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Fukui Railway has announced that it will withdrawn its DeKi 11 electric locomotive from service sometime after the next fiscal year. The DeKi 11 was built in 1927, and is nowadays mainly used for snowplough duties. Still, the vehicle has a light structure and a lack of power, which caused it to derail on multiple occasions. The purchase costs of a new vehicle for snowplough duties has been included in Fukui Railway's 2018 draft budget. The fate of the DeKi 11 has yet been undecided, as neither scrapping nor conservation has been confirmed. Source: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20180227/k00/00e/040/286000c

As of this month, the Fukui and Echizen railways have through running operations on the Echizen Mikuni Arawa line from Tawaramachi to Wakazuka Haribara. This is done with modern low-floor trams. Our JNS member Ayakoi has made a front view video already! The whole ride is a wonderful mixture of inner city street running to an interurban experience through the rice fields. There is about one run per hour in each direction, but these are express services all the way from Echizen Takefu to Wakazuka Haribara: http://www.echizen-tetudo.co.jp/railway/transfer_fukutetsu.html It's quite an impressive and lengthy service for low-floor train operations, with mixed high-floor operations. IIRC, the whole Fukui Railway network has been transformed to low-floor operations, starting in 2006, while still having high-floor rolling stock in operation. Here a promotional flyer with timetable and statistical explanation for the through operations: http://www.echizen-tetudo.co.jp/railway/image/timetable_160327.pdf