The Taiwan High Speed Rail commenced operations on 5 January 2007, after some delays in 2006. The THSR connects Taipei City in the northeast of the island of Taiwan to Kaohsiung City in the southwest. The journey time is about 90 minutes compared to 4 hours by conventional rail. 30 Shinkansen Class 700T sets are running on the 345 km HSL, with station stops at Taipei Main station, Panchiao, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Tsuoying near Kaohsiung. Four additional stations have been opened: Nankang in eastern Taipei, Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin. In 2008 THSR increased the number of trains to 88 per day, each way. The Shinkansen 700T is similar to the Japanese 700 Nozomi. It operates in 12 car sets at a speed limit of 300 km/h over standard gauge track. OCS power is 25 kV AC 60 Hz.
Conventional rail
Urban transit
There are four urban transit systems in Taiwan: Taipei Metro, New Taipei Metro, Taoyuan Metro, and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit. Taichung Metro is under construction. Taipei Metro opened in 1996 and runs on an extensive network of both Multiple Unit for the high-capacity system as well as VAL for the medium-capacity system throughout the metropolitan area of Taipei. The metro system operates 11 lines consisting of 109 stations. Kaohsiung Rapid Transit opened in 2008 and runs a metro network throughout the metropolitan area of Kaohsiung. The Red and Orange lines opened on 9 March and 14 September, 2008 respectively. Future lines are planned in order to parts of Greater Kaohsiung as well as Pingtung County. The Taoyuan Metro is a metro system with one operational line, and four in planning.. The Airport MRT serves Taoyuan, Taipei and New Taipei after it opened in March 2017. Taichung Metro is currently under construction to create a metro network for Taichung. The network will serve the Changhua and Nantou counties. The metro will start off with 3 main lines, with four other lines planned. The Green line is scheduled to be completed in 2020. The Tainan Mass Rapid Transit System was postponed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in January 2010 due to fear of insufficient riders and construction costs. The government has instead chosen to upgrade current rail systems and buses. The Hsinchu Mass Rapid Transit System was postponed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in January 2010 due to doubts about whether the transit system would be beneficial in the short term.
