Jam on the highway!
SPEED RAIL HANDS DOWN.
I am penning this article as I am travelling on the FreeGo bus towards Taichung. My travel buddy thought we should experience both speed rail and bus travel to and from Taichung since we could have something to write about and boy, she was right.
Comparison of timing:
While the standard travel time towards Taichung from Taoyuan Int Airport –
– – On speed rail is 1 hour (30mins shuttle from airport, 30mins speed rail)
– – On Buses is 2 hours.
Common sense tell you to take speed rail right?
Okay, wait. How about price?
Comparison of price:
Speed Rail is about SGD$38
Bus is about SGD $12, which in fact is one third cheaper.
Now the catch:
The highway from Taoyuan Int Airport to Taichung has its daily peak hours and in my current situation, a massive traffic accident occured on the highway we were on and the timing of that uneventful ride is now above 4 hours. It ate into the peak hours and everyone is trying you get home. OK, you get the picture.
Not to forget, the bus would circle the city to drop passengers at the respective drop-off points and our drop-off point happened tp be the very last one.
Seriously, comparing the time against the travel time, it is very clear that speed rail is still the way to go.
No doubt you are paying 3 times higher than the bus ride, but since the speed rail has its own dedicated raik track, there will not be a traffic jam.
Plus the journey on the train would be much much smooth and pleasant than the bumpy ride on the bus.
Honestly, comparing rest time, while you can rest in the bus, I would very much preferred to sleep on the hotel bed than on the bus.
For those nose/smell sensitive people like me, the bus driver smoked on the way while the jam was ongoing and I have to tell you, I hate cigarette smoke and my lungs (I’m asthmatic) cannot handle the second hand smoke.
The bus ride has unprecedentedly become my worst travel experience ever.
Long hours, massive unmoving traffic jams with a stressed out, smoking, cussing in hokkien driver is not the kind of experience I ever want to go through ever again.
There’s a chinese saying:
一寸光音, 一寸金
寸金难买寸光音
In this scenario, you CAN buy time with money and save yourself lots of stress.
Just pay a bit more and take the speed rail, PLEASE.
More stories soon,
