Caption: Capital Bus 027-U5 operating on Route 307, 2013. Author "Jie Li", CC BY-SA 4.0. Image from Wikimedia Commons file page. 1
30-Second Overview: Route 307 has grown from the Da-You Bus Route 12 in 1969 into today’s Taipei-New Taipei joint-operation bus, moving along the ground streets of Nanjing East Road, Taipei Main Station, Ximending, Zhonghe, and Banqiao. In 2024, it carried over 16.39 million passengers. This article is not about how long a route is, but why a bus that doesn’t take the highway can place office buildings, schools, fruit and vegetable markets, and the memory of the way home on the same route map.
In 1969, Da-You Bus launched an urban line called "Da-You Route 12." In 2024, Route 307 carried 16,397,968 passengers, generating revenue of NT$385,869,853. Its body never crossed the National Highway, yet it passes through Songshan, Nanjing East Road, Taipei Main Station, Ximending, Zhonghe, and Banqiao every day. 2 3
The counter-intuitive point of this route lies here: Route 307 is not the fastest inter-city transport, nor is it a scenic line designed for tourism. It simply follows the streets that the city has already grown, yet it packs commuting to work, going to school, buying groceries, seeing a doctor, transferring, and going home into the same carriage. Many people remember one sentence: "As long as the bus stop has Route 307, you know you can still get home."
A Route Grows from the Door of a Company
The Da-You Route 12 in 1969 initially ran between Songshan and Taipei Main Station. Renjian Fubao records that Da-You Bus’s headquarters at the time was near today’s Nanjing East Road and the MRT Nanjing Sanmin Station, so this route was like a daily artery connecting the company’s doorstep to the urban area. 2
It initially served only one company and one city, later becoming a loop, divided into Route 12 Right and Route 12 Left depending on whether it went via Nanjing East Road or Xinyi Road first. In 1977, Route 12 Left was merged into Route 204, while Route 12 Right joined the joint-operation bus system and extended to Banqiao, renamed Route 307. 2 4
The number "307" thus leaves two layers of time. The first layer is the Route 12 launched by Da-You Bus in 1969; the second layer is the joint-operation line in 1977 that connected the Songshan end and the Banqiao end. The route name changed, but the people who needed it in the city did not disappear together.
Source: Renjian Fubao, Lvmanwu, Wikipedia Route 307 entry, institutional background referenced from Taipei City Government English official introduction
The Joint-Operation System Turns Buses from Different Companies into One City Network
The story of Route 307 cannot be viewed solely through a single route. The Taipei City Government English official introduction states that Taipei City established the Joint-Operation Bus Preparation Committee in 1976, and began the joint-operation system on April 30, 1977, unifying route numbers, fare systems, and fares. Each operator still retains its own vehicles, assets, and legal liabilities, but passengers can move within the same ticket system and stop-position system. 5
This institutional background explains why Route 307 could transform from Da-You Route 12 into a joint-operation line crossing Taipei City and New Taipei City. The route originally belonged to a single operator, later being placed into a larger public transport network. For passengers, the most perceptible institutional reform was not the name of the committee, but the fact that vehicles from different companies could continue the same route number. 5
It Doesn’t Take Shortcuts, It Takes Life Density
Departing from Zhuangjing Li in Songshan, Route 307 passes through the office area of Nanjing East Road, crosses LinSEN North Road and Taipei Main Station, then enters Zhonghua Road, Ximending, Wanda Road, crosses the Huazhong Bridge, and follows Zhonghe Liancheng Road and Yuanshan Road into Banqiao. Taipei Bus’s route map marks today’s start and end points as "Banqiao – Fuyuan Street," listing the first and last buses at approximately 05:00 to 22:10. 6
This route map reads like a string of place names, but those who have ridden it read it as a string of life events. Taipei Main Station is for transferring, Ximending is for shopping, the Fruit and Vegetable Market is the city in the early morning, Yuanshan is for schools and residences, Banqiao is for transfers and going home. Route 307 connects these places via ground roads. Passengers see not the full picture of the city out the window, but segments of how the city is used.
