Shinkansen Passenger trains are now transporting Freight!!

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Today I was On NHK World - Japan and i was Watching the show Japan Railway Journal.On the episode : Must see Railway News The first half of 2021 a Interesting Fact was Mentioned that surprised me.The High speed railway Company Shinkansen was Transporting freight on its High speed trains.The E5 Series Shinkansen Left Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station with Fish Products such as Fish,Crab and Shrimp heading for Tokyo.The Fish and other Food was handed over to Trucks and was delivered to Restaurants in Japan.This is Due to The Covid 19 Pandemic as Passengers are Scared or refuse to Ride train Services.With the Trains being empty and the Shinkansen being a High speed Railway network The fish and other Freight can be Easily Transported to Tokyo and around Japan quicker.Because of the Coronavirus several of Japan's main Railway companies have lost about 155.3 Billion Yen (1.4 Billion).It's a shame to see that Many Major Japanese Railways companies Economies have Gone down hill but a Positive side is Shinkansen amazing idea of using it's high speed trains to carry Freight

[Szdfan]

It reminds me a bit of the TGV sets the French postal system used to have. 

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Don't know much on TGV and French trains but that's cool that they also use their passenger trains for freight work

[Szdfan]

2 minutes ago, The Birmingham train spotter said:

Don't know much on TGV and French trains but that's cool that they also use their passenger trains for freight work

They were train sets converted for postal service that ran from 1984-2015.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_TGV_La_Poste

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Only two was Built?..What a shame..thanks for the Info 

[katoftw]

Not just covid. But it is a way to use unused seating in early morning services from Hokkaido.

 

Even before covid, not many people travelled using shinkansen at 6am from Hokkaido to Tokyo.

[The Birmingham train spotter]

I wasn't aware that they did it before Covid

[Szdfan]

3 hours ago, katoftw said:

Not just covid. But it is a way to use unused seating in early morning services from Hokkaido.

 

Even before covid, not many people travelled using shinkansen at 6am from Hokkaido to Tokyo.

One of the themes of Hokkaido is not enough demand for trains, isn’t it 

[quarxilon]

In case you're interested, there's an entire Twitter thread about this peri-pandemic proliferating phenomenon taking place in Japan, regardless of railway category.

 

 

Very efficient use of existing infrastructure, I must say. A win-win scenario for everyone that should be maintained even after the pandemic.

 

When fresh produce rots in the countryside without the increasingly urbanized population to consume them, while Tokyo's trains run empty outside of peak hours, and salarymen have to sacrifice what's left of their free time going out of their way for groceries and essentials... how else would you solve all three problems at once?

[Socimi]

Japanese railway companies are no stranger when it comes to transporting goods in this fashion.

 

Kintetsu Railway had a small fleet of electric multiple units assigned to work special "fresh seafood" trains from the Ise Peninsula to Osaka.

 

 

Carrying newspapers in early morning on reserved commuter train cars is also a widespread practice.

 

 

There are a few threads here about these operations - i'll link a couple.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Socimi

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Thank you for all this info!