Monday 3 March 2014

New Timetable: Coming Soon

New timetable poster is seen on the platform of Inagi-Naganuma Station
 
I can't believe that it's March already. Time really flies. March is a season of "new timetables". Needless to say, many railway companies change their timetables during this month. For instance, JR East plans to change their timetable on 15th March. According to their press release, there are two topics on Shinkansens.

Firstly, JR East plans to raise the maximum speed of the EMU E6 series from 300km/hour to 320km/hour. The E6 series debuted in March last year. It is a so-called mini-shinkansen train, which took over the E3 series on the Tohoku and the Akita Shinkansen. The E6 series is coupled and operated with the E5 series, "Hayabusa", from Tokyo to Morioka. The E6 is then detached after arriving at Morioka Station, and runs by itself to Akita, since the route between Morioka and Akita is constructed as a mini-shinkansen. All E5+E6 coupled trains; "Hayabusa+Komachi" will be operated with the maximum speed of 320km/hour starting March 15th.

Secondly, JR East plans to launch a new shinakansen train, the EMU E7 series on the Nagano Shinkansen. Connecting Takasaki, a northern city in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and Nagano, the route length of the Nagano Shinkansen is 117.4km. All trains on the Nagano Shinkansen are directly operated into Tokyo via Joetsu and Tohoku Shinkansens. The brand new train, the E7 series will replace the present E2-N series gradually. The maximum operating speed of the E7 series will be 260km/hour.

The new timetable is coming up soon.

 
Cockpit of the EMU JR East E6 series
 
More information about new Shinkansen, EMU JR East E7 series (in Japanese):
http://www.jreast-shinkansen.com/e7.index.html
More information about EMU JR East E6 series (in Japanese):
http://www.jreast-shinkansen.com/e6.index.html
More information about EMU JR East E5 series (in Japanese):
http://www.jreast-shinkansen.com/e5.index.html