Don’t really understand why more Japanese don’t relocate to Hokkaido. Nicer nature, fewer people- all in all a much healthier living environment than Honshu. Maybe Hokkaido should study what they are doing in Colorado. 2031 is far too long a period. In China they would do this stretch in 5 years.
To increase ridership (and revenue), intra-Hokkaido services should be enhanced. An extension of the high speed line to Asahikawa and dual-gauge conversion of Shin-Hakodate to Hakodate would allow for a dedicated Hokkaido service linking the three biggest cities in the island. Speeds of 240-250 km/h may be enough for Sapporo-Asahikawa, and dual gauge (or gauge conversion) for the urban access to Asahikawa would reduce construction cost for a line that gets right into the city center. That being the case, trains would have to be made to Mini Shinkansen clearances, but thst should not be a big problem since demand would still not be extremly high. This way, a very competitive service would be offered inside the island, beating planes and cars with ease. Unlike Tokyo - Sapporo, which will struggle against planes.
Excellent summary of the plans. I really like how comprehensive you are with your videos! I imagine that tourists will also favour taking the new route since they can take advantage of cheaper rail travel.
I also think should make a Nozomi/Mizuho service on the Tohoku-Hokkaido Shinkansen that only stops at Tokyo, Ueno, Sendai, Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, and Sapporo. That way, the travel time can be less than 4 hours (probably around 3.5 hours), making the Shinkansen a no-brainer compared to taking the airliner. The somewhat-minor stops (such as Omiya, Utsonomiya, Fukushima, Morioka, and Shin-Aomori) are slowing the trip a lot as it takes a lot of distance to accelerate and decelerate.
Don't forget that Omiya is a required stop because of the shinkansen deal with Saitama. And that Morioka will be required as long as the Akita shinkansen remains in its current form.
They might also need to stop at Shin-Aomori to change drivers, since that station is the border between JR East territory and JR Hokkaido territory. I don't know exactly how that works, but even if the two companies share rolling stock, I would guess that sharing drivers is more problematic. Currently, all Hayabusas stop at Tokyo, Omiya, Sendai, Morioka, Shin Aomori and Shin Hakodate-Hakuto. All of those are either busy stations or terminus stations, except Shin Aomori. It's a pretty small place mostly for leisure travellers, and the only reason I can see why every express train on the line needs to stop there is because they're changing drivers.
Why can't they raise the speed of the section between Tokyo (Ueno) and Omiya to 210 km/h? The double-decker Shinkansen E4 Max will be retired. Also, the E4 Max has a top speed of 240 km/h, so even that should not restrict the speed limit from being at least 200 km/h. After its retirement, all trains on the line including the Hokuriku and Joetsu Shinkansens will be able to run at 275 km/h. Ueno and Omiya are far enough apart that 180 km/h is effortless, and 210 km/h should be easy to obtain.
I wonder if it would be very busy during the holidays, maybe even have special runs for tourist shinkansens. I can only imagone how expensive the ticket would be tho.
I got interested in this project after buying the Tohoku Shinkansen route for train simulator lol, Would be amazing to one day drive the full run from Tokyo->Sapporo on my pc.
@@whiskeysk nope, the sim only plays from Morioka->Sendai. Their is an extension for the Akita Shinkansen, but it's not completed yet. That would be amazing tho.
Thank you for your video. I have got a question: Why is the Hokkaido Shinkansen going to stop at stations of towns with a population of 10000 inhabitants or below (Yakumo/ Oshamambe)? Isn't it kind of unnecessary for a long distance like a Shinkansen?
There are two reasons. Shinkansen stations will be set up within a certain distance. This is because if passengers have to get off the train due to an earthquake or the like, they need facitily to get off. The other is politics. The government, local governments, and JR are funding the construction of the Shinkansen. Shin-Yakumo was probably chosen because it is an intermediate point between Oshamambe and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto. Oshamambe is necessary as a transfer point to Toya and Muroran.
Excellent overview of all the plans! When we went to Sapporo in fall last year, the total trip back to Tokyo was quite gruelling. I cannot wait for the Shinkansen to cut the journey in half, it will make it so much easier to get to beautiful Hokkaido as a tourist with the JR rail pass.
You can see the construction work at the link below. Although it is a Japanese site, there are many pictures so you can see what kind of construction it is. The photo shows the tunnel construction near Niseko. www.jrtt.go.jp/project/working-report/hokkaido/no67/
