Kaohsiung MRT's Most and Least Popular Stations

Below is a list of the six most popular KMRT stations in 2011, along with the most popular station on the orange line:

Station	Line	Exits+Entrances
Kaohsiung Train Station	Red	9,759,000
Zuoying	Red	7,720,000
Kaohsiung Arena	Red	7,348,000
Sanduo Commercial Dist.	Red	6,898,000
Central Park	Red	6,040,000
Formosa Boulevard	Red/Orange	4,056,000
(Xiziwan	Orange	2,250,000)

And the five least popular:

Station	Line	Exits+Entrances
Qingpu	Red	510,000
Qiaotou Sugar Refinery	Red	586,000
Houjing	Red	759,000
Dadong	Orange	829,000
Fengshan J.H.S.	Orange	943,000

As nearly everyone familiar with the KMRT might have guessed, these numbers are far below those for Taipei's MRT.  The most popular station has only middling usage by Taipei's standards, and only one station in Taipei's MRT would make it onto the list of Kaohsiung's least-used stations.
Rather than go into why Kaohsiung's MRT has underperformed- for the record I think the reason is that the city is too car/ scooter friendly, and is not hemmed in by mountains like Taipei and so can sprawl more- I'd like to look at what this says about the system's design.  Most obviously, the three least-used stations are on the northern end of the red line, even though the red line gets heavier usage overall than the orange line.  Moreover, this section of the red line parallels the TRA's main line.  The TRA could have provided comparable rapid transit service to this area by adding stations and frequency, and at most by adding a third track, which presumably would have been far cheaper than extending the two-tracked KMRT.  The KMRT could have had its terminus at the Nanzih TRA station, where a reasonably easy transfer could have been designed.  The lower construction costs would have cut down on the depreciation the KMRT is now paying without significantly effecting its income.
Second, these numbers suggest that the orange line's alignment was poorly chosen.  Aside from stations that provide transfers to other mass transit (Kaohsiung Train Station and Zuoying) and Kaohsiung Arena (whose popularity I can't explain), the most popular stations are Central Park and Sanduo, both of which have nearly a million more yearly passengers than Formosa Boulevard.  I'm not very familiar with Kaohsiung, but it is also my impression that this area is Kaohsiung's commercial center, hosting several large malls and commercial districts.  The orange line might have gotten more ridership if it crossed the red line at one of these stations, since it would connect passengers directly to a popular destination rather than forcing them to transfer at Formosa Boulevard.  It also would have had less overlap with the TRA's Kaohsiung-Pingdong line, thereby doing more to expand rail transit coverage in Kaohsiung.  Even though this would have meant that passengers traveling between the more popular stations on the red line's northern half and the areas served by the orange line would have a longer trip, these areas would have been almost as easily served by the Kaohsiung-Pingdong Line, which is less than a kilometer away from the orange line for its entire length.  Even without the nearby rail line, I suspect a direct trip to somewhere, longer trip to other places type of alignment would have worked better than no direct trip to any major destination alignment the KMRT currently has.

Kaohsiung City Councilor Spreads Mass Transit Non-Sequitors

Kaohsiung is planning a light rail line to complement its high-capacity MRT system.  For those who don't know, light rail usually refers to any urban rail system that runs on ground level.  Light rail systems are often also called trams or streetcars.  Kaohsiung's would form a loop around the center of the city.
I think there are legitimate questions to be asked about what direction Kaohsiung should go in with its mass transit system, and whether or not it should build this light rail line.  But Kaohsiung City Councilor Xiao Yongda (蕭永達), the lone city councilor to oppose the light rail line, did not address these issues.  Instead he told made unsupported arguments such as:
-All developed cities with light rail are in cold climates, so people are unable to ride scooters like in Kaohsiung.  This is outright false: San Fransisco, Pheonix, Hong Kong, and numerous other cities in the US and southern Europe all have warm climates and light rail.  Light rail cars can be air-conditioned, which would be far more comfortable in summer than driving a scooter.  Light rail can also be more comfortable during typhoons.
-Light rail would lose money like the rest of the MRT system.  Roads also lose money but no one seems to make a big deal about that.
-Level crossings with roads will lead to more accidents.  What leads to accidents in Taiwan is driving.  I very much doubt that other cities which have extensive light rail/ tram systems have worse traffic safety records than Kaohsiung.
-Kaohsiung's "DNA" is different.  This isn't even really an argument, just an assertion.  Xiao fails to explain what about Kaohsiung is so different that a form of transportation used all over Europe, Asia and America would fail in Kaohsiung.

