I love traveling through the Seikan Tunnel on Hokkaidō Shinkansen, it is so unusual to pass JR Freight EH-800s hauling container trains when you’re riding on an H5 Hayabusa Shinkansen!
Another superb presentation; excellent use of earth view and historical content with great tour dialogue. Do you have a Japanese language version? I'm sure the huge number of Japanese enthusiasts would enjoy these videos too!
Thanks for your time and effort into making this interesting and informative video! It is unfortunate that there is no more non-Shinkansen passenger service train between Aomori and Hakodate.
That's an interesting idea. Certainly, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto are at the same station as the conventional line, but Shin-Osaka station is a different place from Osaka station. There are many other cases such as Shin-Yokohama and Shin-Kobe. I will make a video about these.
I have fond memories of my two trips to the Seikan Tunnel Museum - I've been by both methods, through getting off the Hakucho at Tappi Kaitei and by using a local train to Minmaya and the bus (with a local bus back to Oku-Tsugaru Imabetsu and northbound on the Shinkansen on return rather than local train). Being able to get off the train on the narrow platform inside the tunnel and doing the tour starting/ending at Tappi Kaitei was a very unique experience - it's a real shame we cannot get off the train in the tunnel anymore. It was much harder to visit via the surface route - I had to plan carefully as the trains and buses are infrequent (I had to leave Aomori on the local train around 6am). Still, you can visit the museum section below the sea using the cable car and I think it's worthwhile if you are interested in the tunnel or big engineering projects in general. There is also a local bus connection between the Seikan Tunnel Museum and Oku-Tsugaru Imabetsu - it stops at Minmaya on the way and it fills some of the lengthy gaps between trains (given their low frequency past Kanita). When I visited Oku-Tsugaru Imabetsu, there were more staff than passengers - there was a manned Midori no Madoguchi with four or five staff, but only one passenger other than my group. There are only a few villages between there and the top of Cape Tappi and given you can still take a train through to Aomori and go lots of places from there, it's not a surprise it's the least used Shinkansen station.
Hello from Russia. Since you slightly touched the passenger statistics of Shinkansens in your "Why does the Tokaido Shinkansen bring so much revenue" video, and since there aren't that many Shinkansen lines to make a top list out of, could you make a top 30 list of JR lines by passenger usage and top 30 lines of third-party railway companies by passenger usage? You could split them by Tokyo and outside of Tokyo, since I'd expect most of those lines to be in Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
why not make the freight trains faster? then it would be easier to separate running times (or possibly not need to). if the narrow gauge is the problem for speed, why not use a gauge change train? you could make JR feight more competitive and speed up the shinkansen services. fast freight is on my mind because the uk has just received the first class 93, which is to be used for 160km/h freight for more timetable slots (and on remaining locomotive passenger trains) thank you for the video. was very fun and educational for me.
I wonder why JR Freight doesn't just discontinue their service and move to ships instead. After all, ships have more capacity and Japan is surrounded by all the water it wants, unlike continental countries where shipping to inland cargo terminals isn't an option. Bulk cargo isn't time-sensitive, so the slower speed by ship shouldn't be a problem. Besides, maintenance will be lower because there is no infrastructure requirements except for the docks.
Yeah, they could move to freight ferries instead of rail. Rail can be essential only between the east and west coasts of Japan. But from Honshu to Hokkaido goods should be carried by ships. I think, they couldn't completely move from rail to marine transport because of lack of ships and unstable weather conditions. Also, in case of tsunami ports will be stopped, rail can save moving of goods. I mostly wonder, why between Tokyo and Osaka there is no straight conventional train without train changes. It will be beneficial to launch local and express train in Tokaido Main line or Chuo Main line to provide small towns cheaper and affordable train service like in South Korea, where except high-speed KTX, there are slower Saemaul and the slowest Mugunghwa trains operate on conventional line between Seoul and Busan, providing slower, but cheaper option for citizens living in small towns among the line. Shinkansen tickets are not cheap, from 13000 yen in Tokyo-Shin-Osaka route and slower and cheeper buses couldn't provide all needs in transportation, supplementary train is needed.
It is difficult to operate a direct train on a conventional line connecting Tokyo and Osaka. The Tokaido Shinkansen is owned by JR Central from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka. However, the conventional Tokaido main line is owned by JR East from Tokyo to Atami, JR Central from Atami to Maibara, and JR West from Maibara to Osaka. And although each JR company was originally a Japanese National Railways, these are now separate companies and are reluctant to operate trains that go directly to other companies. And since JR Central earns most of its revenue on the Tokaido Shinkansen, it is unlikely that it will operate trains that would reduce its revenue.
