The ''Puyuma Express'' () is a type of railway service on Taiwan Railways (TRA) notable for using

tilting train A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide abo ...

s. It began commercial service on 6 February 2013 during the Spring Festival. ''Puyuma Express'' was commissioned by the TRA in order to upgrade the Taiwanese rail system. As the

mountains of Taiwan A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

are a barrier to coast-to-coast transportation, motor travel is prone to congestion. The high speed and capacity of the service helps to alleviate this problem. ''Puyuma Express'' also increases passenger capacity on TRA. The maximum operational speed of ''Puyuma Express'' is , making it the fastest service of TRA. ''Puyuma Express'' belongs to the ''Tze-chiang'' limited express class of TRA services in terms of fares; however, it is a reservation-only service similarly to the ''

Taroko Express The ''Taroko Express'' () is an express train service of the Taiwan Railways Administration, and is part of ''Tze-Chiang'' Limited Express. The name of the service comes from the long Taroko Gorge, which is one of Taiwan's most popular touris ...

'', with no standing passengers allowed.

Naming

The name "Puyuma" means "together" and "united" in the

Puyuma language The Puyuma language or Pinuyumayan (), is the language of the Puyuma, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a divergent Formosan language of the Austronesian family. Most speakers are older adults. Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Au ...

spoken by the

Puyuma people The Puyuma (), also known as the Pinuyumayan, Peinan or Beinan, are one of the indigenous groups of the Taiwanese aborigines. The people are generally divided into the Chihpen and Nanwang groups, both resident in Taitung County on the east coast ...

of eastern Taiwan. It was chosen after a naming contest that was open to the public.

History

The trains were imported to Taiwan in 2012; since 2013, they have been running between Hualien and

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

, on the existing

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

tracks of the winding

Yilan line The Yilan Line () is the northern section of the Eastern Line of the Taiwan Railways Administration in Taiwan. It has a length of 95 km. History This railroad was completed in 1924 as the Giran-sen during Imperial Japanese rule over Taiwan. ...

, where they reduced traveling time between the two cities from 3 hours down to about 2 hours. On 28 February 2013, the TRA announced that Taitung would become a destination on the ''Puyuma Express'' with official operations beginning 16 July 2014, in concord with the completion of electrification of the

Taitung Line The Taitung Line (), also known as the Hua-Tung line (), is the southern section of the Eastern Line of the Taiwan Railways Administration. The line starts at the Hualien station and ends at the Taitung station. It is 161.5 km long, includ ...

Rolling stock

''Puyuma Express'' services use TEMU2000 series tilting

EMU The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

s purpose-built by

Nippon Sharyo , formed in 1896, is a major rolling stock manufacturer based in Nagoya, Japan. In 1996, it abbreviated its name to "日本車両" Nippon Sharyō. Its shortest abbreviation is Nissha "日車". It was a listed company on Nikkei 225 until 2 ...

. TRA purchased a total of 152 TEMU2000 cars for 19 trains. The first 16 cars arrived on 25 October 2012.

Fatal incidents

* On 21 October 2018, ''Puyuma Express'' set 4 derailed in Yilan County at about 16:50 local time, killing at least 18 people and injuring 187. The cause of this incident was an excessive speed, combined with an inactive automatic train stop.

References

Electric multiple units of Taiwan Tilting trains 2003 introductions 2003 establishments in Taiwan {{Taiwan-rail-transport-stub 25 kV AC multiple units Nippon Sharyo multiple units