 Booking tickets online or via the voice system |
| Question 1: How do I dial a phone number while booking tickets via the voice system? |
| Answer: |
I |
If your district number consists of seven or eight digits, please dial 412-1111 or 412-6666. Then, please enter your subscriber number 333#. |
| |
II |
If your district number consists of six digits, please dial 41-1111 or 41-6666. Then, please enter your subscriber number 333#. |
| |
III |
For off islands, please dial 08-412-1111. Then, please enter your subscriber number 333#. |
| |
IV |
The opening hours for the voice system are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day. See descriptions about booking tickets through the voice system on our website (http://www.railway.gov.tw/c/c2_01.htm). |
| Question 2: May I know the website for online booking system? |
| Answer: |
The website for online booking system of Taiwan Railway is: http://railway.hinet.net/ |
| Question 3: What are the notes for booking tickets online or via the voice system? |
| Answer: |
I |
Booking period: Booking is available two weeks (fourteen days) in advance. In other words, you can book the ticket for Monday of the week after the next week on each week's Monday. However, if you book on Friday, you can get the ticket for Monday of the week after the next week. The ticket must be collected within three days after the booking day (including the booking day). If the interval between the booking day and the departure day is three days or less, the ticket must be collected no later than the day before the departure day. |
| |
II |
Booking hours: (1) 6:00—21:00 for online booking;
(2) 6:00—21:00 for the voice booking system. |
| |
III |
Computer appointed number: After booking, please note down the computer appointed number. |
| |
IV |
Place for collecting tickets and identity documents: Please note down the computer appointed number and go to ticket-selling points of the Administration or networked post offices for collecting tickets with your ID card (passports for overseas Chinese and foreigners). |
| |
V |
Hours for collecting tickets: 07:30—22:00 for collecting tickets at railway stations (or collect tickets at post offices within their business hours). |
| |
VI |
Right suspension: If you fail to collect tickets for five times, your booking right will be suspended for three months. |
| Question4： |
Why cannot I book a ticket even early in the morning? In this case, if I go to the railway station to line up for tickets, can I get one ticket? |
| Answer: |
There are 4,800 numbers in our voice system available for booking. However, during weekends and holidays, tickets for hot routes may be booked up very soon. If you cannot book a ticket through the voice system, then you can not get one even by lining up for tickets at the railway station unless a passenger cancels his booking or fails to collect the ticket. |
| Question 5: Why cannot online booking be open from 6 a.m. just like booking through the voice system? |
| Answer: |
Our voice booking system opens two hours earlier than the online booking system because of the consideration that the number of people using the Internet is smaller than those using telephones in Taiwan. Considering the high capacity and rapidness of the network, it will be unfair for telephone users if the two systems open at the same time. Therefore, the voice booking system opens earlier than the online booking system. |
| Question 6: |
Why does the system show that incorrect ID card number is entered when I book via the online booking system? I did enter the correct ID card number! |
| Answer: |
It is because of the loss of “field value” during data transmission. You can refresh the picture and try it again. You can also dial 02-23899537 to contact our business units during our work hours (08:30—12:00 and 13:30—17:30). |
| Question 7: Why cannot I book the ticket with Taiyuan as the starting station? |
| Answer: |
Only non-numbered express trains (such as electric trains and ordinary express trains) can stop at Taiyuan station at present. However, our online booking system can only offer tickets for numbered trains. |
| Question 8: I am a foreigner. How do I book via the online booking system? |
| Answer: |
Our online booking system in Chinese just accepts ID card numbers of Taiwanese people. Foreigners shall enter their passport numbers in our online booking system in English (http://railway.hinet.net/). |
| Question 9: Can the period for collecting tickets be extended to the day previous to the departure day? |
| Answer: |
The Administration once extended the period for ticket collection to the day previous to the departure day (Presently, passengers must collect their tickets within five days after the booking day). However, it frequently happened that a small number of passengers having booked tickets failed to collect tickets, leading to the waste of resources and complaints from other passengers failing to get tickets. In order to safeguard the rights and interests of the majority of passengers, we made the rule that passengers must collect tickets within five days after the booking day and if a passenger books five or one day(s) in advance, he may collect his ticket on the day previous to the departure day. |
| Question10: |
The following is what I have booked:
9/17 1009 “Zi Qiang” train Taipei—Tai Chung five tickets
9/17 1022 “Zi Qiang” train Taipei—Tai Chung five tickets
However, when I booked the ticket for 9/17 1022 “Zi Qiang” train Tai Chung—Taoyuan, the system showed over-booking. What is the reason for this? |
| Answer : |
In order to uphold the principle of fairness, only six single journey tickets can be booked in one day with a single ID card number. For convenience of our passengers, six round-trip tickets can be booked. But one round-trip ticket is regarded as two single journey tickets. When you booked the round-trip tickets for trains No. 1009 and 1022 between Taipei—Tai Chung on November 11, the computer system thought that six tickets had been booked with that ID card number on that very day. And therefore, you could not book more tickets for that day. |
| Question 11: After tickets are collected, I find that my seat is not next to my friend's seat. Why? |
| Answer: |
Seats are arranged according to the sequence of collecting tickets. As a result, passengers who are late in collecting tickets may not get seats with consecutive numbers. If the destinations of you and your friend are different, your seats may even be in different carriages. In addition, tickets of different types such as multi-trip tickets, accounting tickets , adult tickets and children's tickets will be processed in different ways. As a result, your seat may not be next to that of your friend. |
| Question12: |
On the same day, I cannot obtain a seat by booking a long-distance ticket, but can get one by booking in sections. Why? |
| Answer: |
Seats shall be allotted to stations along the route of the numbered express train. However, stations vary in their demands for tickets. Sometimes, you can get a seat by booking in sections. |
| |
|
|
