This is life 15: Taipei by Train

Taipei has a fairly efficient transport system, including the train system around Taipei. Prices are comparable to Singapore, from NT20 to NT55 (S$1.00 to S$2.75) for single trip tickets.

Singapore's newspapers recently published on how spoilt Singaporeans are because they keep complaining about overcrowded trains. The newspapers selectively chose crowded cities like New York and Tokyo and deliberately excludes Taipei. The reason: Taipei's trains are efficient and come within 3 minutes in most cases and seldom has the problem of overcrowding.

Of course, it is only natural to think the SMRT is the number in the world. The trains in Taipei have fire extinguishes lying by the door, unlike Singapore, which is kept neatly in a compartment; organised and manageable. The stations are relatively old; without the polished walls that Singapore has. The trains does not instruct passengers on how to deal with terrorist attacks or to report when discovering any suspicious articles. Neither do they have securities who would check passengers' bags. So, taking the trains have an increased risk of being attacked by a bomb.

Ironically, everyone in Taipei keeps to the right when taking the escalators and allow spaces on the left for the others. And everyone queues while waiting for the arrival of the trains. When the train arrives, passengers get to alight first, followed by boarding passengers. All these orderliness provide an interesting contrast, which is quite rare in Singapore.
They have much less seats in their cabins and from observations, it is likely that Taiwanese give up their seats more willingly.

The central heart for the Taipei train system.

For Singaporeans, it will be quite a wonder why the Taiwanese build a train station specially to cater to one particular hospital.

Shilin, the number one place to be.