Taiwan High Speed Rail seals deal to buy 12 next-gen trains from Japan
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- The Taiwan High Speed Rail will be getting new trains on its tracks, as early as 2027. The railway company confirmed on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with a Japanese manufacturer to purchase 12 next-gen high speed trains. The agreement was mediated by the governments of Taiwan and Japan, which brought the purchase price down to less than half of the original NT$5 million per train.
The oldest high speed train still in operation in Taiwan is already 16 years old. Though it’s still a while until it’s time for it to get replaced, the Taiwan High Speed Rail has placed an order for new train models. The railway company is spending NT$28.47 billion to purchase 12 new-gen trains from Japan’s Hitachi Toshiba Supreme Consortium. That’s about NT$2.4 billion per train.
Wang Kwo-tsai
Transport minister
It’s a new generation of bullet trains. They have many functional upgrades from the 700T model.
The purchase has been four years in the making. Originally, the Japanese manufacturer had set a price of NT$5 billion per train. The price was rejected twice by the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, which started looking for sellers in Europe. Eventually, the Japanese maker slashed its price to NT$2.4 billion per train, and the deal was sealed. The new trains could enter operation as soon as 2027.
Wang Kwo-tsai
Transport minister
The original price was double the final price. The government also intervened in the negotiation process. Considering inflation, this price is actually quite reasonable.
Voice of Huang Tai-sheng
NYCU Transportation and Logistics Management
You can’t compare the price of a high speed train with the price of regular trains or MRT trains. They go at completely different speeds. The components they require have to be far more sensitive and accurate.
Both Taiwan’s and Japan’s governments took part in the negotiations for the high speed trains. So far this year, Taiwan High Speed Rail has recorded seven pantograph malfunctions without a known cause. A reporter asked the transport minister whether he thought that buying more trains from Japan would just bring more problems.
Voice of Wang Kwo-tsai
Transport minister
No. It is a new model of trains. We will pay close attention when they deliver the trains and when the trains are tested.
Pantograph malfunctions do not have an impact on passenger safety, but they do result in delays that could tarnish the reputation of the system.
I'm really happy that TAIWAN choose Japanese Shinkansen, not European trains. India is also doing it. Shinkansen is many times better than other HS trains.
Will it be the same as The N700S?
Those are great news! And is it known which train model will Japan provide to Taiwan? The current 700T is based on the Model 700, quite old compared to the current trains that run in Mainland Japan and Mainland China.
Maybe will it be based on the E5? 🤔
Chinese Mainland HSR is based on Shinkansen E2-1000 model it's even older than original N700 model.
Great news indeed. I thought it could be N700A model because it's much cheaper. But in this video they said they are buying new ones from HTSC (S for Supreme). So they must be talking about N700 Supreme trains. N700S model is pretty new. That lovely 700T will be 20 year old when new generation of trains start their operation. I can't wait to see how new version of Taiwan HSR trains look like.
@@higon99 Oh, that's so neat! N700S look so neat, I hope Taiwan can get some of those to replave the aging 700T fleet.
And also, yeah you're right mainland China has the E2 but they've improved a lot and developed a thing called Fuxing Hao I think, I remember reading an article by Germany's Siemens saying that it was good enough even for European standards, so if Siemens says it I believe them :/
But welp, in the meantime, I just hope Taiwan can get those N700S quickly, they would be so nice to see!
Taiwan will boldly display is dramatic leap in transportation in 2027! This is great for Taiwan!