TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

According to news reports, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation finally gained government approval for the high speed rail system and will start trial services in January. They have not yet decided on a final launch date.

The Taiwanese system is based on Japanese Shinkansen technology, but according to reports, some French consultants were also involved in the start-up of the system.

Taiwan’s high-speed rail system to start trial services next week - MSN-Mainichi Daily News

Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. plans to launch trial services of the island’s high-speed rail system next week, after the government approved the system’s launch following numerous delays, a company official said Thursday.

The company still hasn’t decided on the official launch date because it wants to take public opinion into account during the trial, said a Taiwan High Speed Rail public relations official who declined to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

The trials will run from Jan. 5 to Jan. 14 between Taipei and Kaohsiung, shortening travel time between the island’s two main cities to 90 minutes from at least four hours.

My employers annual holiday party/meeting took place in Florida this year, and since I had some spare time on Saturday, I looked up the local railroad museum to see whether it might be worth a visit. Turns out it was, very much so. When I arrived, they asked if I wanted to do any train riders, so I said “sure, what do you have?” They said they had cab rides leaving every half hour, so I signed up for that. Turns out I was the only passenger and had the GP-7 and crew all to myself. So we rode up and down the lead track to the CSX branch at a leisurely 10mph for about half an hour and the engineer kindly explained about how one operates these things. On the way back, a nice surprise: he asked if I wanted to give it a try. I said sure - I wasn’t going to pass up that opportunity. So I sat down and, under his supervision, was allowed to operate the engine for a bit - it all seemed very easy: release the brakes, notch it up a couple notches on the throttle and keep an eye on the speedometer. But hey, it was engine-only, on flat and level track and we weren’t going faster than 10mph … Still, it was quite neat … (PS. I don’t think this is an official component of their cab rides, but if it’s a slow day, who knows …).

Below are a couple of shots taken at the museum… more are over here.

Whew - today, I finally made the big move away from Blogger (this was long overdue) and moved TrainBlog over to Wordpress. I’m still working out some of the kinks, so please bear with me while I make these changes. Hopefully, the transition will be very smooth for everyone.

This is a bit of an experiment - we’ve been creating and giving away calendars with family pictures to our relatives for a couple of years now and I’ve always wanted to do a calendar with train pictures. So here it is …:

The TrainBlog.com 2007 Calendar

The Caltrain Holiday Train in Mountain View