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The member companies of Japan Railways are constantly improving rail service for their millions of passengers by introducing new amenities on trains, increasing service, adding new facilities in stations and expanding information for travelers. In addition JR is always working to make the rail system responsive to the ecological and energy needs of a new century. Read below for some of the changes that may make your rail travel in Japan even more convenient and comfortable.
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Latest News: October - December 2007
Dec 21, 2007 - JR EAST, JR CENTRAL AND JR WEST: IC “SMART CARDS” WILL BE MADE COMPATIBLE FROM MARCH 29, 2008 WITH EXPANSION TO SHIZUOKA AREA
Dec 20, 2007 - JR GROUP: SCHEDULE REVISIONS ON MARCH 15, 2008
Dec 18 , 2007 - JR KYUSHU: NEW RAIL PASS: ‘KYUSHU RAIL PASS - NORTHERN KYUSHU AREA
Dec 12, 2007 - JR EAST AND JR HOKKAIDO: IC ‘SMART CARDS’ TO BE COMPATIBLE BY SPRING 2009
Nov 6, 2007 - JR EAST: INCREASING SPEED ON THE TOHOKU SHINKANSEN
Oct 29, 2007 - JR KYUSHU:IC ‘SMART CARDS’ TO BE INTRODUCED BY SPRING 2009
Oct 17, 2007 - JR KYUSHU & JR WEST: DIRECT SHINKANSEN SERVICE BETWEEN OSAKA AND KAGOSHIMA SCHEDULED FOR 2011
Oct 14, 2007 - JR EAST: ‘THE RAILWAY MUSEUM’ NOW OPEN IN SAITAMA CITY
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| Dec 21, 2007 - JR EAST, JR CENTRAL AND JR WEST: IC “SMART CARDS” WILL BE MADE COMPATIBLE FROM MARCH 29, 2008 WITH EXPANSION TO SHIZUOKA AREA |
On March 1, 2008 the use of Central Japan Railway (JR Central)‘s TOICA card will expand to cover the Shizuoka area. At present the TOICA card covers local trains in the Nagoya area. The addition of Shizuoka area means that local rail all along most of the Tokaido and Sanyo lines are now included.
And as reported before, finally on March 29, 2008 the three IC “Smart Cards”, JR East’s Suica, JR West’s ICOCA and TOICA, will be made compatible.
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Dec 20 , 2007 - JR GROUP: SCHEDULE REVISIONS ON MARCH 15, 2008 |
[Increased Shinkansen service at Shinagawa and Shin-Yokohama]
| Beginning on March 15, all Tokaido Shinkansen line (‘Nozomi’, ‘Hikari’ and ‘Kodama’ trains) departing from/to Tokyo Station will also stop at Shinagawa Station (on the southwest side of downtown Tokyo) and at Shin-Yokohama Station. This will provide a 50% increase in easy access to Shinkansen trains for passengers from the west side of Tokyo and the Kanagawa Prefecture area who are traveling to/from Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka etc. |
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[Other improvements in Shinkansen service]
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Tohoku Shinkansen trains operating between Tokyo and Morioka will reduce travel time by 3 to 6 minutes.
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There will be additional departures of trains on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen lines, the Tohoku and Akita Shinkansen lines (‘Hayate’ and ‘Komachi’ trains) and the Nagano Shinkansen line (‘Asama’ trains).
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A revision to the scheduled stops will speed up service to the Nagoya-Okayama segment on the one ‘Hikari’ train that operates hourly directly between Tokyo and Okayama.
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Continuing the successful introduction of the N700 series Shinkansen, one of the two direct ‘Nozomi’ trains operating each hour between Tokyo and Hakata (Fukuoka) will now be a N700 train.
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‘Nozomi’ service to Tokyo originating in Nishi-Akashi (near Kobe) will be initiated. |
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[Increased service for Limited Express trains on regional lines and for airport Express trains]
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Increased service will begin on the following trains:
- Limited Express ‘Narita Express’ between Narita Airport and Shinagawa, Ikebukuro and Ofuna
- Kansai Airport Rapid Service between Kansai Airport and Osaka
- Rapid Service ‘Airport’ between New Chitose-Airport and Sapporo
- Limited Express ‘Hida’ between Nagoya and Takayama
- Limited Express ‘Kamome’ between Hakata (Fukuoka) and Nagasaki
- Limited Express ‘Sonic’ between Hakata (Fukuoka) and Oita
… and so on.
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There will be an increase in train transfer connections at Fukuchiyama between trains operating from/to Kyoto or Osaka, and trains linking to Kinosaki-Onsen (hot springs) or Amanohashidate (a popular tourist point).
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In the western Japan area there will be schedule improvements in ‘Nozomi’ service to allow more convenient transfers to/from Limited Express trains. |
[Elimination of some overnight trains]
As daytime travel on Shinkansen lines grows faster and more convenient, slow-moving and underused overnight trains are gradually being eliminated.
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The following trains are presently operating twice daily; this will be reduced to once daily beginning.
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- Limited Express ‘Hokutosei’ between Ueno(Tokyo) and Sapporo
- Limited Express ‘Nihonkai’ between Osaka and Aomori
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The following trains will be completely eliminated.
- Limited Express ‘Naha’ between Kyoto and Kumamoto
- Limited Express ‘Akatsuki’ between Kyoto and Nagasaki
- Express ‘Ginga’ between Tokyo and Osaka.
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[Expanding ‘no-smoking’ policy]
JR Shikoku will be joining the trend to ‘no-smoking’ by eliminating smoking cars on all the Limited Express trains within its area. This policy will apply to all seats on these trains.
