TAIWAN High Speed Rail (THSR) is expanding its Zuoying high-speed fleet depot in Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. Construction work on a second maintenance hall was launched in a ceremony attended by Chen Shih-kai, Taiwan’s minister of transportation and communications, Chen Chi-mai, mayor of Kaohsiung City, and Shih Che, chairman of THSR.
The 24,000m² maintenance hall being built by Hung Shen Construction will have six tracks within a building measuring 350m in length, 42m in width, and 24m in height. It will become home to THSR’s fleet of 12 300km/h N700ST trains, now under construction, when it is completed in December 2027.
THSR signed a contract worth $US 898m with the Hitachi Toshiba Supreme Consortium (HTSC) in May 2023 for the supply of 144 cars based on the N700S Shinkansen high-speed train operated by Central Japan Railway (JR Central). THSR estimates that once all 12 N700ST trains are in service, its peak-hour capacity will increase by 25%.
The first train is expected to arrive from Japan in August, and enter revenue-earning service in the second half of 2027. Zuoying depot already maintains THSR’s fleet of 34 300km/h N700T high-speed trains, based on the N700 Shinkansen, the first batch of which were built for the opening of the Taipei - Kaoshiung high-speed line in 2007.
The expanded Zuoying depot will undertake daily and monthly inspection and train cleaning for the entire THSR fleet. The new depot will increase maintenance capacity from 38 to 47 trains, and the maximum number of trains that can be stabled there will grow from 44 to 50.
Two extensions of the 349km high-speed line that runs north-south along the west coast of Taiwan are currently under construction. The 56.4km northern extension runs from Taipei to Yilan, while the 17.5km southern extension connects Kaohsiung City with Pingtung. Both projects are scheduled for completion by 2030.
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