Taipei MRT Ridership by Station in 2013

Below is a list of the most heavily used MRT stations in Taipei in 2013, by the total number of boardings and alightings at each station.  The data comes from the Taipei Department of Transportation.

Station	Line	Exits+Entrances
Taipei Main Station	Danshui, Bannan	114,065,000
Taipei City Hall	Bannan	47,641,000
Ximen	Bannan, Xiaonanmen	43,468,000
Zhongxiao Fuxing	Bannan, Wenhu	38,390,000
Zhongxiao Dunhua	Bannan	29,524,000
Danshui	Danshui	29,037,000
Xinpu	Bannan	26,768,000
Banqiao	Bannan	25,420,000
Jiantan	Danshui	25,387,000
Dingxi	Zhonghe-Xinlu	22,743,000

The top seven stations remain the same as in 2012, but there's been some movement among the bottom three.  First, Banqiao continued to gain users, and overtook Jiantan to become the 7th most popular station in the system, just shy of Xinpu, which saw its ridership fall slightly.  Banqiao remains the only station opened after 2001 to be among the top 10.  In addition, Dingxi replaced Zhongshan as the 10th most popular station, presumably boosted by the Zhonghe Line's increased frequency and new direct connection to the Xinzhuang Line.  Dingxi is the 4th station in New Taipei to make the list, and the first on the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line.  Since the Dingxi area has little to attract people from outside Yonghe, Dingxi is almost certainly an origin station rather than a destination, suggesting that the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line feeds passengers into other parts of the MRT system rather than take them directly to their destination.  

As in pervious years, the Bannan Line was the dominant line in the MRT system, with 7 of the top ten stations and all of the top 5.  The Danshui Line remains the second most important, even though its share of the top ten dropped from 4 stations to 3.  The Zhonghe-Xinlu Line just broke into the top ten with one station, while the Wenhu Line only made it onto the list through its transfer station with the Bannan Line.
Below are the 10 least-used stations for 2013:

Station	Line	Exits+Entrances
Nangang Software Park	Wenhu	789,000
Wanfang Community	Wenhu	1,363,000
Xiaobitan	Xiaobitan	1,413,000
Dahu Park	Wenhu	1,900,000
Zhongyi	Danshui	1,990,000
Xinhai	Wenhu	2,078,000
Xianse Temple	Zhonghe-Xinlu	2,137,000
Sanchong	Zhonghe-Xinlu	2,202,000
Fuxinggang	Danshui	2,455,000
Linguang	Wenhu	2,603,000

As with the top 10, the bottom 10 are mostly the same as last year, with the exception of Touqianzhuang being replaced by Linguang.  This leaves the Wenhu Line dominating the list with 5 stations, while the Danshui and Zhonghe-Xinlu Lines are tied for second with 2 each.
Below are the average number of riders passing through all the stations on each line.  Average ridership for all stations grew by 4.8% compared to 2012.

Line	Av. Exits+Entrances/Stations	% Change
Bannan	20,690,000	2.0%
Danshui/Xindian	13,596,000	N/A
Xindian	11,053,000	3.2%
Danshui	15,101,000	2.6%
Zhonghe-Xinlu	9,268,000	N/A
Zhonghe	17,325,000	10.6%
Zhongxiao Xinsheng to Daqiaotou	9.944,000	26.6%
Luzhou	7,137,000	8.2%
Xinzhuang	4,763,000	8.8%
Wenhu	5,956,000	2.2%
Neihu	5,152,000	6.3%
Muzha	6,759,000	-0.7%

Unsurprisingly, the Bannan Line was the most heavily used line, followed by the Danshui-Xindian Line, the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line and finally the Wenhu Line.  This reflects how many stations each line has in the top ten.  Ridership was most uneven on the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line, with the Zhonghe Line having the heaviest ridership, the trunk section of the Xinzhuang Line seeing mediocre ridership and the Luzhou and especially the Xinzhuang branches having very low ridership. The Xinzhuang Branch was the second least-used section of the MRT, followed only by the Muzha section of the Wenhu Line.
Growth was very uneven in 2013.  The largest gains in ridership were on the newest lines, with the central section of the Xinzhuang Line between Zhongxiao Xinsheng and Daqiaotou growing faster than any other section of the MRT, and Songjiang Nanjing gaining more users than any other station, followed by Xingtian Temple.  This was presumably the result of the improved connection to the Zhonghe Line, though some of the increase may also have been caused by people adjusting their travel habits to take advantage of the new line- for example, people may be more willing to take jobs near the Xinzhuang Line that they were before.
The Zhonghe Line saw the second-largest gains after the trunk section of the Xinzhuang Line, presumably from increased frequency and the faster connection to the Xinzhuang Line and east Taipei.  However, the increase was less than half that of the Xinzhuang trunk line, suggesting that the Xinzhuang Line gained more from the new connection.  The Xinzhuang and Luzhou branches also gained quite a bit of ridership compared to 2012, presumably mostly from people adjusting to the new lines.
The Wenhu Line also saw uneven growth, with the Neihu section growing faster than the system average while the Muzha section losing passengers, especially in its central Taipei section.  Even with this decline- which follows a decline last year- the Muzha Line still has much higher ridership than it did before the Neihu extension opened.
Finally, although it doesn't appear on the above chart, the central section of the Danshui Line (that is, from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to Shuanglian) also lost ridership.  Part of this may have been caused by Zhonghe and Xindian Line passengers switching to the Xinzhuang Line to get to central and eastern Zhongshan District rather than transferring to buses at Zhongshan, Shuanglian or Minquan West Rd. stations, though the decline at NTU Hospital and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall suggest it may be caused by other factors.
Overall, trends in 2013 were positive: newer, lesser used parts of the MRT gained ridership, which balanced out losses in more heavily used sections.  However, ridership remains very uneven, with the Bannan Line connecting to far more destinations than any other line.  To even out ridership Taipei should focus on developing destinations near central areas along less heavily used sections of the MRT.  For example, developing Minquan West Rd. as a destination would attract more riders from the underused Xinzhuang and Luzhou branches, as well as from the not especially crowded Xinzhuang trunk and northern Danshui Line.

