Seikan Tunnel with Train-on-Train freight and the HokkaidoShinkansen in 2015

[Eisenbahn]

This is a discussion about operating risk.

 

 

It will be interesting to watch what unfolds in 2015 when the Hokkaido Shinkansen starts to operate through the Seikan Tunnel.

 

Whether or not the TrainonTrain method for moving freight through the tunnel needs to commence at the same time is another matter.  Perhaps it may be introduced at a later time when increased growth in freight and passenger traffic give rise to significant capacity issues with the tunnel. If Trainontrain is introduced it would significantly change (increase) the risk profile of Tunnel operations. Load stability and increased speed would be two issues. There would be a question of whether the insurers of the Tunnel (and train operators) would be willing to take on the added risk and if so at what price. That may be a sufficient reason alone for JR Hokkaido to defer or abandon the TrainonTrain concept.

 

Presumable many of the passenger train types that currently use the tunnel would continue to run through the tunnel at speeds they currently use. (Does anyone know what actual  Tunnel speed is?)  Of course with the introduction of Shinkansen, usage on some of these trains eg sleeper trains, would change over time. The JR Hokkaido website lists six passenger train types  currently using the tunnel, Hamanasu, Hakucho, Super-Hakucho, Cassiopeia, Hokutosei, Twighlight Express. They have maximum operationg speeds of 110kph to 140kph.  There seems to be no suggestion of packaging them TrainonTrain.

 

The Seikan Tunnel has a different risk profile to the British-French Channel Tunnel where there is a separate tunnel for each direction of  train operation.  The link between Honshu and Kyushu uses one tunnel (Kanmon 1942) for regular passenger trains and freight and another (Shin-Kanmon 1975) for Shinkansen traffic.

 

A collision in the Seikan Tunnel between a speeding Shinkansen with 500 passengers and a derailing TrainonTrain with a load stability problem would have an impact on Hokkaido far beyond the death and destruction at the crash site. In likelihood the tunnel would be closed for two years whilst repaired. Since most of people movements (90%)  to/from Hokkaido are currently by air, adding extra air capacity could be done fairly quickly but not so freight. Building capacity for freight movement by sea would take some time. Supplying food for the population of Hokkaido and goods to keep the economy going would be difficult.  A shinkansen disaster would also impact Japan’s reputation on the World generally. If there was a belief that TrainonTrain added high operating risk , one can see that JR Hokkaido might be pressured from a variety of places to drop the idea.

 

It would be good to find out what JR Hokkaido’s plans actually were. The only information published on this Forum so far was the video of the preproduction EH800 being trialed and the animation explaining TrainonTrain. (Both informative videos.)

 

If TrainonTrain was going ahead in 2015 concurrent with the Shinkansen introduction there would be evidence of the construction of the TrainonTrain transfer facilities at either end of the tunnel, and manufacture of the standard gauge piggyback flatcars themselves. Where are they? Apparently the manufacture of the EH800s is due to start in the last quarter this year, assuming the prototype trials go well.

 

As a separate matter, does any Forum member know if anyone has a model of train operations out of the Seikan Tunnel?  The Tunnel entrance is a single twin track portal from which would emerge Shinkansen (E5) a variety of interesting Passenger trains and mixed  freight hauled by those EH500 EH800.

[Densha]

Are you sure they are intending to use the E5 on the Hokkaido Shinkansen? I have heard nothing about the type of trains used on it so I was assuming they were going to construct a series specifically built for Hokkaido (and the weather conditions there).

[Eisenbahn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaido_Shinkansen

 

Hi Densha,

No, not at all. I didnt get it from  a JR East or JR Hokkaido oficial source but from a table in a wikipedia article. It would be safest to wait for an announcement from JR Hokkaido or JR East.

[westfalen]

I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that once the Shinkansen starts operation the only passenger trains running through the tunnel will be the overnight sleeper services with daytime Ltd Exp's getting the can as happens elswhere in Japan when a Shinkansen opens. As the passage through the tunnel, from memory, is only 35 minutes give or take maybe JR has decided there will be enough slots during the day for freight trains to plod through between Shinkansens. With JR's precision timetabling I think they could pull it off.

