Question on Thunderbird

[快速リゾートいっぺき]

When riding from Kyoto to Kanazawa on non-reserved seats, which ones are the best and can guarantee seats?

Edited September 21, 2020 by disturbman

[railsquid]

Unless someone's around who does that trip regularly , I doubt you'll get a qualified answer.

 

As train ridership is down across the board, I suspect you'd have a good chance of a seat in general. Turn up as early as possible to be first in the queue. Might be worth tracking reserved seat status for the time you want to travel, which will give an idea how crowded the train might be. But the only way to actually guarantee a seat is a seat reservation.

[bikkuri bahn]

Define "best".  Best legroom, best window seat, quietest?  In general most window seats are good.  If legroom is a concern, avoid the seats that face the bulkheads, tall people may feel a bit constricted.  FWIW in July I took the Thunderbird roundtrip Osaka-Kanazawa, I had the green car all to myself on an evening service to Kanazawa, the return early afternoon regular reserved seat car had maybe two or three other people in addition to myself.  There is less tourist and especially group travel, so expect similar conditions now.  

[快速リゾートいっぺき]

42 minutes ago, bikkuri bahn said:

Define "best".  Best legroom, best window seat, quietest?  In general most window seats are good.  If legroom is a concern, avoid the seats that face the bulkheads, tall people may feel a bit constricted.  FWIW in July I took the Thunderbird roundtrip Osaka-Kanazawa, I had the green car all to myself on an evening service to Kanazawa, the return early afternoon regular reserved seat car had maybe two or three other people in addition to myself.  There is less tourist and especially group travel, so expect similar conditions now.  

I'm talking about vacancy, and which are the best trains and at what time, not individual seats.

Edited September 17, 2020 by 快速リゾートいっぺき

[bikkuri bahn]

6 hours ago, 快速リゾートいっぺき said:

I'm talking about vacancy, and which are the best trains and at what time, not individual seats.

Well then, midweek and/or midday services.  Thunderbird is an hourly/half hourly service, so frequencies are high enough that I don't think you have to worry too much about crowding, especially in these corona days. 

[快速リゾートいっぺき]

will probably go after corona, so let's base it on pre-corona crowdedness.

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

Then the only way to be sure of getting a seat is to pay the reserved seat surcharge.

 

If the trip is really important, I go green car.  They're usually only crowded during holiday season.

[Steve4031]

I rode this train from Kanazawa to Kyoto.  I sat on the right side and the scenery was enjoyable.  I followed along on the gps on my phone.  There is one place where the train goes around 360 curve to gain elevation and then go through a tunnel.  The other track did not do this.  

[Yavianice]

The specific part of track that @Steve4031 mentions is featured in the NHK Train Cruise Lake Biwa episode starting from around the 35 minute mark. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2068020/

Edited October 15, 2020 by Yavianice