 On
Tuesday, 6 June 2006, East
Japan Railway Company (JR East) announced that it
will make almost all its trains completely non-smoking
by
Spring of 2007. This includes all Shinkansen "bullet
trains" (Tohoku, Joetsu, Yamagata and Akita lines)
as well as all Limited Express (Tokkyu) trains operating
only within JR East territory. At present some long-distance
express trains such as the Narita Express or the Nagano
Shinkansen are already non-smoking.
To
accommodate smokers, JR East is planning to increase
the number of 'smoking rooms' on the station platforms
for long-distance trains: there will be 32 such spots
in 21 stations. A few trains such as overnight sleepers
and special event trains will still allow some smoking.
The status of trains that cross into the territory
of other companies will be decided by discussions with
those companies.
These
changes reflect the JR East's continual push for
a healthier travel environment, efforts that began
in 1992 with the creation of separate smoking areas
in the stations of Tokyo's
Yamanote Loop Line. Please note that in March of
this year, Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido)
was the first JR company to make all
its trains completely non-smoking. This policy,
that took place on 18 March, eliminated all smoking
cars and all smoking 'corners' on
trains and was a response to public pressure for the change. Platforms
may continue to have special locations for smokers,
and trains that operate across
into JR East territory may still have smoking cars, until the ban on
smoking in JR East takes place.
JR
Kyushu announced its new non-smoking policy on 31 October
2006. See the separate news item above for details.
> See
details (JR East page) |
Central
Japan Railway Company (JR Central) announced that since
running tests on the Series N700 have been implemented
using a pre-mass production trainset since April 2005 and
its fundamental performance has been confirmed, the introduction
plan for the mass production trainset to be produced by
both companies has been decided on as follows.
East
Japan Railway Company (JR East) has researched and
developed a fuel cell system for railcars as an independent
type
motive power system that reduces the burden on the
global environment and can also overcome the problem
of exhaustion of fossil fuels. Based on these results,
the company is proceeding with development of the world's
first fuel cell hybrid railcar.