[JR 500系]

Ahah! The Saikan Tunnel! Brings back memories of my trip to Hokkaido on board the Super Hakucho Series 789... Lovely tunnel, with a station in the middle.

 

Attached is a picture of the Tunnel i took that was pasted on the behind of every seat in the Super Hakucho that contained infomation of the tunnel...

 

This makes me ponder, the tunnel isn't exactly straight.. Will the gradient affect the speed of the shinkansen? Being such a long UNDERSEA tunnel, SAFETY has got to be the topmost... Would be rather scary to think if anything happens to a shinkansen inside the tunnel. I recalled the Super Hakucho slowed down during the entry into the tunnel, and also when closing into the underwater station...

 

Next question will be, what would happen to the Super Hakucho in 2015 when the shinkansens take over?

[cteno4]

Looks like a 1.4% grade max so not too horrible.

 

Jeff

[Eisenbahn]

Hi JR500,

 

That is quite a handy fact sheet.  A  Tunnel transit time of 24 minutes for the Super Hakucho puts its average speed at 134.6 kph.  They are a nice looking train and it would have been a fun ride!

 

 

 

Hi Westfalen

 

I agree with your comments about the changed mix of passenger trains.  The real issue will be the huge jump in the number of passengers from 2015 with the introduction of Shinkansen services. Presently the train-plane market share is 10%-90% if the Wilipedia article is  factual.  The experience elsewhere is that introducing HSTs shuts down local air-routes and people switch to HSTs. It would be interesting to know what JR Hokkaido’s passenger projections are, as well as Tunnel  capacity utilisation.

 

 

SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS

You can see it moving to 30%-70% fairly quickly and perhaps to a 50%-50% mix in the longer term when the Shinkansen Network extends over the entire island.   Moving from 10% to 30% means three times the number of passengers. If Double decker Shinkansen and double coupled trains are used , this wont mean triple the number of train movements through the Seikan Tunnel but passenger  train movements could readily double in the period 2015-2020. Even if the number of Freight Train movements stayed the same 2015-2020, the Seikan Tunnel capacity would be challenged at some not to distant point in the future. 

 

It is easy to see why JR Hokkaido announced the idea of Train-on-Train  to free up Tunnel capacity.  It wasn’t just some technical project from the Engineering Department but the Chairman of JR Hokkaido himself announced the idea some years ago. As an idea I am sure it was thoroughly looked at throughout the entire JR Hokkaido organization.  It wouldn’t mean that every freight train would have to be piggybacked. It would not be possible given the differing shapes of freight cars. But even if , say 70% of freight trains were piggybacked at higher speed , a lot of  Tunnel capacity slots would be freed up.

 

There would be a lot of additional operation risk in piggybacking freight. Apart from a failure in the way a load was secured either by human error or breakage, there would be the question of load stability. Piggybacking raises the centre of mass on which various three dimensional forces act in train movement. Vibration issues , resonance issues may not show up in the running-in trials. Load stability issues may only show in situ  in the Tunnel with particular loads. Tilt, yaw, roll or oscillating of load, is what you don’t want at any speed let alone 150-200kpm in the Tunnel heading towards an oncoming Shinkansen.  Both the piggybacking operation itself and the increased speed of Freight, would really increase risk in the Tunnel.

 

JR Hokkaido will have carefully developed plans for the staged introduction of Shinkansen in 2015. It would be nice to read them.

[Sacto1985]

One thing I haven't heard is what model Shinkansen trainset will be used on the Seikan Tunnel. My guess: the E5, because its unusual nose design was designed to operate in long tunnels.

 

Also, don't be surprised that JR Freight will run the freight trains at night through the tunnel at first to reduce interference with Shinkansen trains.

[westfalen]

To me the simplest solution in the short term would be to just limit the Shinkansens to 140 kmh through the tunnel itself rather than 200. I'm not much at maths so I could be wrong but I figure it would only add an extra 20 minutes or so to the overall time, if so how much expense and effort do you want to expend to gain an extra 20 minutes over a run from Tokyo to Hakodate.

[Eisenbahn]

I have just found a journal article that has brought some scholarship to this Seikan Tunnel topic.

