Western Trunk line () is a railway line of

Taiwan Railway Taiwan Railway (TR) is a state-owned conventional railway in Taiwan. It is operated by the Taiwan Railway Corporation under the supervision of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (Republic of China), Ministry of Transportation and ...

in western

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. It is by far the busiest line, having served over 171 million passengers in 2016. The total length of the line is . The line is an official classification of physical tracks and does not correspond to particular services. It is connected to Taichung line (''mountain line''; ) at Zhunan and

Changhua Changhua (Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: ''Chiong-hòa'' or ''Chiang-hòa''), officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan. For many centuries the site was home to a settlement of ...

. Many services turn inland to take the Taichung route, then reconnect back to the main line (West Coast line). Train schedules and departure boards mark either ''mountain'' or ''coastal'' () line to indicate the route taken.

History

The original railroad between

Keelung Keelung ( ; zh, p=Jīlóng, c=基隆, poj=Ke-lâng), Chilung or Jilong ( ; ), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city in northeastern Taiwan. The city is part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with neighboring New Ta ...

and Twatutia was completed in 1891. The section between Twatutia and

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, ), officially Hsinchu City, is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan that is not a special municipality, with estimated 450,655 inhabitants. Hsinchu is a coastal city bordering the Taiwan ...

was finished in 1893. However, in the Japanese era, these sections were all rebuilt by the

Government-General of Taiwan The Government-General of Taiwan (Government of Taiwan, Taiwan Government, Government of Formosa, Japanese: , Kyūjitai: , Hepburn: ''Taiwan Sōtokufu''; ; Tâi-lô: Tâi-uân Tsóng-tok-hú; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ=Thòi-vân Chúng-tuk-fú) was the ...

as part of its Taiwan Trunk Railway (, ''Jūkan Tetsudō'') project. The Taiwan Trunk Railway was completed in 1908 with route from Kīrun (,

) through Taihoku (,

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

), Shinchiku (,

), Taichū (,

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: '), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in central Taiwan. Taichung is Taiwan's second-largest city, with more than 2.85 million residents, making it the largest city in Ce ...

), Tainan (,

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and commonly called the "Taiwan Prefecture, ...

), to Takao (,

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...

). The Taiwan Trunk Railway at that time went through all major cities in western

. However, the terrain around Taichū (

) created a significant bottleneck for

rail freight transport Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled b ...

. To resolve this issue, the

decided to build a Coastal Line (, ''Kaigan-sen'') between Chikunan (, Zhunan) and Shōka (,

) to relieve the congestion. The construction of the Coastal Line was started in 1919 and completed in 1922. The Coastal Line then became a part of the main West Coast Line, and the original railway through Taichū (

) was named as a separate line ( Taichung line). Due to service patterns, the following lines are often collectively referred to as the ''Western main line'' ()

Stations

Notes

References

{{TRA Western Line 1891 establishments in Taiwan TRA routes Railway lines opened in 1891 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Taiwan 25 kV AC railway electrification