In early 2007 high-speed rail service began. The trip from Taipei to Kaohsiung now takes only about one and a half hours, and the number of trains is constantly increasing. This caused domestic airline passenger traffic to plummet by 27 % in 2007 over 2006. Most startlingly, Taipei-Kaohsiung air traffic dropped by 50 % while Taipei-Tainan traffic dropped 52 %.
2007 年初高鐵通車，台北到高雄僅約 1.5 小時，且班次不斷增加，導致去年國內搭機旅客較前年大幅流失了 27％，尤以北高航線減少 50％、台北至台南減少 52％最為驚人。