As huge crowds queued up at high speed rail stations to buy half-priced presale train tickets, transportation ministry officials yesterday demanded that the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. improve its sales service. 
More than 75,000 presale tickets were purchased within 11 hours on the first day of sales, as people lined up at eight stations across the island. Some were quoted in the Chinese-language media as saying they had waited for three hours to buy a single ticket. Some buyers also complained of an inefficient ticketing system and computer crashes when they tried to buy tickets in the computerized ticketing system. 
 
After learning of the situation, Minister of Transportation Tsai Duei said he would ask the THSRC to improve its service because there is no excuse for bad service. "The high speed rail is a service industry. The THSRC should resolve the ticketing problem as soon as possible," Tsai said. 
 
A Bureau of High Speed Rail official, Hu Hsiang-lin, however said that the rail's ticketing system seems to be fine. 
 
"The huge volume of buyers may be the main reason for the snags in the computerized ticketing system," Hu surmised, adding the THSRC should teach the general public how to use the machines. 
 
According to THSRC statistics, over 10,000 tickets were sold at each of the high speed rail stations in Taipei, Banciao, Taoyuan, and Kaohsiung, and the 50,000 commemorative tickets were all sold out. 
 
According to Chinese-language news reports, the waiting crowds complained that the ticketing machines were only accepting three types of banks cards, forcing people to line up for a second time at other counters. It was reported there were up to 1,000 people in lines during peak periods. 
 
At around 2:00 p.m. yesterday, the THSRC suddenly announced that people should not get in line to buy tickets after 2:00 p.m. 
 
"The decision was made to ensure that all those who were standing in line before 2 p.m. Tuesday would be able to obtain presale tickets before 10 p.m.," said THSRC Chief Executive Officer Ou Chin-der (歐晉德). 
 
Ou apologized to the waiting passengers and thanked them for their patience. 
 
Ted China, associate manager of the THSRC admitted during a telephone interview that the staff was not sufficiently familiar with the ticketing process, therefore, the processing time was taking longer than expected. He also admitted that the THSRC had not anticipated that so many buyers would turn up at the stations. 
 
The THSRC will begin formal business operation on January 5 and passengers will get a 50 percent fare discount during the first 10 days of service, from January 5 through January 14.