 

Railway Operators in Japan 2 HOKKAIDO by Shuichi Takashima, JRTR ,28, September 2001

 

1. “Passenger and freight trains passing through the Seikan Tunnel are completely separate.”  I took this to mean time segmentation in scheduling  of passenger & freight. It wont be as simple as  people by day and freight by night. But it will mean there wont be freight and passenger trains in the tunnel at the same time.  Does anyone know what the Seikan Tunnel scheduling  time blocks are?
2. It also means that the worst case scenario would be a freight-freight collision in the case of a Train-on-Train with an unstable load impacting another train. Thus lost freight and  trains, deceased crew and tunnel closed for two years.
3. The article also mentions that shipping handles ‘the lions share’ of freight to Hokkaido. Thus in the event of a tunnel outage for say, two years,  marginally extra shipping capacity could be added to continue the supply of food and goods to Hokkaido. As I mentioned previously, rail only accounts for 10% of people movements to/from Hokkaido. Extra air capacity could be quickly added.
4. The article contains a graph showing the steady decline of passengers through the tunnel from 3 Million in 1988 to 2 million in 1999. But it confirms that the 2 million was a 10% market share with air the remaining 90%. It is likely that in the 12 years since 1999, passenger numbers have declined further and the market share may have fallen below 10%. Does anyone know what the 2012 figures were?
5. The central issue of speeding up trains in the tunnel to create  extra Tunnel slots for the increased number of passenger trains, remains the same. The introduction of a Shinkansen service to Hokkaido will likely recapture some market share from the airlines. A move from the present under 10% to say, 30% should be possible but it will mean the Tunnel will have to carry three times the number of passengers even if this doesn’t mean exactly three times the number of passenger trains. It wont be a simple as moving all passengers exclusively on Shinkansen. But doing so at Shinkansen speed would free up many scheduling slots.  Does anyone know the speed Shinkansen move through the Shin-Kanmon Tunnel?
6. The article also identifies that there are many more freight trains (‘up to 52 per day)  than passenger trains in the tunnel.
7. There would seem to be a lot to do before Train-on-Train is put into commercial operation. I have wondered which tunnel would be used to do the running-in trails, where, amongst other things, load stability testing could be done. Another Tunnel would have to be found for testing before the prototype Train-on-Train was let anywhere near the Seikan Tunnel. An accident and subsequent closure of the Seikan Tunnel would not be good.
8. In practice it may mean that for at least a year after the introduction of Shinkansen in 2015 , (until passenger numbers build) freight is just hauled through the tunnel conventionally with 3ft6 EH800s and continue that way until passenger traffic increases to a point where extra slots have to be found by one means or another.
9. With complete separation of passenger and freight and the use of Shinkansen technology for all passenger traffic, there would be no reason to think  the Seikan Tunnel operation was any more or less risky than the Shin-Kanmon tunnel. Japan has a particularly good record with its Shinkansen technology.

[westfalen]

I have just found a journal article that has brought some scholarship to this Seikan Tunnel topic.

 

Railway Operators in Japan 2 HOKKAIDO by Shuichi Takashima, JRTR ,28, September 2001

9.With complete separation of passenger and freight and the use of Shinkansen technology for all passenger traffic, there would be no reason to think  the Seikan Tunnel operation was any more or less risky than the Shin-Kanmon tunnel. Japan has a particularly good record with its Shinkansen technology.

Their freight safety record seems pretty good also compared to other countries.

Edited January 18, 2013 by westfalen

[westfalen]

I have just found a journal article that has brought some scholarship to this Seikan Tunnel topic.

 

Railway Operators in Japan 2 HOKKAIDO by Shuichi Takashima, JRTR ,28, September 2001

 

Does anyone know the speed Shinkansen move through the Shin-Kanmon Tunnel?

When I was in Tokyo in November I picked up a DVD of a cab ride from Hakata to Shin-Kobe in a 500 series working a Nozomi service and according to the drivers display the speed limit through the Shin-Kanmon Tunnel is 275 kmh with the driver keeping 2 or 3 kmh below that.

[Eisenbahn]

1. Thanks Westfalen, 275kph eh.

 

At 275kmh a Shinkansen would transit the Seikan Tunnel in 12 minutes. This is half  the time(24minutes)  a Super Hakucho takes. A freight train running at about 110 kph would take about 30 minutes to transit the tunnel.

