Florian Stöger

Florian Stöger

@fdms.eu

Young explorer // trains and spaces, travel and places // transit information design and local politics by day, rail travels by night // from Vienna 🇪🇺

3K followers2.1K following6.3K posts

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Thanks for all the follows, there are now even more of you than on the old app <3 Time for a quick introduction: My skeets are mostly about travel and other impressions with a focus on mobility and urban planning issues. Professionally …

Wild how local/suburban trains here are equipped for hyper-inefficient conductor door operation, but do nothing to speed it up in the slightest – opening alone takes forever, since the conductor has to open the door where they're standing, step onto the platform, and only then open all the others.

Ofc the same happens in reverse with closing, and in the end even the door where the conductor is standing doesn't close right away – it makes door closing warning beeps first, and only then finally closes. Whole process just takes forever, and ofc repeats at every single stop no matter how small

Beginning to think global transit and passenger rail discourse should focus more, not less, on euro best practices …

New Taipei's new elevated Sanying Line – opened in June 2026 – is somehow insanely bad - Extremely tight curves everywhere (10 km/h!) - Goes just 20 km/h before, during and after even the gentler curves - Overcrowded 2-car trains that run only every 8 mins (mid-day) - Overbuilt stations

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Even on its straight segments, whoever designed and runs this line apparently decided trains should just crawl almost the entire time

'Safe waiting zones' are a dumb concept on longer platforms too, but feel particularly weird here where they cover 2 of the 6 doors and many platforms are even staffed by security guards

New Taipei's new elevated Sanying Line – opened in June 2026 – is somehow insanely bad - Extremely tight curves everywhere (10 km/h!) - Goes just 20 km/h before, during and after even the gentler curves - Overcrowded 2-car trains that run only every 8 mins (mid-day) - Overbuilt stations

Taipei has somehow found a way to have boarding queue decals that are even worse – the queue blocks the entire left or right half of the doors, and which side it is varies from door to door, meaning there is no way for exiting passengers to anticipate if they're about to get overrun

I'll never understand why so many mainland Chinese metros, already facing the world's most undisciplined passengers when it comes to letting people exit first, are putting up queuing decals instructing people to block half the width of train doors (even on this Shenzhen metro line run by HKMTR!)

The narrow-gauge ICE 1 are still in service <3 (We were under the impression Taiwan Railways replaced all those locos?)

Painted sidewalks in Kaohsiung – not great, but still an above-average pedestrian experience by Taiwan standards

#notallshinkansen (yes passengers do wait on the platforms here for their hsr trains to arrive <3)

Florian Stöger reposted

I love how many free railway cultural parks there are in Taiwan, Hamasen Park in Kaohsiung being my favorite so far! Seems like the railways hold an important place in Taiwanese society.

Cycling among the hundreds of mopeds is much healthier in mainland China (where all of them are electric), but thanks to the excellent Taiwan-wide bikeshare system and its geared bikes, it's infinitely faster and more fun here Some more Taichung, Taiwan cycling thoughts …

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Forced to revise my 'good road culture' assessment tbh – way too many close passes from mopeds, plus someone just fell off their moped in the middle of the intersection after a collision w another moped, and no one (not even the other driver) stopped

Cycling among the hundreds of mopeds is much healthier in mainland China (where all of them are electric), but thanks to the excellent Taiwan-wide bikeshare system and its geared bikes, it's infinitely faster and more fun here Some more Taichung, Taiwan cycling thoughts …

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Bike infrastructure otoh is extremely lacking. The only physically separated bike infrastructure I've seen here so far is on the elevated MRT corridor opened in 2021, and even there the bike paths are nonsensically signed as shared 'yield to peds' and literally go straight through bus shelters

That being said, while nowhere near as many as moped users, bike riders seem quite numerous here, and the culture on the road makes riding a bike relatively comfortable Final note: Many urban intersections here sadly have extremely long signal cycles, which spoils the fun a bit

Cycling among the hundreds of mopeds is much healthier in mainland China (where all of them are electric), but thanks to the excellent Taiwan-wide bikeshare system and its geared bikes, it's infinitely faster and more fun here Some more Taichung, Taiwan cycling thoughts …

Taiwan's bikeshare system, YouBike, is imo genuinely among the best worldwide. While discounts (most cities offer the first 30 min free) require a Taiwanese phone number, the base rate which is also available to foreigners is very affordable (€0.27 / 30 min), and the system is extremely popular

Safety demo video set entirely on an airplane, and with the demos performed entirely by non-cartoon characters, wild

Yes, this *six-platform* light rail interchange station that sits *under a building* absolutely needs platform roofs, why are you asking

Find yourself someone who invests in you as much as Hong Kong invests in this ridiculously low-capacity light rail system

Spot the one-car, non-articulated light rail train (in revenue service) Estate buildings and platform count – this stop has five platforms altogether – included just for scale

Seeing so, so many MTR station escalators in HK with staff standing around in front of them just to hold usage instruction signs, I'll never make fun of mainland China metros again for playing nonstop escalator usage instructions through loudspeakers

(To be clear, the MTR ofc is playing extremely frequent escalator safety announcements too – throughout the entire station, even inside the bathrooms)

(Despite extensive noise barriers, you can still very much feel the highway's presence not just while right underneath it)

They're playing loud audible ads, almost continuously even, onboard MTR trains in Hong Kong now? Shenzhen had attendants roaming around the trains holding "no [phone] loudspeakers" signs, and now this

I'll never understand why so many mainland Chinese metros, already facing the world's most undisciplined passengers when it comes to letting people exit first, are putting up queuing decals instructing people to block half the width of train doors (even on this Shenzhen metro line run by HKMTR!)

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(This art complex in Shenzhen's Longhua district – also including a library and art center – opened about a month ago and really is stunningly beautiful)

C919 paxex verdict: Meh Nothing about it feels particularly modern, announcement sound quality is really poor, and bathrooms are in rough shape for a plane that's only been in service for a year