MARTIN L

Category: Transit Talks

  • Ranking all the Taipei Metro Train Arrival Music

    Did you know every Taipei Metro line has it’s own train arrival music? I’m pretty sure they just copied this from Japanese train systems but I love it because it adds so much personality to each train line. I hope every train line in the world adds this level of personality to their train lines because if we’re going to ride the metro everyday, might as well make it fun.

    You can click on each title to listen to each sound.

    6. Wenhu Line 文湖線 (Brown Line)

    This line is in last place because it actually doesn’t have any arrival music. This is because it’s mostly elevated (so passengers can see trains coming without the music), and it’s close proximity to residential buildings means that music could be a nuisance.

    5. Bannan Line 板南線 (Blue Line)

    I don’t know… it’s just a very slow sound for such a fast moving train. Doesn’t really fit the energy of a train line that goes through most of Taipei’s most “dynamic” neighborhoods. It’s just a bit too slow for me, and personally it’s not loud enough to be heard over a busy rush hour crowd, which defeats the purpose.

    4. Tamsui – Xinyi Line 淡水信義線 (Red Line)

    I think it’s a very lovely song, but it’s also a very bland song. It kind of reminds me of a new spring day in a anime scene… very random but overall it’s just a neutral sound.

    3. Zhonghe – Xinlu Line 中和新蘆線 (Orange Line)

    This song straight up reminds me of Pokemon music… it’s a bit haunting and I love it for being so unique! It sounds like a cool, crisp autumn dance. I like how it dances around, which makes it distinct when you’re waiting for a train.

    2. Circular Line (Yellow Line)

    Not technically a Taipei Metro line, but the Circular Line has the same vibe of listening to the music that plays during the weather segment of the news. It’s very light, spring day and I love it for that, 10/10 for being such good music. I give it points for being the most unique song, because the next song isn’t actually that unique at all.

    1. Songshan – Xindian Line 松山新店線 (Green Line)

    The Songshan – Xindian Line is also my favorite line, and therefore is also my favorite song. All jokes aside, this is a lovely rendition of Nocturne No. 2 by Chopin, and it’s rendition works so much better than what I would have expected. It’s just so classic, and reminds me of standing in a Chinese Bakery.

    Takeaways

    Not much, but I hope you take the time to appreciate how the most mundane things in life can be appreciated, and eventually turned into a blog post.

  • What’s the point of this one weird Muni fare rule?

    If you’ve ever been on Muni’s fare page, you’ll notice a very strange fare rule.

    Daly City BART Transfer– A free round-trip transfer is provided to all customers transferring from the Daly City BART station to Muni lines serving that station when using Clipper.

    The 28 & 28R – A bus route I’m too familiar with, and one of the routes that qualifies for this free transfer

    But why? It’s strange that this BART station (which isn’t even in San Francisco) is the only place in the entire system that offers a free transfer between BART and Muni. As someone who has a lot of spare time, I decided to do some investigative journalism.

    Firstly, I did a quick Google search with “reddit” in the tagline, but couldn’t really find anything except for people confused with the system. So I went on ChatGPT, which stated:

    “Daly City Station is just outside of San Francisco city limits (it’s in San Mateo County), but many San Francisco residents use it, especially people in neighborhoods like the Outer Mission or Crocker-Amazon.

    To support these residents and encourage public transit use, San Francisco actually pays BART to cover the cost of Muni transfers at Daly City Station.

    This agreement allows BART riders exiting at Daly City to get a free Muni ride (on lines like 14R, 28, 54, etc.) to get into or around SF.”

    While this statement is mostly true, it doesn’t really justify why. Just because San Francisco residents use the station doesn’t mean Daly City’s riders should receive two free trips – the City’s eight stations don’t get the same treatment. With this information, I stumbled onto Daly City’s Station Access Plan document from December 2002, which finally gave me the answer I was looking for:

    • Muni’s Fast Pass (monthly pass) system has an option that covers unlimited BART rides between stations in the city.
      • Note that BART has no monthly passes except for this particular section
    • Daly City, being outside of the city, is not covered by the Fast Pass.
    • This leads to a disproportionate amount of riders who take Muni to Balboa Park (the next station on the line) instead, overcrowding Balboa Park’s limited parking facilities and connecting bus routes
    • As a result, BART and Muni extend this fare benefit to riders as a way to lure San Francisco residents who live nearby to use Daly City, spreading out traffic towards each station’s design capacity.
    Vintage MUNI Fast Pass designs over the years. Source.