 

2. I don’t know the headway time rules for the tunnel.  In thinking about the 30 freight trains that move in one direction through the tunnel each day, changing headways from 15 to 10 to 5 minutes would make a big reduction in the total tunnel time for freight. Anyone know what they currently are? And what they would be if hauled by an EH800 at 110kph in 2015? Shortening freight headways alone would free up a lot of slots for the anticipated growth in passenger demand once the Shinkansen operates. Perhaps shortening headways may be JR Hokkaido’s first technique in improving things and hinted at by the announcement that the new 3ft6  EH800 freight locos will have ATC and modern digital communication.

 

3. Train-on-Train will require standard gauge  locos capable of operating push-pull at up to 200kph. I haven’t seen an announcement of what they might be. There would also be evidence of  the construction of the Train-on-Train transfer  facilities somewhere on either side of the Tunnel. There would be  a number of standard gauge piggy back trains themselves stabled somewhere. Forum members who live in Japan or who have access to Japanese language newspapers will be in a position to follow developments more closely.

 

4. By the way, the video animation illustrating the operation of Train-on-Train depicts a Shinkansen on one track in the tunnel speeding towards an oncoming train-on-Train.  It will be interesting to see if passenger & freight are separated in the post 2015 environment.

 

5.In the last couple of years new Low cost carrier airlines have started operating out of Hokkaido which will make the train-plane  market share war more challenging. But one would think 20% for rail would be achievable in 2015-2020 from todays below 10% share.  Although, the Shinkansen will only go to Hakodate initially and the extension to Sapporo was  only recently approved to be completed by 2035.

 

6. One thing that the introduction of the Shinkansen will do is increase ridership on conventional trains on Hokkaido to feed the Shinkansen service from Hakodate. That’s a plus.

 

7.There are a lot of interesting things here: the engineering challenge of building faster freight trains; the use of technology to get better headways and  thus  more trains thru the tunnel. There are special questions of operating risk to consider in long undersea Tunnel operations.  There are also the business issues of the market share war with the  traditional airlines and now the low cost carriers.  We can all watch in 2015 to see history unfold.

 

8. Today I searched the forum for “Seikan” and found there were discussions on this and related topics from September 2009 into 2010 and beyond. I mention this for those who have joined the forum after this time, as myself, and who may like to read them.

[westfalen]

While in Japan in November my friends and I passed through the tunnel from north to south in daylight (northbound we were on the Hokutosei) and there were construction sites at either end of the tunnel where the new Shinkansen line joins the 3'6" but they could have just been associated with building the new line.

[Densha]

I don't think you can really compare the (Shin-)Kanmon Tunnel to the Seikan Tunnel. The Shin-Kanmon Tunnel is not used with mixed traffic and, probably (I don't know the details), less steep, it also is much shorter: according to wikipedia about 18,7 km. The Seikan Tunnel on the other hand is almost 54 km long, has steeper gradients (I read somewhere but can't find any source), and will feature mixed traffic though the exact details of the latter is not known yet. That including the safety that is related to this should affect the speed the Shinkansen will be running at I think.
 
What got my attention was this text on wikipedia:
 

Shinkansen trains currently do not run through the tunnel, although it was built to accommodate them. JR East extended the Tohoku Shinkansen to Shin-Aomori Station on December 4, 2010. From Shin-Aomori, the planned Hokkaido Shinkansen will continue on to Shin-Hakodate Station in Hakodate by 2015 and then eventually to Sapporo Station. The future Hokkaido Shinkansen will be operated by JR Hokkaido.

I had no idea that JR Hokkaido would operate the Shin-Aomori to Hakodate section. I expected JR East to do so because then there could be a direct connection from Tokyo. Possibly the infrastructure will be owned by JR Hokkaido and used by both JR Hokkaido and JR East but that's just speculation. It would be interesting to see if ever the line will be extended to Sapporo if JR Hokkaido will have any 'inland' services like the Tsubame JR Kyushu does.

