I kinda want to go there. I was wondering many random things, like how they get along with snow, have they as many bicycles as in Kanto? With snow tires?
Trains are JR only or there are some private companies?
Or just wishing for any scenery dump.
>>915761
Just get a car
>>915761
Hokkaido is the land of cars in Japan.
>>915761
Other than JR Hokkaido, there's only the Sapporo Subway/Tram and the Hakodate Tram. When the Hokkaido Shinkansen opens on 3/28, services on the Esashi Line from Goryokaku to Kikonai will be operated by the Southern Hokkaido Railway Company because whenever a new Shinkansen line opens, the existing, parallel narrow-guage track is handed off to a newly formed 3rd sector company (only if the existing line will become unprofitable though).
>>915761
>how they get along with snow
like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxpyHht_Iwg
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p5v8hfW8Hs
>>915761
Rode extensively a couple years ago when visiting my birthplace (I was born in northern japan by weird coincidence)
Rode the train in pic related in Sapporo from New Chitose Airport. Then the Super Hakucho and the Super Hokuto. The Seikan tunnel train was also incredible. Will dump some OC in a min
>>916516
fuck, my own photos are too big
but basically here is the train that fills in for the Shinkansen until it gets built.
It's called the Super Hokuto and it runs from Sapporo to Hakodate and costs about 7500 yen each way if I remember correctly.
>>916516
Here's the train which currently takes you into the Seikan tunnel. They usually let you off at the lowest point so you can take a look around but they have stopped it as of two years ago due to the Hokkaido Shinkansen's construction. Although it may be reinstated.
Undeniably one of the best rail rides of my LIFE.
Hey OP,
I live in Hokkaido. Everyone drives because there's only one train company and with the lack of competition the service/prices both suck. For me to get from where I live, in eastern Hokkaido, to Sapporo takes about 6.5-7 hours. They clear the crossings in groups, but I have no idea how they keep the tracks clear. I once heard about a train hitting a deer and the conductor didn't stop and move it or fix it to the car. The next train coming the opposite direction hit a bear that was eating the deer. Hokkaido is like Japan's Alaska. Driving here is still really dangerous in winter because even the main roads are somewhat poorly maintained and the side roads are basically just ice. A lot of people come to tour on bicycles in the summer though, the weather is really beautiful.
>>915761
102301
So it turns out JR Hokkaido is losing money on all of its lines, even the ones around Sapporo. What's worse is that it's high traffic lines are the ones losing the most money because even though they lose less money per passenger, there are so many passengers that the loss adds up. What do you think is going to happen? What do you think should happen but won't due to bureaucracy?
Sauce (in moon):
http://tabiris.com/archives/jr-hokkaido-10/
http://tabiris.com/archives/jr-hokkaido-11/
>>919081
>400億
>330 million USD
Wow, I knew they were having problems. But damn!
>>921948
JR is private so the bean counters are taking notice. The LIRR is an important link to get people into the city. The east-west highways can not cope if the LIRR stops running.
>>922020
JR Hokkaido is *technically* a private corporation, but all of the shares are owned by the government. I understand the role the LIRR plays, I admit that was a bad example. Given the kind of services operated, and the corporate structure, I'd relate it to Amtrak, which loses over $1B a year. Yes, it's funding gets cut sometimes, but this is the USA, I'd imagine even in Hokkaido, the attitudes are a bit different.
FY2016 schedule is out for local trains on low ridership lines.
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160208-2.pdf
Gonna suck for those trying to ride around on the Seishun18 ticket.
>>922440
Speaking of Seishun18 ticket, the site >>919081 mentioned talks about how difficult it would be for someone to travel from Hakodate to Sapporo
http://tabiris.com/archives/jr-hokkaido-12/
>The timetable change also shows that 2429D, which is currently the longest local train by distance in Japan will be renumbered to 2427D
okay.jpg
>>915761
If Murakami is anything to go by, you should drive a Subaru.
Moar pdfs from JR Hokkaido:
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160210-1.pdf
Especially nice is the map on p.3 which shows average daily passenger use at each station. For those who can't read runes, red is one or fewer passengers per day, green is fewer than or equal to ten passengers per day, white is greater than ten passengers per day, and yellow is other (seasonal or closed for construction).
>>922741
Yeah, I read that article too, but they never link back to the source.
>>922825
>Yeah, I read that article too, but they never link back to the source.
I think they are using the upcoming timetables you posted to figure out how a Seishun18 ticket holder could travel between Hakodate and Sapporo, and they mentioned that they are using the 2015 timetable for the Sapporo area since there isn't a revised timetable yet. The PDF also mentioned the reduction in service is also due to the aging of their KiHa 40 DMU fleet
>That PDF
I sometimes wonder how much more track will JR Hokkaido have to abandon before they can stop bleeding money that badly (inb4 they can't)
>>922853
Yeah, I read the article first and then went looking for the source on JR Hokkaido's website.
Abandoning track won't really help the company, since the lines generating the highest losses are also some of the most important ones.
