Ticket Kiosk at Taipei Station
Taipei is a contradiction of a city. On one hand it is this ultramodern city with subway systems and on the other hand, it is also place steeped in tradition with Buddhist temples among the high rises. This is probably what makes Taipei such an interesting city. The following day, I decided that I would be going outside the city of Taipei and visit some of its suburbs. There are a couple of villages which are quite well known and I would like to see them for myself. Fortunately, for me, Taipei is very well connected by trains in and of the city.
Train Timetable at Taipei Station
The main train station in Taipei is, of course, Taipei station. This is the center of a complex interchange where passengers can transfer from the metro to the suburban rail network operated by Taiwan Railways. I was expecting that purchasing a ticket for the suburban destinations would be a breeze. It was actually far from it. The machine which dispenses ticket looks like a machine which was from the 50s. There are destinations printed on the buttons to make it easy but you need to be able to read them to know that. Additionally, randomly pushing the destination will not result in a ticket it seems, you need to pick the correct type of ticket only then would your destination be available for pushing. It also doesn’t help that the train timetable is also in Chinese. Although I can read it, I still had no idea how it works. I think this is something that needs to be worked on more especially with more international visitors coming to Taiwan. I managed to get the ticket I wanted after pushing few buttons. I think I had an easier time purchasing tickets in mainland China compared to this one.
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