JR West installing 2 new crossovers on Hanwa Line

[miyakoji]

Pretty obscure news item here, courtesy of Onpuchaneru. JRW is installing crossover tracks, one set on the Hineno side (south) of Kumatori, and one set on the Tennoji side (north) of Higashi-kaizuka.  The original poster predicts that once complete, trains will depart Tennoji (presumably) going only as far south as Higashi-kaizuka.  Based on the numbers on wikipedia, ridership does seem to drop off south of Higashi-kaizuka, with the exceptions of Kumatori and Hineno.  Subsequent posts mention both local and regional rapid (JRW's English for kukan kaisoku) service to Higashi-kaizuka during the JNR era, until 1970(?).

 

http://rail-uploader.khz-net.com/index.php?id=1003883

[bikkuri bahn]

Fine tuning of services to meet passenger demands, I suppose.  Currently the Hanwa Line has six (!) different types of rapid services.

 

Btw, the 113 series in "Hanwa" colors will see their last use this weekend on the line.  Apparently(?) they will continue running until March further south on the Kisei Line.

[miyakoji]

Too bad, it's one of my favorite liveries.  My most favorite on 113/115s is probably JRE's Nagano livery.  Looks great.  They're putting striping of similar color on E127s, but it just doesn't look the same on a stainless steel body as opposed to the off-white painted body.  At least JRW's recent one-color scheme isn't so bad in this area, I expect these will get the Kii Peninsula deep teal color.  The whole idea has grown on me somewhat, although I'd still prefer two-tone or multi-tone in general, and specifically I don't like the school bus yellow they chose for Okayama and Hiroshima.  To think that Okayama's Cafe au Laits now glow in the dark,  .

[scott]

Too bad, it's one of my favorite liveries.  My most favorite on 113/115s is probably JRE's Nagano livery.[/quotes]

 

Yeah, that's a good one. And I agree it doesn't translate as well to stripes on stainless.

 

One of my other favorites is the green-striped Niigata livery, and that seems to works a bit better on steel.

 

But anyway--interesting thread about the JRW change.