@@JPRailcom yeah, I understood. That 3 companies want to compete which other. All rail in South Korea is owned by semi-public/governmental Korail company, that is why it could be possible.
Wondering what happened to the "piggybank train" JR Hokkaido was experimenting to address the freight train issue? I wonder what could've been if there's such a thing as a Freight Shinkansen, with the JR companies now testing small-scale deliveries, but imagining actual containers going through it is definitely more difficult...
Your videos are getting better and more informative every time, Takeshi! I liked how in this video you included extra information about the areas surrounding the stations such as a local restaurant and the Shinkansen viewing towers in particular. I would like to see more of this in future videos, please. Are there many stations with viewing towers? A video about where the best viewing towers are would be great! Arigato!
This gets me thinking that perhaps a solution to the issue with moving a Shinkansen though Saga is to upgrade the rail line there to dual gauge. They keep the voltage as clearly they were fine with the existing voltage before. Then they make the claim that it is just a dual gauge track and becuase it is not dedicated to the Shinkansen does not count as a parallel line and thus they could keep thier local train service.
A mini-shinkansen vehicle is required to make the line a dual gauge in Saga prefecture. Even if the gauge is widened, the size of the vehicle must be smaller to match the conventional line standard. However, JR Kyushu refuses the Mini Shinkansen. In addition, JR Kyushu mentions the possibility of not separating parallel conventional lines, and I think that it will eventually become a full-standard Shinkansen.
@@JPRailcom Maybe, if this was the case would not a mini shinkansen vehicle be required in the Seikan Tunnel? In the case of Saga I do not recall passing inside any tunnels, I assume the primary issue would be making the pillars that hold up the electric lines large enough for the train? However, as you said the simplest solution would be for not separating the parallel conventional lines.
@@zeroibis The Seikan Tunnel was built to Shinkansen standard, but with only the narrow-gauge track originally, so is large enough for regular Shinkansen vehicles.
I love traveling through the Seikan Tunnel on Hokkaidō Shinkansen, it is so unusual to pass JR Freight EH-800s hauling container trains when you’re riding on an H5 Hayabusa Shinkansen!
Another superb presentation; excellent use of earth view and historical content with great tour dialogue.
Do you have a Japanese language version? I'm sure the huge number of Japanese enthusiasts would enjoy these videos too!
Many thanks for this explanation. Greetings from Lower Saxony Germany
Can you do a virtual flying tour for the now-cancelled Narita Shinkansen route? Thanks a lot, i really like your channel
Thanks for your time and effort into making this interesting and informative video!
It is unfortunate that there is no more non-Shinkansen passenger service train between Aomori and Hakodate.
This is very informative.
ありがとうございました 🙏
Nice !!
Great video!
Can you do a video on why they didn't build the Tokaido Shinkansen to Osaka (Umeda)?
That's an interesting idea. Certainly, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto are at the same station as the conventional line, but Shin-Osaka station is a different place from Osaka station.
There are many other cases such as Shin-Yokohama and Shin-Kobe. I will make a video about these.
@@JPRailcom Thank you!
I have fond memories of my two trips to the Seikan Tunnel Museum - I've been by both methods, through getting off the Hakucho at Tappi Kaitei and by using a local train to Minmaya and the bus (with a local bus back to Oku-Tsugaru Imabetsu and northbound on the Shinkansen on return rather than local train). Being able to get off the train on the narrow platform inside the tunnel and doing the tour starting/ending at Tappi Kaitei was a very unique experience - it's a real shame we cannot get off the train in the tunnel anymore. It was much harder to visit via the surface route - I had to plan carefully as the trains and buses are infrequent (I had to leave Aomori on the local train around 6am). Still, you can visit the museum section below the sea using the cable car and I think it's worthwhile if you are interested in the tunnel or big engineering projects in general. There is also a local bus connection between the Seikan Tunnel Museum and Oku-Tsugaru Imabetsu - it stops at Minmaya on the way and it fills some of the lengthy gaps between trains (given their low frequency past Kanita). When I visited Oku-Tsugaru Imabetsu, there were more staff than passengers - there was a manned Midori no Madoguchi with four or five staff, but only one passenger other than my group. There are only a few villages between there and the top of Cape Tappi and given you can still take a train through to Aomori and go lots of places from there, it's not a surprise it's the least used Shinkansen station.
very good
Thank you. 🙏
Hello from Russia. Since you slightly touched the passenger statistics of Shinkansens in your "Why does the Tokaido Shinkansen bring so much revenue" video, and since there aren't that many Shinkansen lines to make a top list out of, could you make a top 30 list of JR lines by passenger usage and top 30 lines of third-party railway companies by passenger usage? You could split them by Tokyo and outside of Tokyo, since I'd expect most of those lines to be in Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
Thanks for your commnet. I'll find it.
