Arriving in Kaohsiung: the Metro from the Airport, Paying at the Gate, and Day Passes
How to get from Kaohsiung International Airport into the city on the Red Line, how the fare is set, which cards and tickets the gates take, the 24-hour and 48-hour passes, and the link to Zuoying for the high-speed rail.
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Kaohsiung International Airport has its own station on the metro’s Red Line, under the terminal. Before you fly, file Taiwan’s free online arrival card. If you are heading north on the high-speed rail, whether a THSR visitor pass pays for your route works through the fares from Zuoying, and the Taipei arrival guide covers the other end.
The Red Line from the airport
Kaohsiung International Airport station is R4. Trains towards Gangshan run north through Formosa Boulevard (R10), where the Red and Orange lines cross, and Kaohsiung Main Station (R11) to Zuoying (R16), the high-speed rail station. Kaohsiung Metro’s timetable, updated 21 September 2026, is the same every day:
| From the airport | First train | Last train |
|---|---|---|
| Towards Gangshan, into the city | 05:57 | 24:02 |
| Towards Siaogang | 06:27 | 24:48 |
Fares are set by distance. Kaohsiung Metro’s FAQ puts the minimum at NT$20 and the maximum at NT$60. The fare for your trip is in its online fare search and on the fare chart above the ticket machines in each station. Children under six travel free with a paying passenger.
Paying at the gate
- QR tickets. Taiwan’s Tourism Administration says Kaohsiung Metro’s single-journey tickets have all been replaced with QR code tickets, sold at station machines and service desks. A paper QR ticket is valid on the day you buy it, for entry at the station where you bought it, and stops working once it is scanned.
- Stored-value cards. iPASS, EasyCard and icash are tapped on “the sensor area below the screen of the fare gates”. An empty iPASS card costs NT$100 at a station, in cash.
- Phones and bank cards. Kaohsiung Metro’s payment page lists mobile NFC payment with Visa, Mastercard, JCB or China UnionPay credit cards, after online verification with your bank. Its card page does not list which cards work when tapped directly, so carry an iPASS or EasyCard as well.
With the fare only in an online search and times on the metro’s app, you need data at the gate. A Saily eSIM set up before you fly is online in Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is often one stop on a longer trip, and one Saily profile takes a plan for each country.
Day passes
Kaohsiung Metro sells two passes at station service desks, for cash:
| Pass | Price |
|---|---|
| 24-hour pass | NT$180 |
| 48-hour pass | NT$280 |
Each is “valid for unlimited travel at Kaohsiung Metro” from the moment it is first scanned at a gate. The pass page does not mention the light rail or the ferry.
To Zuoying, and emergency numbers
At Zuoying (R16), exit 1 leads to the high-speed rail station and exit 2 to the TRA’s New Zuoying station.
Taiwan’s Tourism Administration lists 110 for police, 119 for fire and ambulance, and 112 for emergencies when your phone signal is poor. Its 24-hour toll-free travel hotline, 0800-011-765, answers in Mandarin, English, Japanese and Korean.
Saily, a data eSIM you install before you fly and top up per country Our full write-up. (affiliate link)