind of train schedules: stops only at Taichung or stops  at all stations. The fastest HSR train can finish the 350 KM within 90 minutes.
      Yon need to wait in the queue of car 10(9)~12 if you buy the non-reserved tickets, which is only  sold on spot.

•  1.2 TRA

        TRA has a round island network and includes some branch lines, ex Pinxi line, Jiji line, Alisan line etc. Like most countries,  it takes time  to understand the railway system and book the ticket. You can follow the steps mentioned below to book TRA tickets easily.
      Most foreigners  ask how to book the trains tickets. Booking implies booking reserved tickets with seats number. But you can also take TRA train with non-reserved tickets which you can buy at the ticket vending machine or ticket window in the railway stations.  You can also use EasyCard as well.

TRA-Website

         The official portal site of TRA is http://www.railway.gov.tw.  You can type the station name in "Depart station" and "Arrival station"  and choose the day you want to check. Click  " Inquiry "  to get the timetable.



         You can click " Order  Tickets " to order ticket .

         For hot train, e.g. Taipei to Hualien, the tickets are usually sold out.

         Since you need to try each train to check whether the tickets are available or not. it is not efficient to check one by one. TRA provides another inquiry function that cannot tell you which train tickets are available. It is a pity that the function are not equipped in English website. You need to enter from Chinese website and change the language. 

         Fill  in the blanket "Depart station" and "Arrival station"  and choose the day you want to check, and the website  provide  which train tickets are available.  The following example show that only train 204(06:23-09:29) are available.  I  have tried the function to check available tickets in English. However,  it may not work when you change the language.

         The most frustrating part of reading the timetable is to identify the train types. Most guides books introduces that TRA  has some different train classes and can classified into 2 level: Express Trains(Tze-Chiang, Fu-Shing, Chu-Kuang Trains) and Ordinary Train(including Ordinary and Local Trains). For a local Taiwanese, sometimes he/she may be also confused about these train types .For a foreigner traveler, I would suggest an easier way to identify these trains.

         The following picture illustrates the timetable from Luodong to Hualien. Taroko and Puyuma Express only sell reserved tickets and you must book in advance. Local train only sells non-reserved tickets and the non-reserved tickets are sold on spot (you can use EasyCard instead at most TRA stations ).

Searching Results

         EasyCard is useful in Taiwan. You can you it at any bus, MRT, train, convenient stores, Starbucks and etc.. train lines. You can also use EasyCard directly, passing the gate at entrance like MRT, instead of buying non-reserved ticket for Local Train and Other Express Express trains. You can enjoy 10% discount and don't need to wait in the queue in front of the ticket window/machine if you use EasyCard.

         Since seats may be sold out for part of the route, you may find that there empty seats for all of the route but train tickets are not available, although the empty seat numbers are not the same between different stations. For example, train tickets are empty in car 1 between Taipei & Luodong and empty in car 9 between Luoding & Hualien, but the tickets between  Taipei & Hualien are not available.

Change of seats on the same train

         TRA booking system provides the function that matches empty seats if same seats are not available. The function,  I accept change of seats on the same train, is default at open. If you don't want to change your seat, check the searching result carefully.
         The following is a change  seats tickets. There are some special features for the change seats tickets:

1. Combination of reserved ticket(Car 1 seat 38 between Toucheng and Badou) and no-seat ticket(Badu to Taipei).
2. There are 120 no-seat ticket for Taroko/Puyuma Express. No-seat tickets are only sold at ticket windows in the train stations. You cannot reserved no-seat ticket and you can only buy the no-seat for the same day.

2.Booking, Payment, Collection

       There are lots of methods to book, pay, and collect your HSR/TRA tickets. Booking, payment and collection are independent. You can choose the most convenient methods. You can even finish booking, payment and collection in app.

HSR/TRA Tickets Booking Payment and Collection

       If you book HSR/TRA ticket at convenient stores or train stations, you can finish payment and collection at the same time. However, most people book train tickets  in HSR/TRA official website. You will get a series number after booking online. You can pay with your credit card online at the the same time.
      If you have paid TRA tickets, you can collect your TRA ticket until the last 30 minutes before departure time. THSR has different regulation. If you have paid HSR ticket, there is no regulation when you should collect your ticket. Passengers can change the HSR booking once without charge before 30 minutes prior departure.

Kiosk at Convenient Store.

