infrastructure

Infrastructure

Taipei City has comprehensive transportation and communications infrastructure. In terms of transportation, Taipei is Taiwan's largest transport hub with three forms of railway (trains, HSR, and the Metro), extensive bus and taxi networks, and the convenient YouBike network to satisfy different transportation requirements. With regards to Taipei's Internet infrastructure, the city has the country's first "seamless network." Fiber optic coverage has already reached 80%, with free Wi-Fi services for residents in many public areas. In addition, in terms of utility costs, Taipei is one of the cheapest cities in the world.

Asia Pacific Average Grade A Rent

USD/psm/year

Cities Hong Kong Tokyo Beijing Singapore Shanghai Seoul Taipei Bangkok
Rental 764.26 828.85 635.09 1205.60 484.39 592.03 527.45 387.51
(Report from CBRE, Q3 2024)

Transportation

The Taipei Railway Station is the transportation center of the city, with 500,000 passengers passing through every day to ride the Metro, HSR, Taiwan Rail, and buses that stop here. Running from the north to the south, the High Speed Rail connects the entire island of Taiwan. Passengers departing from Taipei can arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport within one hour. A two-hour trip will bring you to key industrial areas such as Taoyuan and Hsinchu, forming Taiwan's key industrial corridor.

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport

Taiwan is situated in the center of the Asia-Pacific region, which means that flying out of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport allows rapid connections with major cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, and Singapore. According to passenger statistics in 2023, there were more than 15.83 million arrivals/departures and more than 95,121 transit passengers. In 2016, Taoyuan International Airport was recognized as the best airport, both in the Asia-Pacific region and globally, among airports serving 25-40 million passengers by the Airport Service Quality Ranking organized by the Airports Council International (ACI). In 2017, it formally became an airport that serves over 40 million passengers. In competition with other benchmark airports, it ranked 3rd among airports serving over 40 million passengers worldwide. Furthermore, Taoyuan International Airport’s ranking has moved up two spots from 15 to 13 according to the Skytrax World Airline Awards, which is its best performance in history, and the airport placed 9th in the new ranking of the “World's Best PRM / Accessible Facilities 2019” issued by Skytrax.

Taipei Songshan Airport is located in downtown Taipei; most of its flights are domestic routes or to China and other Southeast Asian destinations. Passengers can take direct flights to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, Seoul's Gimpo Airport, Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports, and to Wuhan and Anhui in the mainland. Domestic destinations include Hualien, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and Hengchun.

Related links:Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport flight information
Taipei Songshan Airport flight information

 

Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR)

Taiwan's HSR provides speedy rail services between major cities on Taiwan's west coast. In October 2024, the HSR transported more than 6.15 million passengers at a top speed of 300 km/hour; with a 99.53% on-time arrival rate. HSR stations provide a range of transfer options: free shuttle buses, bus services, taxis, and bicycle rentals.

Related Link:HSR schedule information

Intercity buses

Taipei has five bus transfer stations including the Taipei Railway Station, Taipei City Hall Bus Station, Nangang Station, Yuanshan MRT Station, and Taipei Zoo MRT Station. There are more than 20 transportation service providers to take you to every city and county in Taiwan. Taiwan's largest and most complicated bus station is undoubtedly the Taipei Bus Station located in downtown Taipei; it integrates the services of inter-city buses, Taiwan Rail, the HSR, the Taipei Metro, and the Airport MRT. The station is also conveniently connected to the Taipei City Mall.

Related Link:Taipei City Bus route information

Taipei Metro (MRT)

The Taipei Metro system provides a safe, comfortable, and convenient transportation service. Currently, there are 5 lines, 2 branch lines, 1 gondola and 117 stations forming a 136.9 km transport network. In October 2024, a total of 60.12 million passengers boarded. The number of passengers served exceeded 10 billion in March 2019, with reliability standing at 99.99%. The Metro's operating hours are from 6 am to midnight, with trains running every two to eight minutes during peak hours, and every four to 12 minutes during off-peak hours. As a metropolitan mass transit system, the Taipei Metro system will continue to create new services to support city residents on their daily commute.

Taipei Metro information (available in English/Japanese/Korean/Chinese)
Related Link:Metro route inquiries

Taiwan Rail

The Taiwan Rail network comprises a western line, eastern line, and south-link line, creating a railway network that surrounds the island and serves as Taiwan Rail's core operational routes. There are a total of 16 operational routes with 241 railway stations. In September 2024, the system transports nearly 19,478,990 passengers with a maximum speed of 150 km/h; the on-time arrival rate is 93.43%. Ticket categories are divided into regular tickets, group tickets, monthly/yearly tickets, and carriage charters, as well as other ticket types.

Related Link:Taiwan Rail

Taxi

Taipei City has the greatest concentration of taxis in Taiwan. In order to improve the quality of taxi services and decrease the amount of time taxis run empty, the Taipei City Public Transportation Office has set up taxi stands at different hot spots to improve the public's taxi riding experience.

Related Link:Taipei Public Transportation

City eBus

There are approximately 280 co-operated bus routes in Taipei, with a range of route categories including main roads, shuttle services for the Metro, and mini-buses servicing more remote areas and leisure destinations. The average daily ridership is 1.9 million. In order to offer more convenient services, the city government installed a system in 2009 for all routes that announces the estimated arrival times of incoming buses at bus stops. Citizens can obtain this information through smart signs, websites (including mobile versions), and a telephone hotline.

Related Link:Taipei City Bus Inquiry Service 5284

Bicycles

In order to encourage the public to use bicycles for short distance commutes to lower air pollution and fuel consumption, the Taipei City Government and Giant Bicycles have cooperated in the provision and promotion of the YouBike city-wide bicycle rental service. Currently, Taipei City has 1503 YouBike 2.0 rental stations across 12 administrative districts. An EasyCard is all that is required to rent a bike. As of November 2024, 906,798,468 people have rented these bikes, which is the highest turnover rate in the world.

Related Link:YouBike information website

Financial Services

There are about 10,929 financial services companies, including 3502 domestic and foreign banks in Taiwan, 1026 TWSE-listed companies, 831 TPEx-listed companies, 338 Emerging stocks. 80% of financial institution headquarters in the country along with over 90% of venture capital are established here in Taipei with over 180,000 employees as the largest financial city in Taiwan. Taipei has been the leading the mastery of financial key technologies and new product development. Its overall technical indicators are comparable to Seoul right next Tokyo.

 
 

Broadband and Wi-Fi Internet access

According to the Cardiff Metropolitan University's World Knowledge Competitiveness Index, Taiwan's broadband penetration rate is ranked 6th out of 145 territories worldwide, behind only Iceland, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Domestic research has revealed that 93.8% of Taipei's households are connected to the Internet, and nearly 90% own personal computers. Due to the huge number of Internet users, the city government has established Wi-Fi hotspots in many public areas. The general public can easily access free Wi-Fi via the iTaiwan (with more than 5,000 locations) and Taipei Free (9,621 locations) systems. The convenience of Taipei's Internet environment has been recognized by media organizations such as CNN and BBC.

 
Releted Link:iTaiwan international traveler online registration system website
24-hour toll-free hotline:0800-081-051