But please note that long distance Limited Express principally western Japan, and sleeper trains may still have smoking sections. |
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| Dec 18 , 2007 - JR KYUSHU: NEW RAIL PASS: ‘KYUSHU RAIL PASS - NORTHERN KYUSHU AREA |
On January 18, Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) will be introducing a new regional rail pass to encourage visitors to the charms of Kyushu. The new pass will offer unlimited and inexpensive rail travel throughout the northern part of the island for three consecutive days. |
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This new pass will allow rail travelers to explore all the major sites in the northern five prefectures of Kyushu. These include the central locales of Kumamoto, Mount Aso and Oita, as well as other spots north of these such as the major port cities of Fukuoka and Nagasaki, the hot springs of Beppu and Yufuin, the naval port city of Sasebo and the ‘Dutch village’ of Huis Ten Bosch. Most of the attractions of this area are within a three-hour trip from Hakata (Fukuoka) using JR Kyushu’s extensive network of Limited Express trains.
Please note that as with the other JR Kyushu Passes, the Northern Kyushu Area pass is only available to visitors entering Japan on a non-Japanese passport.
> See details (JR Kyushu page) |
| Dec 12, 2007 - JR EAST AND JR HOKKAIDO: IC ‘SMART CARDS’ TO BE COMPATIBLE BY SPRING 2009 |
In the autumn of 2008, JR Hokkaido will introduce its IC ‘smart card’ called Kitaca and by the spring of 2009 the Kitaca card will become compatible with JR East’s existing Suica card. This means that holders of either card will be able to use their cards for local JR transit in the JR East metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Sendai and Niigata and also in the JR Hokkaido metropolitan area of Sapporo.
The existing Suica functions as both a prepaid transit card and also as an electronic money card for shopping; the new Kitaca will have the same functions. The reciprocal use agreement will also cover some non-JR lines such as the Haneda Airport monorail in Tokyo and the Sendai Airport Access train. Both companies hope that this cooperation will enhance the goal of ‘seamless travel’ for their passengers.
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| Nov 6, 2007 - JR EAST: INCREASING SPEED ON THE TOHOKU SHINKANSEN |
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is now planning to extend the Tohoku Shinkansen lines to Aomori in FY 2010. Shinkansen trains will then be able to travel directly from Tokyo to Aomori in about 3 hours 10 minutes with maximum speed 300km/h. At present it takes almost 4 hours with a change of trains.
In FY 2012, the maximum speed will be increased to the highest speed yet within Japan: 320 km/h (almost 200 miles/h). The traveling time between Tokyo and Aomori will be 3 hours 5 minutes.
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| Oct 31, 2007 - JR Bulletin Vol.59 Posted |
| Oct 29 , 2007 - JR KYUSHU: IC ‘SMART CARDS’ TO BE INTRODUCED BY SPRING 2009 |
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In the spring of 2009, Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) will introduce its IC ‘smart card’ called SUGOCA.
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| Oct 23, 2007 - JR HOKKAIDO: THE WORLD’S FIRST ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY “MOTOR-ASSISTED HYBRID TRACTION SYSTEM” SUCCESSFULLY DEVELOPED |
Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) has been developed Innovative Technology Train (ITT) installed with the world’s first “Motor-Assisted (MA) Hybrid Traction System”. This traction system is for the next-generation diesel hybrid system capable of solving a trade-off between the improvement in tractive performance and energy conservation/environmental load reduction with a high cost performance. JR Hokkaido developed this traction system in collaboration with Hitachi Nico Transmission Co., Ltd.
> See technical details |
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| Oct 17, 2007 - JR KYUSHU & JR WEST: DIRECT SHINKANSEN SERVICE BETWEEN OSAKA AND KAGOSHIMA SCHEDULED FOR 2011 |
Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West) are now officially planning direct joint Shinkansen “bullet train” service along the Sanyo Shinkansen (JR West) and Kyushu Shinkansen lines for 2011 when the final Shinkansen link is completed between Hakata and Shin-Yatsushiro (130km) in Kyushu. Shinkansen trains will then be able to travel directly from Shin-Osaka Station to Kumamoto Station in about 3 hours 20 minutes, and all the way to Kagoshima-Chuo Station at the tip of southern Kyushu in roughly 4 hours. At present it takes about five and a half hours from Osaka to Kagoshima with two changes of trains. The new service will also allow travel from Tokyo to Kagoshima in less than seven hours with only one change of train at Shin-Osaka.
The new trains will be based on the Series N700 with train sets of eight cars; 19 sets will be provided by JR West and 10 by JR Kyushu. A decision will be reached regarding the manufacturer of these trains this year. Of course, all plans are tentative and changes may occur before actual operations begin.
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| Oct 14, 2007 - JR EAST: ‘THE RAILWAY MUSEUM’ NOW OPEN IN SAITAMA CITY |
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has just opened ‘The Railway Museum’ in Saitama City in celebration of twenty years of excellence in rail service. The museum replaces the former ‘Transportation Museum’ in Kanda, Tokyo, which was closed in May 2006.
The new JR East museum features 580,000 items on display including 36 actual rail cars. An HO-gauge model railway diorama is the largest of its kind in Japan and there are also several interactive attractions including a miniature Hayate ‘bullet train’ to ride and a train simulator where visitors can take a turn in the driver’s cab. The museum is open from 10:00 to 18:00 daily but is closed on Tuesdays and during the New Year holidays Dec. 29 through Jan.2. The entrance fee for adults is 1,000 yen. The nearest access by JR trains is at Omiya Station.
> See floor guide
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