      For a foreign traveler, finish booking and payment online at the same time would be better. The deadline of payment is the end is T+1. For example, if you book successfully at 10am, 1 May, the payment deadline would be 11:59.59 pm ,2th May.
      You can collect your ticket at convenient stores. Just show the staff of convenient stores your ID and ticket SN and they can help you to operate the kiosk. There are over 10,000 convenient in Taiwan. It costs only extra  NTD 10(HSR)/NTD 8(TRA) for each ticket.  Don't collect your ticket at the train station at the last minute since there could be a long queue in front of the ticket window.

HSR Booking Record

TRA Booking Record

HSR/TRA Non-Reserved Tickets

      Since you cannot take Taroko/Puyuma express unless you have bought reserved tickets and local train sells only non-reserved tickets, what we talk in this section is the non-reserved tickets for TRA other express. TRA non-reserved tickets, in fact, are no-seat tickets.

TRA No Seat Ticket

      Because  a TRA express train may stops over 20 stations, the tickets for some sections may not be sold. In the following examples, you can sit on the vacancy seat between Hualien and Taitung

TRA ticket example

      Although the name form HSR/TRA non-reserved tickets are similar. the rules for HSR/TRA non-reserved tickets are different. The following table compares the difference between HSR and TRA non-reserved tickets.

Non-Reserved	HSR	TRA
Cars	Only between 10(9)-12 cars	No Constraints(Taroko/Puyuma sells only reserved tickets)
Seats	First come, first get	You can sit until someone claims with his reserved ticket
Discount	5%	20% only for Fuxing,Chu-Kuang Express, over 81 KM

TRA Booking Tips

      Since there are over 200 train stations and lots different classes of train, there are some trips you may need when you books TRA tickets.

• Taipei<－>Hualien/Taroko

      It is always hard to book the train tickets between Taipei and Hualien/Taroko. Combo ticket is a solution. It is cheaper(about NTD 200, about 50% off comparing to Tze-Chiang class), flexible, and always availble. For more information, please refer to Transportation Between Taipei And Hualien (Taroko).

Combo Ticket. 
Upper:From Hualien to Luodong by train(Left Part) and Luodong to Taipei by Kamalan Bus (Right Part)
Lower:  Upgrade to Tze-chang Express with fare difference NTD 73

      By the way, if you want to go to Taroko, the cloest train station is Xincheng(Taroko) Station, Hualien Station is 20 KM south of Xincheng(Taroko) Station. It may waste you up to 2 hours if you book the train to Hualien. Since fewer trains stop at Xincheng(Taroko) from Taipei, Combo ticket also provide a better solution for this problem.

• Book sold out tickets at 12am

      Since the deadline of payment is T+1, some may try to book at 12am at T+2. It may work. However, the solution may not be as good as you thought. Since TRA will cancel the right of booking if passengers book but not pay before deadline for a few times, lots passengers will cancel the booking by themselves. Therefore, you may try to book at 12am. But you had better try to inquire available tickets all the time.

3.App

        App is the most convenient solution, in my opinion, to foreign visitors. It combines booking,  payment, and collection together. Most important of all, you can check the availability of seats any time. I had a special experience when I traveled in UK. I checked the tickets status a few day ago by trainline. I  booked tickets just a few minutes before I walked in the the train station and took the train in the next few minutes with QRcode. That was amazing experience and each section conected smoothly. You can do that in Taiwan as well.

  

• 3.1 TRA App

         You can download TRA app from App Store or Google Play.  TRA app provides almost all functions. You can check timetable, tickets available, and pay the tickets by your credit card. You can also use QRcode to enter the station.

        You don't need to collect your ticket at  train stations or convenient stores. Be noted: Don't collect your ticket until the last moment since you cannot refund  the ticket if you have collect your ticket in your app. Another problem with QRcode is that the QRcode ticket follows the phone you collect the ticket, not your account. If you change your smart phone, you cannot collect your tickets again on another smart phone.

• 3.2 HSR App

    If you take HSR, you can use app to book,pay, and collect ticket as well. In booking page, you can see the timetable, discount and availability of seats. And you can book and pay by your credit card.

        Be aware that whenever you collect your tickets, the tickets follow your cellphone. You cannot transfer to other cell phone. If you lost your cell phone, the tickets is gone. Therefore, collect your ticket at the last moment in your cellphone.  After collecting your tickets, you will receive QR code and the usage is the same as the the ticket you collect at convenient stores.

Related Topics

• Transportation between Taipei and Hualien(Taroko)
• Taiwan Itinerary Examples
• Area Itinerary Examples

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