With the Chinese New Year vacation just around the corner, people have been experiencing traffic jams on the reservation hotline in order to purchase the advance tickets for high-speed rail.

Now, passengers can also book for their way home via busses or trains starting January 13th. And in order to disperse the crowd, travel discounts are being offered for rides during off-peak hours.

Despite the chilly weather this afternoon, people still sit in this bus station waiting for busses. Lunar New Year is still three weeks away and those wanting advance tickets for busses will be able to get them starting on Thursday morning, January 13th.

This is when pre-sale tickets begin for the Lunar New Year period.

To encourage people to purchase off peak tickets, bus companies are planning special promotional fares.

From early in the morning on January 28th to noon, and from 12:01 on February 8 to 12 midnight, the fare from Taipei to Kaohsiung will be cheaper by 50 NT$. The TRA is also offering tickets for sale from January 13th at 6 am on eastern routes and the southern and northern rail link, with telephone and Internet bookings available.

And on January 14th at 6 am, reservations will be accepted on the western line.

During Lunar New Year, Taiwan Railway will offer a total of 465 trains, reminding people that they must purchase reserved tickets within 2 days otherwise they will lose their booking.

The THSR began accepting reservations on January 4th for a total of 1,470 trains over the 9-day holiday.

Apart from trains heading south on morning of Lunar New Year's eve and those heading north on the afternoon of the 4th day of Lunar New Year which have already received bookings accounting for 85% of capacity,

there are still many seats for people to choose from.