Early route records also preserved another scale. Lvmanwu compiled that Route 307 extended over the Huazhong Bridge in 1977, going through Zhonghe to Banqiao, initially adopting a three-zone fare, only adjusting to a two-zone fare in 1979. These fare changes are not just small print on a fare table; they indicate that a trip once grew long enough to require dividing the city into three sections for calculation. 4
Source: City Studies, Taipei City Public Transportation Office statistics cited, Renjian Fubao
📝 Curator’s Note
The importance of Route 307 lies not in it "passing through many places," but in it allowing these places to be repeatedly used by the same group of people. A city becomes memory only when it has been ridden.
Bus Stops Slice Taipei and New Taipei into Segments
The reason Route 307’s map is suitable for reading the city is that it passes through several different times simultaneously. The rush hour on Nanjing East Road is shirts and breakfast before offices open; the bus stop at Taipei Main Station is the gap where transferring passengers briefly stay; near the Fruit and Vegetable Market is another daily routine starting even earlier. Arriving at Zhonghe and Banqiao, the building heights, school walls, and residential alleys outside the window change to a different rhythm. These places do not become the same kind of life just because they are strung together by the same route. 2 6
The early three-zone fare system of Route 307 also left an institutional scale for this distance. Lvmanwu’s compiled route evolution notes that after Route 307 extended to Banqiao in 1977, it initially used a three-zone fare for pricing, only adjusting to a two-zone fare on September 1, 1979. Today’s passengers won’t see that dividing line when swiping their cards, but "where the second zone begins" was once part of this route. 4
The current official route map marks Route 307 as "Banqiao – Fuyuan Street," with first and last buses approximately 05:00 to 22:10, and lists a two-zone fare and a buffer zone around the Zhonghe National Tax Bureau. These details seem like only the details to check before riding, yet they also explain that Route 307’s role was never a one-time long-distance shuttle, but allowing passengers to get on and off at many intermediate stops. 6
Source: Taipei Bus Official Route 307 Map, Taipei City Public Transportation Office statistics cited
Route 307 in 2023: A High-Density Route Still Working
FTV News English report cited Taipei City Public Transportation Office data indicating that Route 307 carried over 15 million passengers in 2023, with revenue of approximately NT$350 million, and a route length of approximately 49 km. The report also cited operator statements that during weekday rush hours, a bus runs every 3 to 5 minutes, and over half of the 59 vehicles have been replaced with electric buses. Looking at this 2023 data together with 2024 statistics, we can see the route still maintains high volume and is undergoing vehicle energy conversion. 7
The stop sequence listed on the English route page goes from Banqiao Front Station, Xinyue Bridge, Banqiao, Zhonghe, Huazhong Bridge, Fruit and Vegetable Market, MRT Ximending Station, Taipei Main Station, all the way to Nanjing Fuxing, Nanjing Sanmin, and Zhuangjing Li. The density of stop names explains Route 307’s working method better than "crossing Taipei and New Taipei": it doesn’t just connect two endpoints, but provides a large number of life nodes where people can get on and off between the endpoints. 8
Source: FTV News English report, YunBus.TW English stop sequence page
Routes Change, Memories Remain
Route 307 is not a fixed historical specimen. In 2012, after Da-You Bus withdrew, the route was first operated by other companies as a substitute, and in 2013, Taipei Bus and Capital Bus took over joint operations. In 2021, trips via Tibet Road were changed to go via Sanmin Road on Taipei City’s eastern end, allowing different street choices to coexist within the same 307 number. 9 10
Vehicles are also being replaced. Lvmanwu records that in 2014, Route 307 began using three-door low-floor buses, later successively configuring electric low-floor vehicles. These changes are not simply a vehicle model list. Three doors make boarding and alighting faster during rush hours; low floors reduce barriers for wheelchairs, strollers, and slower-moving passengers; electric buses push a high-density route toward another energy imagination. 4 9
Caption: Capital Bus EAA-150 operating on Route 307. Author "Jie Li", CC BY-SA 4.0. Image uses Wikimedia Commons file page’s free license hotlink embedding, image not downloaded. 11
A route relying only on nostalgia would quickly become a museum exhibit. Route 307 continues to work because it simultaneously retains the demand between Banqiao, Zhonghe, Taipei Main Station, and Songshan, while accepting adjustments to stops, vehicles, and branch flows. For passengers, the bus changed, but the most important thing did not: you can still get off at familiar places. 6 9
The King of Buses Is Not Because It Is the Most Convenient
Renjian Fubao once described Route 307 as the bus with the most passengers and the highest operational revenue for a single route. The report stated that since 2006, its annual revenue has exceeded NT$300 million, reaching approximately NT$410 million in 2011. During rush hours, 20 to 30 buses can be dispatched per hour, approximately one every 2 to 3 minutes, with a fleet configuration of about 100 vehicles. 2
These numbers easily write Route 307 as an operational miracle. But what the numbers truly say is that the life density along the route has become so high that it requires a large number of trips to digest. Buses come frequently because people are moving in different directions at different times. Some commute from Banqiao to Nanjing East Road, some go from Zhonghe to Taipei Main Station, some just go from one market to another.
