Taiwan’s Alishan Forest Railway Reopens in Full After 15 Years

The main line of the Alishan Forest Railway reopened in full on 6 July 2024. For the first time in fifteen years a passenger could board a narrow-gauge train in the city of Chiayi, on Taiwan’s western plain, and stay on it to Alishan station, more than 2,000 metres up in the cypress forest of the central mountains.

Fifteen years of repairs

The railway opened in 1912, under Japanese rule, to bring timber down from the mountain. Logging ended long ago and the line became one of Taiwan’s best-known excursions. In August 2009 Typhoon Morakot destroyed long sections of the upper line. Repairs were close to finished when Typhoon Dujuan caused further landslides in 2015, and the final obstacle, a new Tunnel No. 42 bored around an unstable slope, was completed only in 2024. During those years trains ran from Chiayi only part of the way, to Fenqihu and later Shizilu, and visitors finished the journey by bus.

The journey

The main line is 71.4 kilometres long and takes about five hours. It leaves from its own platform in Chiayi station and crosses farmland before the climb begins. At Dulishan the track winds around the mountain in a spiral, and higher up the train reverses several times through switchbacks, running forwards and backwards up the slope. The vegetation changes on the way from tropical to subtropical to temperate forest. Most trains pause at Fenqihu, an old depot town known for its railway lunch boxes.

At reopening there were four departures a day, two in each direction, with the uphill trains leaving Chiayi in the morning. The full fare from Chiayi to Alishan was NT$600, and seats sold out quickly. From Alishan station, short branch lines continue into the forest recreation area, including the pre-dawn train to Chushan, at 2,451 metres, where passengers watch the sun rise over a sea of cloud.

A train lined with cypress

The reopening came with a new train. The Formosensis, which entered service on 28 July 2024, has five carriages and 60 seats, with interiors of Taiwan red cypress and Taiwan cypress, large windows and seats that turn to face the view. It runs as a tour with meals rather than as a scheduled service, and its first two months were sold within an hour. The idea is close to that of Japan’s cruise trains, though on a far smaller scale and for a day, not a week.

For travellers

Chiayi is about an hour and a half from Taipei by high-speed rail. Tickets for the forest railway go on sale two weeks ahead and should be booked as soon as they open, especially in the cherry blossom weeks of March and April. Many visitors take the train up, spend a night at Alishan for the sunrise, and return by bus, which takes about two and a half hours. In 2019 Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture designated the railway an important cultural landscape.