Taipei MRT Will Implement Different Routes After 11PM

If you pay attention to the posters in Taipei's MRT, you've probably noticed that the MRT's routing will be rearranged when the Xinyi Line opens sometime over the next month.  Specifically, the current Beitou-Taipower Building line will separate from the Danshui-Xindian Line at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and run along the new Xinyi Line, while the Xiaonanmen Line will be extended from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall south to Taipower Building.  The routing in the MRT's original plan was a bit simpler, with the Xiaonanmen and Xindian Lines becoming one line, while the Danshui Line would be extended along the Xinyi Line.  This routing would have let the Xinyi Line run at full capacity, but it would also force Xindian Line passengers bound for stations on the Danshui Line to transfer, so the more complicated routing was chosen.
Now the MRT has announced that the Xinyi Line's route will change after 11PM.  To avoid having too many trains traveling on the elevated section of the Danshui Line and disturbing nearby residents, after 11 the Xinyi Line will terminate at Taipei Main Station.  The idea (I think) is that both the Xinyi Line and the whole of the Danshui-Xindian Line will run at 12 minute headways, but if they merged the headways would shrink to 6 minutes.
If this is the case, it means that once the Xinyi Line opens, service on the Danshui Line will actually be worse than it is now.  Now the section of the Danshui Line between Taipower Building and Beitou has 6 minute headways after 11PM, with this new routing headways will go up to 12 minutes- not a small difference.  Moreover, having two different routings is confusing- navigating a mass transit system should be as intuitive as possible; having two routings for different times of day will require riders to pay extra attention.  While I'm usually sympathetic to quality of life issues, it does strike me as a double standard: the MRT is very sensitive to noise complaints despite not being especially loud, but neither the Taipei nor the New Taipei governments seem interested in quieting down scooters, and New Taipei sometimes even does road construction late at night to avoid disrupting traffic.  Furthermore, there has been a rail line along the same route as the Danshui Line for nearly 100 years now, so it is worth asking why people who are bothered by the sound of trains moved there in the first place.

Setback for the Dansui-Taipei Freeway

Last week a Taipei court rejected the Environmental Impact Assessment for the proposed freeway linking Danshui to Guandu.  Specifically the court found that the committee that issued the EIA failed to determine whether construction would damage the Mangrove Forest Conservation Area, and that the committee lacked sufficient information to make a ruling.  Eric Chu, the mayor of New Taipei, was unfazed, and promised to continue construction "because the EIA approval is still valid."
This freeway, planned to be 4.7 km long and cost NT$4.6 billion (for a cost of NT$978 million/US$33 million per km) has been controversial from the beginning, in part because of concerns about its impact on the mangroves, and also because residents in Guandu worry that it will cause more traffic.  There are in fact a lot of good reasons to doubt whether this project is beneficial.  For one thing, new freeways tend to draw passengers away from mass transit and encourage new development, which in turn means they fill up with new congestion rather than eliminate it.  Furthermore, New Taipei is already planning on building the Danjiang Bridge between Danshui and Bali, which should absorb some of the traffic that currently passes between Danshui and Guandu.  Rather than build both, perhaps the government should consider if only one would be sufficient to reduce traffic (I would favor the Danjiang Bridge since at least it offers a new route and would include a light rail line).
Then there's mass transit.  This corridor is uniquely well-suited to mass transit because all traffic from Danshui and Sanzhi to Taipei is funneled through one narrow area.  This means it's easy for it to become congested, while cars' ability to take passengers point-to-point less relevant because everyone is following the same route anyway.  Furthermore, there is already an underused mass transit line following this corridor: the MRT's Danshui Line.  Doubling the number of the trains on the line, thereby cutting waiting times in half, would presumably attract some of the traffic from the current road.  Doing so would be far less environmentally damaging than building a new freeway, and possibly cheaper as well- even if Danshui station needed to be expanded to turn trains (and I don't think it would- Nanshijiao and Nangang Exhibition Hall seem to do fine with just two tracks), the impact should be much lower than building a freeway.  Even if that wasn't an option, the city is already planning two light rail lines in Danshui that will funnel people coming from farther out to the MRT, making mass transit a more convenient alternative to driving.  The city could also consider more frequent bus feeder lines connecting to MRT stations, or even expand parking lots at MRT stations to encourage people to at least not drive down the Danshui-Guandu road.
The fact that congestion on this corridor is a problem also reveals how problematic the Danhai New Town development is.  Encouraging more people to move to Danshui will simply further increase traffic along the only road leading to Taipei, as well as create more sprawl.  It would make much more sense to focus development in areas that are linked to Taipei by more than a single road.
Simply put, there are many alternatives to building a freeway between Danshui and Taipei that would have less impact on the environment.  In general, building more roads will just attract more drivers, not "solve" traffic- especially if Danshui continues to attract new residents.  Rather than create sprawl by encouraging people to move to distant parts of the Taipei metropolitan region, and then build driving-enducing, environmentally damaging freeways to serve those people, the government would be better off providing better mass transit to places where people currently live.  With more mass transit there would be less need for parking and wide roads, and more space for parks and sidewalks.

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.