11 tickets to ride

Recently I bumped into an acquaintance at Zuoying High Speed Rail Station (左營高鐵站). Uncharacteristically, he appeared to be hawking bullet train tickets. I asked what was up, and he told me about a scheme he’d joined to obtain the tickets at a heavy discount.I was impressed. Not so much by the scheme itself, but by the level of social trust necessary to make it work.I doubt it would work in most other countries.As best I can understand, here’s how things played out:BackgroundReserved bullet train seats between Kaohsiung and Taipei typically cost NT$1,490 (NZ$75). It’s a 350 km journey that takes 96 minutes, hence the title of this 2025 Taiwanese action film (now on Netflix).If you’re in a group of 11 or more, you can get discounts of around 30–40% off the standard price.But what if you’re traveling alone?Act I: The organizer makes his moveSome random guy, the ‘organizer’, makes a post on Facebook.In Chinese, it reads something like: Are you traveling from Kaohsiung to Taipei on [date]?…