[Mudkip Orange]

I don't see why some sort of modified temporal separation wouldn't work. Certainly a decent chunk of the Hokkaido freight can be shipped at night. And it would also be possible to create daytime gaps. Say, a 75min gap between Shinkansen in which you could "stack" several slower freight trains, each following each other. There's no particular reason you'd have to alternate freight-passenger-freight and in fact that's the least efficient method of doing it.

[Eisenbahn]

Hi Westfalen,

 

Best wishes on this cyclone/storm/flood/wind drama we are going through here in South East Queensland. I am high & dry now with just a few branches/leaves to clean up and only a couple of power outages along the way.

 

What follows is a response to your post about locating a Train-on-Train transfer facility possibly under construction in Hokkaido.

 

Any Train-on-Train transfer facility would likely require a large area for the train insertion process itself as well as holding sidings for both the  standard gauge piggyback trains as well as the 3ft6 freight. I suppose there would have to be facilities for visual inspection of a train prior to insertion, day and night. There would also need to be a process to remove snow and ice buildup prior to insertion, eg , after waiting in a siding for up to , say,  three hours.

 

My suspicion is that they will probably want to have a prototype freight loco capable of a 200kph service speed built and tested first, just to prove the overall concept of Train-on-Train is achievable, before they start building any Train-on-Train transfer facilities.

 

In which case, someone in Japan  will video the  push-pull 200kph freight train-on-train  speed trials on JR East’s Shinkansen network and post it on youtube for a forum member to discover and  repost here. I suppose the development team at Toshiba who did the EH800 project will have built up expertise and perhaps will move on to do this new 200kph loco once the EH800 trials are over and it goes into production at the end of 2013, if indeed  Toshiba has the contract to develop this new loco.

 

 (There may be a good business case for Japan to develop a new standard gauge powerful freight loco with 200kph capability  with a wide loading gauge to operate in a Shinkansen environment (ie 25Kv +ATC+DigComms) to utilise spare track  capacity eg midnight to dawn over the entire Japanese Shinkansen network. Whether it hauled  3ft6 freight as train-on-train or whether on standard gauge cars directly  wouldn’t matter. But it may give Japan extra freight capacity and be particularly useful for long haul runs.  My point being that there may be wider application for developing such a  powerful high speed loco, than just hauling train-on-train through the Seikan Tunnel and thus an interest in a manufacturer such as Toshiba in investing in developing one. A big jump in the world oil price or a shortage of oil at some future point would mean a market share shift  in freight from ship-truck-plane back to train. It may make sense for Japan to develop a standard gauge higher speed freight capability. )

 

In likelihood Train-on-Train wont be needed any time soon as the introduction of ATC in the Seikan Tunnel will reduce headways  and free up tunnel time for extra passenger trains to handle the anticipated growth in passengers when Shinkansen  services are introduced  late fiscal 2015. Just shortening headways by 2 minutes  on the 30 freight trains that currently move through the Seikan Tunnel each day would free up one hour of tunnel time for other trains.

 

It will be interesting to see which of the passenger trains that currently use the Seikan  tunnel will be retrofitted for the 25kv+ATC+DigitalComms  environment post 2015. There should be announcements about a Train  retrofit if this is going to happen. Another way might be to use Shinkansen for most passengers and just ferry any remaining passenger trains , eg Sleepers, through the tunnel with a EH800. Perhaps post 2015 we will see only the E5 and the EH800 nose their way out of the Seikan Tunnel!

 

(One of the articles ( www.railwaygazette.com 3 December 2012) on the new EH800 noted that currently a EH500 ferried sleeper trains through the Tunnel. Thus a more general role for the EH800 when it goes into service to replace the Eh500.)

 

That article also said the Tunnel would be converted to 25Kv  in 2014. Would this mean that all the equipment will be installed and tested in 2014 awaiting operational cutover later when Shinkansen services begin in 2015 or does it mean the Tunnel will be cutover to 25kv for operations in 2014.  If in  2014, then  the EH800 would be used to haul freight at 25Kv  but what about existing 20Kv passenger trains?

 

There is also the question of  the date from when management of trains in the tunnel will be done by ATC.

 

There are a lot of interesting things going on here in addition to the more visible  laying of the new Shinkansen track and building the new stations to Shin-Hakadote.

 

Forum members fluent in Japanese and who live in Japan will have ready access to news media and journals as each new snippet of information emerges.

