E7 - Blog Posts

Kanazawa-Tsuruga Shinkansen extension open!

Since yesterday, these beauties (seen at Takasaki on the same trip I had that "race" into Omiya) have another 120 km of track to play on, as the Hokuriku Shinkansen extends further West along the coast of the Sea of Japan into Fukui Prefecture.

Of course, the best news here is that travel times between Kanazawa and Tsuruga are slashed - let me rephrase: halved - compared to the previous fastest express services. The dream of completing the route to Kyoto and Osaka is in reach, and if you add the Maglev line, there could, in the long-term future, be three full high-speed Tokyo-Osaka lines: the historic South coast route, the scenic North coast route and the ultra-fast route straight through the middle.

But there are other consequences. As has become the standard along the Hokuriku route, the old line has immediately been sold off to a "third sector" company - largely run and subsidised by local authorities for as long as they're happy to keep the line open. Only all-stop trains are operated by these third sector companies, so there are only two options: very slow local trains, or very fast, but all the more expensive, high-speed trains. No rapids, no expresses.

The express trains which used to go to Kanazawa now all terminate early at Tsuruga, including the Thunderbirds - of course, technologically advanced Japan has more than the five Thunderbirds Gerry Anderson could muster! This display board seen in 2016 is not likely to be seen again. And if the route to Kyoto is completed, will the name disappear altogether, or continue as an omnibus Shinkansen service to Toyama? Maybe resurrect the original name Raichô (yes, similar to the Pokémon)?

Train geek notes aside, the future's hopefully bright for the region this new stretch of line serves, which was hit hard by the New Year Earthquake.

北陸新幹線おめでとうございます!

Heading towards Tokyo, two high-speed Shinkansen lines join up roughly 8 km North of Ômiya. I am riding an E7 train from Nagano, and at the junction, a red E6 coming down from Akita on the other line appears, coupled to a bright green E5 which has come all the way from the Northern island of Hokkaido. Another E5 shoots in the other direction, having just left Ômiya.

My train is overtaking, and I exchange amused waves with the passengers who have just seen an E7 appear out of nowhere in their window, but the long nose of the E5 just gives it the win at Ômiya station.

There could be clearer pictures of these impressive trains in the future, but for now, that's the story behind the blog's banner picture!

Location of the first photo (link to OpenStreetMap)