JR East spring 2015 timetable revision

[bikkuri bahn]

Dec. 19 JR East had a press release with the most detailed information to date regarding service changes with the upcoming timetable revision this March. Including the Hokuriku Shinkansen, and of most interest to me, the timetable for the Ueno-Tokyo Line.

 

brief notes:

*Southbound through trains off the Takasaki and Utsunomiya Lines, other than those terminating at Shinagawa, will continue on the Tokaido Line to either Hiratsuka/Kozu/Odawara/or Atami. A few services will even go as far as Ito or Numazu, for example, the weekday 20:24 from Utsunomiya (futsu 1635E) will reach Numazu at 0:37, truly a long-distance local covering 236km (and a cross-railway service- JR East and JR Tokai, at that).

 

*Northbound through trains not terminating at Ueno, will continue on their respective lines to outer destinations, not terminating at a closer station such as Omiya.

 

*On the Chuo Line, the up Azusa #8, (dep. Matsumoto 8:51), will terminate at Tokyo Station, (arr.11:50), to allow convenient connection with shinkansen services, among others.

 

pdf of press release, including schedules:

https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2014/20141222.pdf

Edited December 25, 2014 by bikkuri bahn

[bikkuri bahn]

Revised route map. I don't know if this is official or an enthusiast modified version:

[JR 500系]

Thanks for the document! Useful for me as the Hakutaka and the Kagayaki starts next year March.

 

Thing to note is there is a reduction of 11 Asama services, but an addition of Hakutaka and Kagayaki services. With reference to below picture which I got for Asama 2014 Schedule services using the new E7 set, their services numbers are now changed from 500++ to 600++ ; i.e. former Asama 525 will be changed to Asama 613.

 

I initially planned to use the Asama 525 to get from Tokyo to Takasaki as I wanted to ride in the new E7. But now i can use the Hakutaka 563 instead and arrive in Takasaki earlier ~ And it's confirmed the E7 train set will be used so I can confirm our ride on it!

 

 

[bikkuri bahn]

Looking again at the Ueno-Tokyo Line timetable, I noticed another interesting service- a Narita (not the airport, but rather the city)-Shinagawa rapid service, with two departures from Narita in the early morning and three departures from Shinagawa in the late afternoon/early evening.  This uses the more roundabout Narita Line route to Abiko than the Narita Line/Sobu Line route via Chiba used by Narita Express and Yokosuka Line trains.

[railsquid]

Cue massive tourist confusion at Shinagawa and Tokyo...

[Guest keio6000]

err, so azusa #8 leaves shinjuku at 11:33 and arrives at 11:50 (27 minutes!)

 

i chose a random day in june in hyperdia - june 25.

 

a chuo//ome special rapid leaves shinjuku at 11:29 and arrives at 11:42 - 13 minutes.  no problem there - our azusa is theoretically after this.

the next one leaves 11:34 and arrives 11:47 - again, 13 minutes.

 

i think what this implies, however, is that the azusa train will not be travelling on the chuo tracks.  rather, it will likely follow the route of the narita express... perhaps.  and that's just about the slowest way short of the yamanote line to get to

tokyo station - even the marunouchi line is faster (19 minutes).

 

of course, for passengers coming in by azusa, the issue is convenience - in theory the azusa could leave at 11:33, shadow the 11:29 train, and arrive at, say, 11:44.  But this then leaves the passengers on the far away chuo line platforms.   of course, the narita platforms are not much better if that' what they have in mind.  hmm.. i wonder what they actually do have in mind, especially as they haven't provided a stop at shinagawa.

 

there's also the question of what happens to the train after it reaches tokyo - just goes empty back to shinjuku?

Edited December 25, 2014 by keio6000

[Kitayama]

err, so azusa #8 leaves shinjuku at 11:33 and arrives at 11:50 (27 minutes!)

Hrrrmmm... I think that is 17 minutes. Btw, 11:33 is arrival at Shinjuku. My guess is approx 4 min stop at Shinjuku and 13 minutes to Tokyo.

[Sacto1985]

I wonder what will happen to the E2 trainsets now assigned to the Asama service? Will they be mostly retired?

[railsquid]

According to Wikipedia they are being completely retired from the Tohoku Shinkansen and some units scrapped, and it looks like the remaining units will be concentrated on Asama services.

[Sacto1985]

According to Wikipedia they are being completely retired from the Tohoku Shinkansen and some units scrapped, and it looks like the remaining units will be concentrated on Asama services.

 

I believe that the original production E2's (N1 to N13) that were geared for steep grade operation will remain in service, only on the Asama services between Tokyo and Nagano. And the later production E2's (J51 to J75) will also remain in service, refurbished to run on the Jōetsu Line and the shorter runs on the Tōhoku Line (Nasuno and Yamabiko).