Kaohsiung Orange Line
For the last few years the streets of Kaohsiung have been a mess with construction of the two-line underground MRT. Last Sunday the 14th of September the East-West Orange line opened for passengers to finally finish the mammoth project. Since we live close by the Daliao end terminal of the Orange line this will be a huge boon for us. It currently takes over an hour to reach Siziwan near the harbour. The Orange line takes about 25 minutes to complete the 14 stations along the 14 km route.
We ventured out while the rain and squalls of typhoon Sinlaku were ravaging northern Taiwan. While there was also a lot of rain falling in Kaohsiung it did not stop people trying out the shinny new rail system.
The KRTC Red line opened back in March and was well covered by Taiwan bloggers. The NH Bushman gave an excellent two part series that covers all the fine details. David on Formosa also summarised an early day trip. The Red line opening provided free travel for a full month to allow Kaohsiungites to acquaint themselves with it. The Orange line provided one week of free travel followed by a month of discount travel if you purchase the contactless travel cards. With the week up today and 3 return trips into Kaohsiung we can attest that the KMRT is a huge success with big crowds joyriding, gawking and trialing the new system.
As with the initial period of the Red line the administration has had a large number of people out guiding and helping passengers learn the ropes.
The crowds last Sunday were small…
but by this Sunday word was out and we were having to cram into trains. Not quite like Tokyo yet.
Back in December the Orange line was still very messy on the surface. Here are a few Dec-07, Sep-08 photo comparisons of some stations.
Kaohsiung has come an incredible distance in so many ways since my first visit in 1989. With parks, transport links, air quality and now a great underground rail system. And it isn’t slowing down, there are future plans for the MRT to reach north towards Tainan and east to Pingtung as well as fill in the other areas of Kaohsiung city.
Perhaps we are only at station 2 of the mammoth transformation of Kaohsiung.
Hi Steve
it’s always lovely to have a look at your emails.
Aris and family
[Reply]
Stephen reply on September 22nd, 2008:
Thank you Aris,
I am glad you enjoy reading them. I sure enjoy putting them together.
Stephen
[Reply]
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