2024 statistics translate this density into a new scale. City Studies cited Taipei City Public Transportation Office data indicating that Route 307 carried approximately 16.39 million passengers for the year, with revenue exceeding NT$380 million, far higher than Routes 265 and 262 in the same table. 3
Source: City Studies citing Taipei City Public Transportation Office 2025-04-18 statistics
But "King of Buses" does not mean it will never be replaced. The News Lens reported that in 2015, Route 307’s revenue was approximately NT$338 million, lower than the peak of approximately NT$416 million in 2010; the successive opening of the MRT Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Banqiao Line) and Songshan-Xindian Line were seen as background factors for passenger diversion. 12
This is very much like Taipei’s fate: the MRT brought speed into the city, but Route 307 continued to bear things other than speed. The MRT delivers people to a station; Route 307 delivers people to that shop, that school, next to that market. It is a bit slower, but closer to the house numbers of life.
After Da-You Left, the Bus Was Still 307
In 2012, Da-You Bus lost the operating rights for Route 307. In 2013, Taipei Bus and Capital Bus took over joint operations. Wikipedia’s route evolution lists this turning point, while Traffic Matters in a 2020 review wrote it as "missing Da-You’s familiar flavor." 9 10
"Flavor" is not data that can be put into a revenue statement. It might be the seats inside the bus, the driver’s braking rhythm, the font on the front display, or perhaps just a company logo someone rode since childhood. These feelings cannot all be kept by any official route table, so they can only be supplemented by passengers’ own articles, photos, and memories.
Saying Route 307 carries many people’s childhood does not mean everyone rode it, nor does it mean the vehicle conditions and routes were the same across all eras. It is more like a container for public memory. As long as someone slept on the bus, got off at the wrong station at Taipei Main Station, or squeezed onto the bus in Ximending carrying newly bought things, Route 307 has one more version.
In Lvmanwu’s compilation, there are the body styles from the Da-You Bus era, the differences between the South Songshan Line and the Fuyuan Street Line, and the time points of the 2012 right-of-way conversion and 2013 takeover. These photos and texts do not speak for all passengers, but they prevent "the old Route 307" from being reduced to just one sentence: "it had more flavor back then." 4
📝 Curator’s Note
The disappearance of a bus route is often a name change, vehicle change, company change, stop sign change. The part hardest to disappear is actually the fact that people have already remembered which side of the window to look out after getting on.
In 2014, a Bus Sent the City’s Kindness Out
After the 2014 Kaohsiung gas explosions, Route 307 launched a one-day charity run on August 5, donating that day’s revenue. Renjian Fubao recorded that the day’s income was NT$1,433,028. This event turned a route that usually operates on fares into one that temporarily converts passengers’ daily commuting into donations. 2
That day it was still a bus. Passengers still got on, the driver still drove familiar roads, the difference only being that the fare money had another destination. This event is worth preserving not because Route 307 became sacred because of it, but because it allows people to see another side of public transport: a route usually carries people, but occasionally can also carry a city’s response to strangers.
Not Taking the Highway, Yet Still Going Far
Looking back at Route 307 today, the most easily overlooked thing is its choice to stay on the ground. It passes through the commercial area of Nanjing East Road, and also through the residential streets of Zhonghe and Banqiao. It relies on intersections, stop signs, traffic lights, and place names familiar to passengers, not throwing people quickly to the other end of the city.