 

Whatever the year is, that Seikan tunnel ridership grows back to the 3 Million passengers it achieved in 1988, the year the tunnel opened, will be a cause for celebration for JR Hokkaido and especially for those on the particular train carrying the 3 Millionth passenger. Perhaps the Chairman of JR Hokkaido himself will be on that train!

 

cheers......Eisenbahn

[westfalen]

"(One of the articles ( www.railwaygazette.com 3 December 2012) on the new EH800 noted that currently a EH500 ferried sleeper trains through the Tunnel. Thus a more general role for the EH800 when it goes into service to replace the Eh500.)"

 

We had ED79 12 on the Hokutosei on the night of 02/12 but we saw EH500 23 pass through Kikonai on a northbound freight so they may haul the sleepers on occasion.

[Sacto1985]

Given each direction in the Seikan Tunnel will have both 1067 and 1435 mm dual-gauge trackage, I wonder has JR East/Hokkaido thought about building a 1067 mm gauge electric locomotive capable of going as fast a 160 km/h, about 40 km/h faster than the current freight train speed limit through the tunnel? That way, we don't need the complications of going from narrow gauge to standard gauge and back carrying freight, and at 160 km/h speeds, that may reduce interference with Shinkansen trains.

 

(Speaking of which, does anyone know which route JR Freight trains travel south after reaching Aomori. Do the trains use the JR East Ōu Line or the Aomori Railway Line?)

[bikkuri bahn]

Higher locomotive speeds also require special freight cars built for those speeds (160km/h capable 1067mm freight cars- have these been built anywhere?)  Also, and this may have been mentioned earlier, but you need to time separate the 1067mm freights from the Shinkansen trains running at full HSR speeds, as the shock wave from the passenger train may derail the freight.

 

JRF is a poor railway with little prospect for traffic growth, and likely doesn't have the funds for expensive infrastructure like train on train at this moment.  JR Hokkaido is not rich either- it is a govt. supported railway like its other small island cousins.  I think the stopgap measures will continue for several years after the beginning of shinkansen service to Shin Hakodate, until funding is found somewhere, likely from the public coffers.

[Sacto1985]

Now that the new LDP government has promised more infrastructure spending, maybe that will mean more money for JR Freight to upgrade their rolling stock? That could allow for 1435 mm gauge EH800's and train-on-train flatcars with 1435 mm gauge to operate through the Seikan Tunnel at speeds as high as 180-190 km/h.

[Densha]

I don't think it will pay off at all though. It may just be the cheapest to let the freight trains run at night and the Shinkansen at day time. The fastest 1067mm gauge freight train I know of is the M250 with 130km/h.

[Sacto1985]

I don't think it will pay off at all though. It may just be the cheapest to let the freight trains run at night and the Shinkansen at day time. The fastest 1067mm gauge freight train I know of is the M250 with 130km/h.

 

While it sounds like a good idea, that means somebody will need to build a whole bunch of insulated and/or refrigerated containers for use in Hokkaido, since the island is perhaps Japan's largest agricultural area. That way, agricultural goods could be temporarily stored at Hakodate as they await their turn in be shipped south on JR Freight trains travelling through the Seikan Tunnel during late night hours.

[KenS]

I'm not sure refrigerated containers would be needed simply for an extra 12 hours. Vegetables likely travel in ventilated containers, although they might use refrigerated ones in warmer weather. Either way, they're probably spending several days in the container from farm to market, although I suppose someone could be running a "just in time" farmer's market delivery train in the early AM, but that would likely already be running at night though the tunnel anyway.

 

In any case, ordinary container cars could be used at night if speed isn't an issue. There are plenty of 12-foot and 20-foot refrigerated containers, or at least there were in the not too distant past.

 

And an M250-design train could be used (not the M250 as it is in use and not AC-compatible): it carries U54A 31-foot containers.  There are already refrigerated containers in use that are 31-foot models (UR48A, UR52A). I don't know if any of those are used to Hokkaido already.

[Densha]

I found this image of an Hokutosei train with DD51 being pulled by a EH500.

http://www.geocities.jp/series321_springbox_series231/IMG_05111.jpg

I can't find any information about it where it could be though.