Taiwan: Pingxi line closed

[railfan99]

I'd been to the attractive country of Taiwan twice before but in October 2025, after returning to Manila from UK and Europe, I met my wife and we did a switch trip to Taipei. (And yes, despite what mainland China claims, Taiwan is a separate nation, and a very proud and achieving democracy at that).

I'd also been on the Pingxi line, a short branch from Ruifang (45 minutes by train from Taipei station) that is famous for the release of 'sky lanterns' from two of its stations.

In October 2025, we purchased NT$73 returns to Ruifang, a bargain fare, as tickets for the branch are sold separately in Ruifang.

However when we got there, the branch train was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually we saw a sign at the ticket barriers, advising there were no trains due to track damage from heavy rain.

I was unable to discover whether there'd been a landslide, bridge damage or track damage.

The sign gave me the impression the line will be closed for months.

Being a rainy day, we declined finding a bus to transport us to the Pingxi line stations, so we returned to Taipei by train.

 

[jamesr]

Taiwan Railways website suggests the end of January as a reopening date. It’s a shame you missed out on it - it’s a fabulous day trip.

I was going to share the info but the formatting goes awry when reposted here - a google for “Taiwan Railway Train Operation Status” will find their page in English.

I was going to suggest the Jiji Line as an interesting alternative, but I see that’s also closed for some time as well.

Taiwan has a very unlucky combination of soft stone, tall hills, typhoons and earthquakes. Thank goodness they seem to be keen on persevering with fixing infrastructure that the west would have long since given up with!

I’ve still yet to successfully get tickets for the Alishan Forest Railway down in the south - it seems like an almost impossible task!

 

[railfan99]

I’ve still yet to successfully get tickets for the Alishan Forest Railway down in the south - it seems like an almost impossible task!

I went the whole distance on the Alishan Forest Railway many years ago, and while staying at the summit, also did the 0430 hours or so sunrise train.

Both excellent.

As stated, I've previously travelled on the Pingxi line but my wife had not, so she missed out.

 

[jamesr]

Oops, sorry, missed that point that you’d done it before!

I live in Hong Kong - next time I get a break from work I’m determined to get to Alishan!