New Trains on the Danshui-Xindian Line

Tomorrow Taipei's MRT will put two of its new C381 trains into service on the Xindian-Danshui Line.  Aside from some alterations to their exteriors and interiors (LCD screens, bike racks, different pole design), the trains are functionally the same as those currently in use. I thought it interesting however that their per-railcar cost is about the same as what San Fransisco's BART and New York's MTA pay for their new trains, at NT$66 million (US$2.2 million) per car.  However, Taipei's railcars are a bit larger and are connected by passageways, which I believe are more expensive to build.

First Impressions of the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line

The Taipei MRT has declared the connection between the Zhonghe Line and Xinlu Line a success, with transfers down 20% at Taipei Main and up 70% and 500% at Zhongxiao Xinsheng and Guting, respectively, on the first half-day of weekday operation.  After taking the new MRT connection several times this past week I want to add a few of my own observations.

Most notable for those who use the Zhonghe Line is that trains between Nanshijiao and Guting are far less crowded, and the wait is never long.  This is a result of doubling the number of trains on the Zhonghe Line. 

Currently more people appear to get off northbound trains at Guting than stay on or get on, suggesting that there are still more people headed for stations on the Danshui Line than stations on the Xinlu Line or eastern section of the Bannan Line.  This in turn suggests that the number of people inconvenienced by the transfer at Guting outweighs the number of people who benefit from faster access to East Taipei.  However, I think this is outweighed by the benefits of less crowding and shorter wait times.  Also, as time goes on more and more people will probably adjust their commutes to take advantage of the faster connection.

Third, although the transfer at Guting isn’t timed (which is disappointing), about half the time Xindian Line and Zhonghe Line trains do arrive roughly at the same time, and when they do they give passengers plenty of time to transfer.  Props to the MRT for good customer service.

Transferring at Zhongxiao Xinsheng is much easier than at Taipei Main; in fact I would say it is the second-easiest transfer in the whole MRT system after Guting.  It also isn’t as crowded as Taipei Main, and despite fears about overcrowding the Bannan Line platforms don’t feel dangerous despite being narrower than the Xinlu Line platforms.  However, because the connection between the two platforms takes passengers to the northern end of the Xinlu Line, passengers transferring to southbound Xinlu Line trains tend to crowd into the back end of the train, while the front is almost empty.

For those headed to east Taipei, I found that the new connection takes about 5 to 6 minutes from Guting to Zhongxiao Xinsheng, compared to about 12 to 13 minutes before.  This means that even Xindian Line passengers will find transferring at both Guting and Zhongxiao Xinsheng faster than just transferring at Taipei Main.

Shifting Transfers from Taipei Main to Zhongxiao Xinsheng

A couple interesting tidbits related to the opening of Dongmen Station, slated for this coming Sunday (September 30th):
For those who don't know, one of the most cited benefits of separating the Zhonghe Line from the Danshui Line and merging it with the Xinzhuang Line is that it will relieve crowding in Taipei Main Station by making it possible for people traveling between the Zhonghe Line and eastern Taipei to transfer at Zhongxiao Xinsheng.  According to the Taipei MRT Corporation, currently on the average day 257,000 transfers occur at Taipei Main Station, and 77,000 at Zhongxiao Xinsheng.  With the opening of the Zhonghe-Xinzhuang connection, the number of transfers at Taipei Main will decrease by 53,000 to 204,000, and increase at Zhongxiao Xinsheng to 129,000.  Other media reports have suggested a more modest (and less specific) shift of somewhere between 20 and 30,000 transfers, which seems low to me given that transferring at Zhongxiao Xinsheng will be faster for everyone traveling between eastern Taipei and anywhere south of Guting, on both the Xindian and the Zhonghe Lines.  I do wonder however if the numbers take into account the likely increase in ridership that will result from faster trips and increased frequency on the Zhonghe Line, which should lead to a lot of new MRT passengers transferring at Zhongxiao Xinsheng, not just people who used to transfer at Taipei Main.
Another service change which occurred earlier this month is that the headway between trains on the Bannan Line during peak hours decreased from 2 minutes 15 seconds to 2 minutes 5 seconds.  Not huge, but anything that decreases crowding on that line is a good idea, and frankly overdue.  I wonder if they can up frequency any higher.

Taipei MRT's Most and Least Popular Stations

Below are the top ten busiest stations in the Taipei MRT in 2011, according to the number of times each station was entered and exited.

