Tokaido-Tohoku-Hokkaido Shinkansen through service?

[RossDensha]

Hello all,

 

With the Sapporo extension of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, is there any viability whatsoever of a though service from the Tokaido to the Tohoku and Hokkaido Shinkansen routes?

[railsquid]

No.

 

Different electrical systems, different running conditions, you'd risk delays on one system affecting the other, and above all not enough demand for through-services to make the additional costs viable.

[RossDensha]

Simple answer.

Thanks

[railsquid]

The question comes up from time to time...

 

The other thing is that both sets of Shinkansen platforms are right next to each other at Tokyo Station, so anyone going from say Shizuoka to Sendai can change trains with relative ease.

 

Now, if I had a serious amount of fantasy infrastructure spending money what I'd do is extend the Tokaido Shinkansen tracks north to Ueno with a connecting track to the existing depot near Tabata, and the same with the northern Shinkansen lines to Shinagawa  and connect to the depot south of there, and switch the depots around so Tokaido line trains come from the northern deport and northern Shinkansens from the southern depot, which would free up paths used by empty stock running "backwards" to/from the depots, improve access to both networks and add additional possibilities for changing between networks., e.g. at Ueno station where there are two platforms/four tracks (which are overkill since the northern Shinkansen was extended to Tokyo) cross-platform interchange might be possible.

 

Never going to happen of course.

[Kiha66]

Interesting question and answer. Thanks Ross and Squid!