Tourism New Hokuriku Shinkansen Line extension

The new extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen between Kanazawa, Ishikawa, and Tsuruga, Fukui, will be opened to the public on 16 March 2024. On Friday, East Japan Railway Co. and West Japan Railway Co. submitted the ticket fares to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry:

A reserved seat from Tokyo Station to Tsuruga Station will cost JPY 16,360, while it will cost JPY 15,810 between Tokyo and Fukui stations and JPY 11,870 between Nagano and Tsuruga stations. For non-reserved seats, the fare will be JPY 15,830 between Tokyo and Tsuruga, JPY 15,280 between Tokyo and Fukui and JPY 11,340 between Nagano and Tsuruga.

Click to expand...

The fastest train on the line will link Tokyo and Tsuruga in three hours and eight minutes, according to East Japan Railway and West Japan Railway, known as JR East and JR West, respectively. Meanwhile, the fastest travel time between Tokyo and Fukui will be two hours and 51 minutes — down 36 minutes from the time required on the current shortest route, which uses JR West's Hokuriku Main Line and the Tokaido Shinkansen Line operated by Central Japan Railway, or JR Tokai. The Kagayaki train will travel between Tokyo and Tsuruga directly, making nine round trips per day. The Hakutaka train will make five round trips with more stops. Some Kagayaki services will stop at stations between Kanazawa and Tsuruga.

Click to expand...

It'll never be able to compete with the Tokaido Line until they start having better on-board entertainment. Case in Point:

The first train for the newly extended Hokuriku Shinkansen line, Kagayaki 501, bound for Tsuruga, departed at 6:16 a.m. from Tokyo Station, connecting Tokyo and Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture. The new section covers 125 kilometres and six stations between Kanazawa and Ishikawa Prefecture through Tsuruga.

A similar ceremony was held at Tsuruga Station at about the same time to celebrate the departure of the first train bound for Tokyo. West Japan Railway Company President Hasegawa Kazuaki said he expects the new service will have an impact on the hearts of many users from across Japan and overseas, and make a difference for the future. The new section was completed at a cost of 1.67 trillion yen, or about 11 billion dollars. The launch was delayed for one year due to additional construction work and shortages of workers.

Click to expand...

Two types of trains, Kagayaki and Hakutaka, will directly connect Tokyo and Tsuruga stations. The fastest one-way trip between the two takes 3 hours and 8 minutes -- 50 minutes shorter than a conventional train between Kanazawa and Tsuruga. A further extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tsuruga to Shin-Osaka has been planned, but impact assessment procedures for areas along the line must be completed first.

The local paper we get, 北國新聞, has gone nuts not only with special inserts, but effectively giving use two newspapers, and one is nothing but heavy color pics/illustrations, surrounded by congratulatory 'ads' from all sorts of businesses. One of these was 20+ pages of that. I guess the end of the Thunderbird here, too--lots of people crowded on to be on it for that last run.

My personal view is that there are too many stops on the Hakutaka. I'm not sure if ridership to those closely spaced smaller towns will support it, but I suppose there's some politics going on. Komatsu, the next stop down from Kanazawa, built a huge station, but not enough distance between here and there to get any speed going, and the same with the following stops.

johnnyG said:

... I guess the end of the Thunderbird here, too--lots of people crowded on to be on it for that last run. ...

Click to expand...

Looks like one of those runs was delayed in Tsuruga! I wasn't looking, but didn't notice any mention of this in our local paper--maybe because it happened a ways away?