Taiwan High Speed Rail is a high-speed rail line that runs approximately 350 km , along the west coast of Taiwan, from the capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. With construction managed by a private company, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation , which also operates the line, the total cost of the project was NT$513.3 billion in 1998. At the time it was built, this was one of the world's largest privately funded rail construction schemes. The system is based primarily on Japan's Shinkansen technology. The line opened for service on 5 January 2007, with trains running at a top speed of 300 km/h , currently running from Nangang to Zuoying in as little as 1:45 hours, reaching almost 90% of Taiwan's population. Most intermediate stations on the line lie outside the cities served; however, a variety of transfer options, such as free shuttle buses, conventional rail, and metros have been constructed to facilitate transport connections. Ridership initially fell short of forecasts, but grew from fewer than 40,000 passengers per day in the first few months of operation to over 129,000 passengers per day in June 2013. Daily passenger traffic reached 130,000 in 2014, well below the forecast of 240,000 daily passengers for 2008. The system carried its first 100 million passengers by August 2010 and over 200 million passengers had taken the system by December 2012., followed by 400 million by December 2016.In the initial years of operation, THSRC accumulated debt due to high depreciation charges and interest, largely due to the financial structure set up for the private company. In 2009, THSRC negotiated with the government to change the method of depreciation from depending on concessions on rights to ridership. At the same time, the government also started to help refinance THSRC's loans to assist the company so it could remain operational and profitable. The government injected NT$30 billion as a financial bailout, boosting the government's stake to about 64% from about 37%. The government also extended the rail concession from 35 years to 70 years and terminated the company's build-operate-transfer business model.
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