First N700ST Trainset Ships to Taiwan; 12 Sets to Lift Capacity 25% by Fiscal 2028
- The first N700ST train set for Taiwan High-Speed Rail has been completed.
- Negotiations between Japan and Taiwan over manufacturing costs and technical terms faced major challenges.
- The project nearly collapsed due to unresolved disputes between the two sides.
- The exterior and interior design of the new train have been revealed, showcasing Japanese engineering.
- The deal marks a new milestone in the deepening industrial collaboration between Japan and Taiwan.
Taiwan High Speed Rail's new trainsets are finally moving, and the story worth reading is not the hardware — it is how a long-stalled Japan-Taiwan deal finally closed.
The builder is HTSC, a consortium of Hitachi and Toshiba, which won an order for 12 trainsets totalling 144 cars from Taiwan High Speed Rail in May 2023. The first 12-car set shipped from Hitachi's Kasado works on July 30. The N700ST is based on JR Central's current N700S, adapted for Taiwanese operating conditions: roughly 300 metres per set, top speed 300 km/h. All 12 sets are due in service by the end of fiscal 2028, lifting THSR capacity by an estimated 25%. Toyo Keizai's reporting focuses on the process — manufacturing-cost negotiations nearly collapsed before terms were agreed.
That 25% matters because Taiwan's constraint is rolling stock, not track. Peak-hour and holiday seats have been scarce for years, served by a 700T fleet approaching twenty years of age, where rising maintenance cycles eat into available services.
The hard part was price. Shinkansen technology is a package — vehicles, signalling, maintenance rules — so switching suppliers means replacing the whole logic, while staying locked in erodes bargaining power. Warm bilateral relations get both sides to the table; they do not change the cost structure.
Watch the first set's test-running schedule, whether the remaining 11 arrive on time, and how THSR reprices once capacity arrives.