    But why not extend Fast Pass’ station coverage to Daly City? The same report mentions that Daly City’s parking lots would not be able to absorb the extra ridership, and would impact SamTrans ridership to the station. The study ultimately concluded to not extend the benefit to the station – a decision still in place today.

    What does this even mean to me?

    Not much. It would save me money if I made a trip between Daly City and BART, but that’s a trip I’ve only made twice in my recollection. However, it ultimately does represent how terribly our transit systems interact with each other here in the Bay Area.

    I took this photo the one time I took advantage of this fare rule back in 2023! Absolutely love these raw concrete commemoration plaques scattered through all eight stations that opened during this phase of construction.

    The Bay Area’s fare system may be easy to use, but difficult to understand. The 27 transit agencies across the nine counties of the Bay Area all have different fare structures, and none of them mesh well enough to understand the mish-mash of fare discounts and transfer rules. Clipper 2.0 is supposed to fix many of these problems (like the inability to provide discounted BART transfers), but we need to eventually create a unified fare system that equitably distributes cost between riders and most importantly, is easy to understand for riders.

  • Stamping it out on Taipei Metro

    When in Tijuana, go party. When in Taipei, go stamping?

    Something that I found super cool in Taipei (and Taiwan) is that every single station has their own stamp! When I was in Taipei last year (and this year), I decided to collect all of the unique station stamps that I came across.

    Taipei Metro Map. All stations in green are stations that I collected a stamp from!

    Why I LOVE stamping – and why you should too

    Stamping is a really great way of participating in “collection culture” without actually accumulating anything you may not want five years from now! I personally carry a journal with me, and that’s where my stamps go. It makes a fun souvenir of the events of the day, and it’s not heavy and won’t take up space in your luggage. Each station design has a unique stamp, reflecting the surrounding area’s unique characteristics. I love looking back at them after a trip, or even just on a random Wednesday! Most importantly, it’s FREE. Most tourist attractions in Taiwan and Japan will have a stamp as stamp culture is very prevalent in these places, so you can go beyond the Metro and collect stamps from museums, hot springs, and parks!

    My Stamp Collection

    As of February 2025, here are the list of stations I’ve collected a stamp from:

    Taoyuan Airport MRT 桃園機場捷運

    2 / 22 Stations (9%)

    • A01 Taipei Main Station 臺北車站
    • A13 Airport Terminal 2 機場第二航廈

    Taipei Metro 臺北捷運

    38 / 117 Stations (32.5%)

    • R28 Tamsui 淡水
    • R27 Hongshulin 紅樹林
    • R22 Beitou 北投
    • R22A Xinbeitou 新北投
    • R13 / O11 Minquan West Road 民權西路
    • R12 Shuanglian 雙連
    • R11 / G14 Zhongshan 中山
    • R10 / BL12 Taipei Main Station 臺北車站
    • R09 NTU Hospital 台大醫院
    • R08 / G10 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂
    • R07 / O06 Dongmen 東門
    • R06 Da’an Park 大安森林公園
    • R05 / BR09 Da’an 大安
    • R04 Xinyi Anhe 信義安和
    • R03 Taipei 101 / World Trade Center 臺北 101 / 世貿
    • R02 Xiangshan 象山
    • G07 Gongguan 公館
    • G08 Taipower Building 臺電大樓
    • G11 Xiaonanmen 小南門
    • G12 / BL11 Ximen 西門
    • G13 Beimen 北門
    • G15 / O08 Songjiang Nanjing 松江南京
    • G16 / BR11 Nanjing Fuxing 南京復興
    • G17 Taipei Arena 臺北小巨蛋
    • G18 Nanjing Sanmin 南京三民
    • G19 Songshan 松山
    • BL10 Longshan Temple 龍山寺
    • BL13 Shandao Temple 善導寺
    • BL14 / O07 Zhongxiao Xinsheng 忠孝新生
    • BL15 / BR10 Zhongxiao Fuxing 忠孝復興
    • BL16 Zhongxiao Dunhua 忠孝敦化
    • BL17 Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 國父紀念堂
    • BL18 Taipei City Hall 市政府
    • BL22 Nangang 南港
    • BL23 / BR24 Nangang Exhibition Center 南港展覽館
    • BR12 Zhongshan Junior High School 中山國中
    • O10 Zhongshan Elementary School 中山國小
    • O12 Daqiaotou 大橋頭