Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 9, 2019
Taiwan High Speed Rail is a high-speed rail line that runs approximately 350 km (217 mi), along the west coast of Taiwan, from the capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. At the time it was built, this was one of the world's largest privately funded rail construction schemes. The system is based primarily on Japan's Shinkansen. The line opened for service on January 5, 2007, with trains running at a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). Ridership initially fell short of forecasts, but grew from fewer than 40,000 passengers per day in the first few months of operation to over 129,000 passengers per day in June 2013. The system carried its first 100 million passengers by August 2010 and over 200 million passengers had taken the system by December 2012, followed by 400 million by December 2016. In the initial years of operation, THSRC accumulated debt due to high depreciation charges and interest, largely due to the financial structure set up for the private company. The government helped to refinance THSRC's loans to assist the company so it could remain operational and profitable. The government injected NT$30 billion as a financial bailout, boosting the government's stake to about 64% from about 37%, and extended the rail concession from 35 years to 70 years and terminated the company's build-operate-transfer business model.
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