Taiwan's High-Speed Train Debuts

"The train is history in the making, and I can't resist being present when history happens," said 51-year-old housewife Liu Wen-ying before boarding.

Twenty years in the making, the $15 billion system represents a colossal effort to provide a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly transport option for Taiwan's 23 million people.

The main contractor for the project was Taiwan Shinkansen Corp., a consortium of seven Japanese companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries which made the rail cars. The communications system comes from U.S.-based Motorola.

Friday's initial service made the 216-mile journey to the southern city of Kaohsiung in the scheduled time of 90 minutes — two-and-a-half hours faster than the usual train service on that route.

Future services should take half an hour longer, allowing for seven stops along the way.

But in the final countdown, some of the problems that have dogged the system for more than a decade were still apparent.

There were technical glitches Tuesday when the tickets, offered at half-price for a 15-day period, went on sale. Cable TV channels showed angry buyers complaining that they were unable to use credit cards and that the ticket machines gave them the wrong change.

Chairwoman Nita Ing of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp., the operator of the new system, apologized for the setback.

"We are not satisfied with the way things are going," she said. "But the situation will improve day by day."