Taiwanese take to the road for Chinese New Year

Jan 20, 2012, 6:51 GMT

Taipei - The annual spring migration for Chinese New Year began in Taiwan with an estimate that 1.8 million cars will clog the island's highways Friday, according to the transportation ministry.

The Chinese New Year holiday is the busiest travel season of the year for the island territory, with many of its 23 million people expected to travel back to their hometowns from big cities to celebrate with their extended family.

Holiday traffic will also get a boost from a nine-day holiday break from January 21 to 29 that will give Taiwanese an opportunity to enjoy tourist activities around the island after family obligations end.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications estimated that up to 3 million cars could be on the highways on January 25, and that it could take seven hours to drive the usual four-hour trek from Kaohsiung to Taipei during peak traffic.

To encourage more drivers to choose off-peak hours for their journeys, highways tolls will be suspended from midnight to 7am every day from January 21 to 29.

Railway authorities are also adding trains to handle the extra volume. High-Speed Rail reported that it would add 411 more trains, or 28 per cent extra capacity, from January 20 to 29. As of Thursday, 716,000 tickets had already been booked.

The normal railway system plans to add 558 trains down its two main lines spanning the east and west coasts. However, 90 per cent of the tickets for the first two days of the holiday period have already been booked, according to local station Cti News.