Taiwan Railway to add 26 train services for Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage

Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Taiwan Railway announced Tuesday that it will provide 26 additional train services during the 2024 Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage from April 5-14, with ticket bookings to start Thursday.

Taiwan Railway said in a press release that the extra train services include five Tze-Chiang Limited Express, 19 Fast Local Train, and two Local Train services, on April 5, 6, and 14 to meet the uptick in demand from pilgrims heading to Taichung and Changhua.

In addition, more coaches will be added to a total of 140 train services on the aforementioned dates as well as April 13, it added.

These train services, running normally with four coaches, will have eight coaches instead on these dates.

Ticket reservations will open at midnight on Thursday and people can visit the Taiwan Railway website or the Taiwan Railway e-booking app for more information, such as train schedules and stops.

It also said that on April 5, 13-14, there will be no bicycle-friendly train services on the coastal line between Changhua to Zhunan, including all coastal line stations on the Chengzhui line, which connects the coastal line and the mountain line.

The Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage is an annual event celebrating sea goddess Mazu's birthday. The pilgrimage this year will stop at over 100 temples in Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi, spanning a distance of about 340 km, according to Dajia Jenn Lann Temple in Taichung, which organizes the event each year.

It is the largest Mazu pilgrimage event in Taiwan and can be traced back to 1730 in the Qing Dynasty at the Dajia residence of trailblazer Lin Yung-hsing (林永興).