This also explains why it is stuck together with childhood. Transportation remembered in childhood is usually not the fastest. It is the signs that repeatedly appear outside the window, the moment the body leans forward when the bus stops, the hesitation after an adult says "next stop get off," wanting to stay on for one more stop.
Route 307’s route will be adjusted, vehicles will be updated, and operating companies will change. The Taipei City Government English real-time bus page still lists Route 307’s two-way stops and arrival information 13. The stop names marked on the official route map today are not the same city set as the starting point of Da-You Route 12 in 1969. But that ground line from Songshan to Banqiao, passing through Taipei’s city center and Zhonghe, still reminds us that a city is composed not only of MRT trunk lines and elevated roads, but also of doors that stop every day to let people on. 6
So, the story of Route 307 is not "why an old bus is always first." A closer description is: some routes survive for a long time because every change still retains the places people need to go.
Next time you see 307 at a bus stop, no need to rush to treat it as nostalgia. It is still a working route. Just in the eyes of some passengers, this bus that doesn’t take the highway has already carried many people’s childhood to today.
References
- Jie Li, "Capital Bus 027-U5 307.jpg" — Wikimedia Commons image file page, author "Jie Li", CC BY-SA 4.0, article marks license via file page and author info.↩
- Wang Wenlong, "【Historical Curiosities】The King of Taipei-New Taipei Buses Route 307" — Renjian Fubao 2022 historical report, compiling Da-You Route 12, Route 307 evolution, revenue peak, and the 2014 charity run event.↩23456
- Cai Wenxuan, "Taipei's 'King of Buses' Earns 380 Million Annually! 16.39 Million Love Riding, Routes 265 and 262 Lose Miserably" — City Studies 2025 special article, citing Taipei City Public Transportation Office data to compare 2024 passenger volume and revenue for Routes 307, 265, and 262.↩2
- Kye Huang, "[Taipei ● Joint-Operation] The King of Buses Route 307: Forty Years of a Golden Route" — Lvmanwu’s traffic photography and route compilation, preserving folk records of Da-You Route 12, three-zone fares, Fuyuan Street Line, and vehicle replacement.↩2345
- Taipei City Public Transportation Office, “Brief Introduction of Buses” — Taipei City Government English official introduction, explaining the establishment of the 1976 Joint-Operation Bus Preparation Committee and the 1977 joint-operation system, and the institutional relationship between operators, fare systems, and common stop positions.↩2
- Taipei Bus, "Route 307 Inquiry" — Taipei Bus official route map, providing Banqiao–Fuyuan Street start/end, stop sequence, service time, fare system, and buffer zone information.↩2345
- FTV News, “The 307 bus in Greater Taipei served 15 million journeys in 2023” — FTV News English report, citing Taipei City Public Transportation Office and operator statements, providing 2023 passenger volume, revenue, route length, rush hour headway, and electric vehicle proportion.↩
- YunBus.TW, “[Taipei] 307” — English stop sequence page, listing outbound and inbound stops from Banqiao Front Station to Zhuangjing Li, suitable for verifying current route nodes, not bearing historical evolution claims.↩
- "Taipei Joint-Operation Bus Route 307" — Wikipedia’s compilation of Route 307 evolution and stop sequence, covering 2012 operating rights, 2021 branches, low-floor and electric vehicle updates, with important numbers cross-verified against official or media sources.↩234
- Traffic Matters, "The Irretrievable 307, Missing Da-You’s Familiar Flavor" — 2020 traffic culture review post, supplementing Da-You Bus era, pre-Route 12, revenue peak, and operating rights conversion with passenger memory folk observations.↩2
- Jie Li, "Capital Bus EAA-150 307.jpg" — Wikimedia Commons image file page, author "Jie Li", CC BY-SA 4.0, article uses Wikimedia hotlink embedding without downloading image.↩
- Yang Zhiyu, "Bus Network Reform Will Follow Four Models, Route Revenue King 307 to Save Performance with Interval Buses" — The News Lens 2016 network reform report, explaining Route 307’s revenue changes after MRT opening and bus performance discussions.↩
- Taipei City ATIS, “307 bus real-time information” — Taipei City Government English real-time bus page, providing 307’s station and real-time arrival status, serving as the official current entry point for the route’s continued operation, not writing real-time minutes as permanent statistics.↩
