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cutbacks/closures in Railfan's newsfeed

miyakoji

By miyakoji
in Japan Rail: News & General Discussion

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miyakoji

miyakoji

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Japan Railfan (Tetsudou Fan) update their news page once every 12 to 96 :) hours, their most recent update has added a lot of news items, unfortunately a large number of them are about taking rolling stock off certain services, or worse, outright service cutbacks and closures.  A summary:

  • JR Shikoku is taking older 2000 series DMUs off the Anpanman train (Shiokaze and Ishizuchi services) and replacing them with 8000 series EMUs
  • Tobu eliminates commuter express services on the Tojo Line, converting them to sub-express (junkyu) service.  Commuter express services had been in operation on the line since August 1987.
  • JNR-era 185 series rolling stock is off JR East's Akagi and Swallow Akagi services.  These services will be operated with 651 series cars.  It doesn't say that the 185s are completely gone, though, so maybe they're still used on Hamakaiji or Ohayo/Home Liners or something.
  • The Shinano no longer visits Osaka once a day.  Shinano services 9 and 16 constituted one round trip between Nagano and Osaka, but that has been cut back to Nagoya like all other Shinano runs.
  • JR Central KIHA11 series 0 subseries are now fully retired. There were a few spares, I guess technically still available for service, at Ise Depot since ending regular service on July 31st of last year
  • Odakyu discontinues sectional sub-express service, replaces them with locals
  • JR East retires 415-1500 series EMUs from the Joban and Mito lines.  These were based at Katsuta Depot and entered service in 1986, so they predated JR East.  They will be replaced with additional E531s that have recently been built.
  • Through services from JR west territory to JR Central's Ogaki Station (in the morning, and from Ogaki in the evening) have ended.
  • JR East retires 115 series cars from the Joetsu Line between Minakami and Nagaoka
  • JR Hokkaido closes Kanehana Station

And a bit of good news...

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railsquid

railsquid

Posted
Posted

 

Japan Railfan (Tetsudou Fan) update their news page once every 12 to 96 :) hours, their most recent update has added a lot of news items, unfortunately a large number of them are about taking rolling stock off certain services, or worse, outright service cutbacks and closures.  A summary:.

...

 

That's not necessarily a cutback, more a rejiggling of complex service patterns/timetable simplification, possibly connected with the ongoing line doubling (last section due for completion in 2017).

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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Some comments:

 

1. The JR Shikoku 2000 Series DMU will probably be rebuilt as regular limited express trains to serve various destinations in southern Shikoku from Okayama.

 

2. I think we'll see a lot less 185 Series EMU in Tokyo area service, as many trainsets have already been retired and scrapped. They'll probably still be around for the Odoriko service from Tokyo to down the eastern Izu Peninsula for the foreseeable future, though.

 

3. I'm not surprised that JR Central is cutting back the Shinano to start at Nagoya only. Maybe there wasn't enough patronage to warrant that one trip per day between Osaka and Nagoya anymore. That could mean the Hida limited express may no longer have that one trip per day from Gifu to Osaka fairly soon.

 

4. The original KiHa 11-0 lack a number of features of later-production KiHa 11 models, and their age (built around 1989-1990) was probably why they're being retired. Especially now that many routes that used the KiHa 11 are being switched over to the KiHa 25 and 75.

 

5. I'm actually surprised JR West ran that through service from Maibara to Ogaki for all these years. This change means everyone will have to change trains at Maibara Station.

 

6. The retirement of the 115 between Nagaoka and Minakami means JR East now has enough E129's to take over services that used to require the 115. Of course, my guess is that this could mean JR East may soon be looking at retiring the 115 between Takao and Shiojiri Stations.

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Kabutoni

Kabutoni

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Odakyu has now direct operations from Hon-Atsugi all the way to Abiko on the JR East Jyoban line, with either Odakyu, Chiyoda line or JR East trains. It was quite a pleasant surprise to see a few E233-2000 in action yesterday on the Odawara line!

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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Toni, why does Odakyu wants to end their trains at JR East Abiko Station, unless it's they want access to the train storage yard just east of the station? Wouldn't it be more convenient to go all the way to Toride?

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Kabutoni

Kabutoni

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Toni, why does Odakyu wants to end their trains at JR East Abiko Station, unless it's they want access to the train storage yard just east of the station? Wouldn't it be more convenient to go all the way to Toride?

 

Most likely because of the depot and the transfer possibility to the JR East Narita line. Toride is probably not important enough for JR East to have a through connection to. Toride only offers a transfer to the Kantō Railway Jōsō line, which is owned by Keisei Group. A company JR East doesn't have the best of relationships with (a direct and fierce competitor on Tōkyō - Narita Airport connections).

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Kabutoni

Kabutoni

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JR East E233-2000 in Hon-Atsugi (last/first station for the new through service) on the Odakyū Odawara line. With the introduction of a new company, Odakyū slowly starts to look interesting again for me personally. IMHO, next year will be even more exciting when the quadruple section at Shimokitazawa will be finished and services will be intensified on the Odawara line.

 

 

Next to that for next year, the Sōtetsu Main line will have a through connection on the JR East Yokosuka/Tōkaidō Freight line (Nishiya - Hanezawa - Tsurumi), and the year after that a through connection to the Tōkyū Tōyoko line (Nishiya - Hanezawa - Shin-Yokohama - Hiyoshi). Also very exciting things to look forward to!

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railsquid

railsquid

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Posted

JR East E233-2000 in Hon-Atsugi (last/first station for the new through service) on the Odakyū Odawara line. With the introduction of a new company, Odakyū slowly starts to look interesting again for me personally. IMHO, next year will be even more exciting when the quadruple section at Shimokitazawa will be finished and services will be intensified on the Odawara line.

 

And boy has that been a long-term project, I remember construction being well under way when I was a student using the line in the mid 90's - fascinating watching the line evolve (and alas lose a lot of its local character, but that's progress I guess).

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railsquid

railsquid

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Posted

Next to that for next year, the Sōtetsu Main line will have a through connection on the JR East Yokosuka/Tōkaidō Freight line (Nishiya - Hanezawa - Tsurumi), and the year after that a through connection to the Tōkyū Tōyoko line (Nishiya - Hanezawa - Shin-Yokohama - Hiyoshi). Also very exciting things to look forward to!

 

And in 2019 the Kanto area railways will be so complexly interconnected that a single platform door failure will bring the whole network to a halt ;)

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