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.

Ridership Predictions for Huilong and Danfeng

Ahead of the opening of the Xinzhuang Line extension to Danfeng and Huilong this Saturday, the New Taipei Transportation Bureau predicted that the two stations will attract 21,000 rides a day (7,665,000 a year).  This isn't very good compared to the ridership numbers for the Xinzhuang Line last year, though at least neither station is likely to end up in the bottom ten.
In the same article the Transportation Bureau also claims that from Huilong to Minquan W. Rd. will take 22 minutes, and to Zhongxiao Xinsheng will take 28, making taking the MRT faster than taking a bus.  There are a few problems with this though: for one thing, not many people want to go to those two stations, and because the Xinzhuang Line goes all the way to the Taipei Bridge before entering Taipei, the MRT will actually be less competitive for people going to some more popular destinations, especially Taipei Main and Ximen.  In fact, two of Taipei's five most popular bus routes in 2011 took more direct routes to link Xinzhuang to Ximen and Taipei Main, showing that those routes, and not one that goes all the way to Minquan W. Rd., is where the most demand for Xinzhuang-Taipei transit is.  Furthermore, part of the goal of the MRT should be attracting drivers rather than just replacing buses.  It should be a given that the MRT would outpace buses, the real question should be is it faster than driving.

Taipei MRT Ridership in 2012

2012's top ten stations are listed below, ranked by the number of times each station was entered and exited.

Station	Line	Exits+Entrances
Taipei Main Station	Red, Blue	114,659,000
Taipei City Hall	Blue	45,723,000
Ximen	Blue, Xiaonanmen	41,935,000
Zhongxiao Fuxing	Blue, Brown	37,751,000
Zhongxiao Dunhua	Blue	28,972,000
Danshui	Red	27,884,000
Xinpu	Blue	26,980,000
Jiantan	Red	25,293,000
Banqiao	Blue	24,531,000
Zhongshan	Red	22,971,000

The most noteworthy change from last year is Xinpu's drop from 5th place to 7th place, presumably because some of the people from Xinzhuang who used to transfer to the MRT there now instead can use the Xinzhuang Line.  Banqiao also moved up a place, overtaking Zhongshan.  No station opened after 2006 has yet entered the top 10.
The least-used stations in 2012 are as follows:

Station	Line	Exits+Entrances
Nangang Software Park	Brown	687,000
Xiaobitan	Xiaobitan	1,217,000
Wanfang Community	Brown	1,372,000
Xianse Temple	Orange	1,778,000
Sanchong	Orange	1,809,000
Dahu Park	Brown	1,842,000
Zhongyi	Red	2,047,000
Xinhai	Brown	2,065,000
Fuxinggang	Red	2,462,000
Touqianzhuang	Orange	2,539,000

As should be expected, many Muzha-Neihu line stations are among the bottom ten.  The Muzha-Neihu line is lower capacity than the other lines, with no station other than Zhongxiao Fuxing even approaching 20 million entrances and exits every year, but with trains and stations being crowded regardless, so this is to be expected.  More disappointing (though not surprising, as I will explain below) is the presence of three stations on the high-capacity Xinzhuang Line.
Below is the ridership of the average station on each line:

Blue:                                      20,283
Danshui/ Zhonghe/ Xindian:    13,592
Xinzhuang (incl Luzhou):         6,153
Brown:                                   5,828

And the ridership for separate branches:

Danshui:                                 14,721
Xindian:                                   9,660
Zhonghe:                                 15,665
Xinzhuang (Xinbei section):       4,377
Luzhou:                                   6,598

The blue line has much denser usage than any other line, while the Xinzhuang Line has the least-dense usage, even less than the lower-capacity Wenhu Line.  This confirms what the list of least-used stations suggests: the Xinzhuang Line is very underused compared to other lines.  Presumably its ridership will grow a little more as more people try it or move to Xinzhuang with the intention of using it, and as new lines increase the usefulness of the system as a whole.  But even if it does grow, this is a very low point to start from.
The Xinzhuang Line passes through very dense areas that should have plenty of demand for an MRT line into Taipei City, so why is it faring so poorly?  A major issue is probably its route.  Rather than taking a direct path from Xinzhuang and south Sanchong into Taipei, the line makes a long detour north to join the Luzhou Line and enter Taipei under the Taipei Bridge.  While this looks elegant on a road map, it forces riders to take a roundabout route to get to most of the rest of the MRT system, especially the blue line.  This means that many Xinzhuang residents may find that taking the bus or driving is actually faster than taking the MRT, and that those who do choose to take it will be forced to spend more time in transit.  If the Xinzhuang Line had been built so that it crossed into Taipei under the Zhongxiao Bridge or the Zhongxing Bridge we would certainly see much greater ridership on the Xinzhuang Line, and therefore in the MRT system as a whole.  On the other hand, the Luzhou Branch has a much more direct route into Taipei, but also has low ridership compared to other branch lines, so perhaps the scooter-oriented nature of urban development west of the Danshui River is to blame.

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.