1. Taipei Main Station         Bannan, Danshui           113,478,000

2. Taipei City Hall               Bannan                        43,101,000

3. Ximen                            Bannan, Xiaonanmen    42,980,000

4. Zhongxiao Fuxing            Bannan, Wenhu            37,358,000

5. Xinpu                             Bannan                        29,763,000

6. Zhongxiao Dunhua          Bannan                         26,897,000

7. Danshui                          Danshui                        26,564,000

8. Jiantan                            Danshui                        25,753,000

9. Zhongshan                      Danshui                        22,603,000

10. Banqiao                        Bannan                         21,660,000

The top four stations aren’t particularly surprising, given that they are either major transit hubs (Main Station, City Hall), commercial areas (City Hall, Ximen, Zhongxiao Fuxing) or job centers (Main Station, City Hall).  More surprising is the popularity of Xinpu, located in an area with no destinations that I know of.  Anyone who’s ridden the Bannan Line into Banqiao will have noticed that the train empties out at Xinpu; what’s surprising is that this translates into more boardings and exits than in stations like Danshui or Zhongxiao Dunhua that are next to major destinations.  The only explanation I can think of is that Xinpu is next to Provincial Highway 64, linking it to western Zhonghe and Xinzhuang, making it a logical transfer point for bus riders from those areas headed towards central Taipei.  This suggests that MRT lines in Xinzhuang and western Zhonghe areas should get high ridership, though the Xinzhuang Line so far has been pretty disappointing.

Everything else on this list isn’t too surprising, though I didn’t expect Danshui and especially Jiantan to be less popular.  I would be curious to see how much traffic through these stations, and in fact through all stations in the top 10, consists of bus transfers- as popular as both are as leisure destinations I suspect a large portion of their popularity is from transfers.

Also to be expected is the preponderance of Bannan Line stations, given how many major destinations the Bannan Line passes and that it is the only line to connect with every other line.  Even more crucially, it is the only high-capacity line in Eastern Taipei, and the only line to connect Eastern Taipei with very high-population areas in the west.

The Wenhu Line, with much lower capacity than the other MRT lines, unsurprisingly only has one station in the top ten, the one it shares with the Bannan Line.  The absence of the Zhonghe and Xindian branches of the Danshui Line and the Luzhou Line is unsurprising as well, given that those lines all run half as frequently as the Danshui and Bannan lines.

Below are the least-used stations in the Taipei MRT:

89. Nangang Software Park                 Wenhu                      621,000

88. Xiaobitan                                      Xiaobitan                  1,261,000

87. Wanfang Community                     Wenhu                     1,384,000

86. Dahu Park                                    Wenhu                      1,730,000

85. Xinhai                                          Wenhu                      2,036,000

84. Zhongyi                                        Danshui                    2,104,000

83. Fuxinggang                                    Danshui                    2,327,000

82. Linguang                                       Wenhu                      2,589,000

81. Muzha                                          Wenhu                      2,882,000

80. Wende                                          Wenhu                      3,013,000

Again, none of these are very surprising: most of these stations are on the medium-capacity Wenhu Line, and most of them are located on the most distant parts of the MRT system.  Many of them are close to other, more popular stations (Nangang Software Park, Wanfang Community), or are in areas that are only partially developed (Nangang Software Park, both Danshui Line stations).

New Taipei and World Car Free Day

Although most residents of Taiwan probably didn’t notice, last Saturday was World Car Free Day, intended to demonstrate that life is not only possible without cars, but better.  Many cities celebrate by banning cars from downtown streets or providing public transit discounts.  New Taipei had another idea however: making it easier for people to drive to an MRT station.

Specifically, the New Taipei Department of Transportation announced that one of their new measures to encourage “green transit” will be increasing car parking space near Dingxi MRT station.  For those who don’t know, Dingxi is one of only two rail stations in Yonghe district, which has 230,000 residents and 40,000 people per km2, the highest population density of any district or city in Taiwan, and is therefore singularly ill-suited to cars.  Dingxi is unsurprisingly one of the most heavily trafficked stations in the Taipei MRT, ranking 14^th out of 89 stations in 2011 and averaging over 26,000 riders a day.  As anyone who has passed through Dingxi can attest, the crowds of people using the station walk there or take a bus, and what’s really needed is more sidewalk space to relieve the pedestrian gridlock on Yonghe Road.  Increasing space for driving will only encourage people to drive more and make walking more inconvenient- in other words will undermine the very goals of World Car Free Day- and regardless will only benefit a small fraction of the people who use Dingxi station.

New Taipei’s other new measures for World Car Free Day are less ridiculous and more banal.  Aside from Dingxi, the Department of Transportation chose two other rail stations- Danshui and Jingtong, in Pingxi- to be “green stations”.  Improvements planned include better pedestrian signage at Danshui and more bicycle “space” at Dingxi (no idea if that means lanes or parking space).  Another “improvement” is more plantings at all three stations, certainly a nice touch but of dubious environmental value.