0:18 Small mistake there, the Hokkaido Shinkansen was opened in 2016, not 2015
Thanks for correction.
So they have 3 rails for the 2 different gages? Great!
why not make the freight trains faster?
then it would be easier to separate running times (or possibly not need to).
if the narrow gauge is the problem for speed, why not use a gauge change train?
you could make JR feight more competitive and speed up the shinkansen services.
fast freight is on my mind because the uk has just received the first class 93, which is to be used for 160km/h freight for more timetable slots (and on remaining locomotive passenger trains)
thank you for the video. was very fun and educational for me.
I wonder why JR Freight doesn't just discontinue their service and move to ships instead. After all, ships have more capacity and Japan is surrounded by all the water it wants, unlike continental countries where shipping to inland cargo terminals isn't an option. Bulk cargo isn't time-sensitive, so the slower speed by ship shouldn't be a problem. Besides, maintenance will be lower because there is no infrastructure requirements except for the docks.
Yeah, they could move to freight ferries instead of rail. Rail can be essential only between the east and west coasts of Japan. But from Honshu to Hokkaido goods should be carried by ships. I think, they couldn't completely move from rail to marine transport because of lack of ships and unstable weather conditions. Also, in case of tsunami ports will be stopped, rail can save moving of goods. I mostly wonder, why between Tokyo and Osaka there is no straight conventional train without train changes. It will be beneficial to launch local and express train in Tokaido Main line or Chuo Main line to provide small towns cheaper and affordable train service like in South Korea, where except high-speed KTX, there are slower Saemaul and the slowest Mugunghwa trains operate on conventional line between Seoul and Busan, providing slower, but cheaper option for citizens living in small towns among the line. Shinkansen tickets are not cheap, from 13000 yen in Tokyo-Shin-Osaka route and slower and cheeper buses couldn't provide all needs in transportation, supplementary train is needed.
It's not impossiblet to stop freight trains but not easy either.
This is a long story and I will explain it in the video.
It is difficult to operate a direct train on a conventional line connecting Tokyo and Osaka.
The Tokaido Shinkansen is owned by JR Central from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka. However, the conventional Tokaido main line is owned by JR East from Tokyo to Atami, JR Central from Atami to Maibara, and JR West from Maibara to Osaka. And although each JR company was originally a Japanese National Railways, these are now separate companies and are reluctant to operate trains that go directly to other companies.
And since JR Central earns most of its revenue on the Tokaido Shinkansen, it is unlikely that it will operate trains that would reduce its revenue.
@@JPRailcom yeah, I understood. That 3 companies want to compete which other. All rail in South Korea is owned by semi-public/governmental Korail company, that is why it could be possible.
Wondering what happened to the "piggybank train" JR Hokkaido was experimenting to address the freight train issue?
I wonder what could've been if there's such a thing as a Freight Shinkansen, with the JR companies now testing small-scale deliveries, but imagining actual containers going through it is definitely more difficult...
The cost was high and the plan was cancelled.
the Italians have a high-speed freight train with etr500 power cars
the question is if it's possible to make one with gauge change.
Your videos are getting better and more informative every time, Takeshi! I liked how in this video you included extra information about the areas surrounding the stations such as a local restaurant and the Shinkansen viewing towers in particular. I would like to see more of this in future videos, please. Are there many stations with viewing towers? A video about where the best viewing towers are would be great! Arigato!
Thanks for your comment. It's really helpful.
This gets me thinking that perhaps a solution to the issue with moving a Shinkansen though Saga is to upgrade the rail line there to dual gauge. They keep the voltage as clearly they were fine with the existing voltage before. Then they make the claim that it is just a dual gauge track and becuase it is not dedicated to the Shinkansen does not count as a parallel line and thus they could keep thier local train service.
A mini-shinkansen vehicle is required to make the line a dual gauge in Saga prefecture. Even if the gauge is widened, the size of the vehicle must be smaller to match the conventional line standard. However, JR Kyushu refuses the Mini Shinkansen. In addition, JR Kyushu mentions the possibility of not separating parallel conventional lines, and I think that it will eventually become a full-standard Shinkansen.
@@JPRailcom Maybe, if this was the case would not a mini shinkansen vehicle be required in the Seikan Tunnel? In the case of Saga I do not recall passing inside any tunnels, I assume the primary issue would be making the pillars that hold up the electric lines large enough for the train?
However, as you said the simplest solution would be for not separating the parallel conventional lines.
@@zeroibis The Seikan Tunnel was built to Shinkansen standard, but with only the narrow-gauge track originally, so is large enough for regular Shinkansen vehicles.