>>922825
Welp, they're fucked. But the thing about closing many stations though is that the savings aren't all that big since many aren't staffed anyway (mostly saving fuel and the odd paintjob really). On the other hand, closing a whole line does cut a lot
They're screwed
>>921739
wow this photo changed how much I wanted to go to Japan
>>922932
>Abandoning track won't really help the company, since the lines generating the highest losses are also some of the most important ones.
Assuming you are talking about the ones in the Sapporo area (which have at least 8000 passengers / km / day), at least their operating ratios (far right column of the chart) for those routes aren't that bad since those lines "only" cost them 111 Yen for every 100 Yen earned. [lolnospoiler] IFF you are actually talking about the sections with heavy losses where express trains are operating, then yeah they are quite screwed [/lolnospoiler]
>>923180
I was looking at the numbers for Hakodate-Oshamanbe and Obihiro-Kushiro. #1 and #2 highest losses among the segments listed and important for both long-distance passenger and freight trains.
Result of having a slime mold figure out what the most efficient layout of lines would be in Hokkaido.
>inb4 "but what about terrain"
According to the original poster on Twitter, slime mold dislikes light, and so high elevation was modeled by high levels of light.
>>923539
That's pretty fucking neato
>>923539
Just to drift on a tangent, shit's creepy
So it seems threre are no bicycles running in Sapporo during winter, am I right? Neither super heating roads from the future, nor mutant tires cancelling the snow?
>>924470
Standard Hokkaido practice seems to be covering things like how they cover points with shacks or the Sapporo Subway consists of giant elevated tunnels. Besides, Hokkaido winter will probably kill you anyway so another reason to have a car
I don't know if this is Hokkaido but it's a cool Japanese train video nonetheless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXhx_Jb-Wh4
>>924470
>So it seems threre are no bicycles running in Sapporo during winter, am I right?
Some people ride, but not a lot. It's kind of dangerous as sidewalks don't get shoveled and many roads aren't plowed. Roads that are plowed typically lose a lane in each direction as they just push the snow to the side (i.e., they don't clear it away).
>>924489
>the Sapporo Subway consists of giant elevated tunnels.
LOLWUT.jpg. Most of the Sapporo subway is underground.
>>924470
>How are you going to get around in all of this snow?
>Piece of miss, m8-san: I've got an all-wheel-drive
>>925606
>>925595
Not Hokkaido. That's the Kanbara Railway in Niigata. The line was closed in 1999.
>>925643
You're still wrong. The Namboku Line (from which your picture is taken) has 16 stations. 12 of the stations (Asabu to Hiragishi) are underground. Only the last 4 stations (Minami Hiragishi to Makomanai) are above ground. Most of the Sapporo subway is underground.
>>925643
>>925768
Actually, the 4 above-ground stations on the Namboku Line are the only above-ground stations on the entire Sapporo subway system. Both the Tozai Line (19 stations) and Toho Line (14 stations) are completely underground.
The Sapporo subway system does not "consist of giant elevated tunnels." The system has a total 49 stations, 45 of which are completely underground. 2 of its 3 lines are completely underground. Only 25% of one line is above-ground, and of these 4 stations really only 1 or 2 are "elevated" -- most of this section runs on a normal embankment.
>>924470
Jebus, it actually is an AWD bike. Local retrofit, or is that actually a model for sale?
>>925864
Nearly unrelated pic from google images, sorry.
> Tickets for the first train bound for Tokyo from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station on the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, which will open March 26, sold out around 25 seconds after going on sale on Friday.
>>929173
>Implying you should be surprised at that
And the tickets for the first S-H-H bound train from Tokyo (Hayabusa) was sold out in 30 seconds, while the other ones (Hayate 91 from S-Aomori, Hayate 93 from Morioka, and Haybusa 95 from Sendai) took a while longer to be sold out
Sauce: http://hokkaido-shinkansen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/6fb359e6f7fc2d3a372c6a9475765288.pdf
JR Hokkaido opened the doors for the Hakodate Shinkansen Yard to the press with all 4 H5 sets present
http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2016/03/02/032/
>>929194
What kind of people are buying the tickets up that fast? Is it all train nerds?
Shinkansen Line will be way slower than plane, no? For ex. Sapporo-Tokyo.
Is it even cheaper?
>>929282
>Shinkansen Line will be way slower than plane, no? For ex. Sapporo-Tokyo.
Yup, it would take 7 hours and 44 minutes at the absolute fastest (Hayabusa 5 + Super Hokuto 11 with a 12 minute layover)
>Is it even cheaper?
The cheapest regular fare is 26,820 Yen one way, so I highly doubt it
Actually it is still slightly slower for the Hakodate - Tokyo stretch too since the shortest time required to travel between the two stations would be four and a half hours
>>929293
So, what's the actual point? It doesn't seem convenient at all (way too long for business trip or short vacation).
Is it something like "we need the image of the glorious Shinkansen master race for the Olympics"?
some possible reasons
- most passengers want to go a shorter distance fast
- save the planet, take the train
- fear of flying
- train stations are in the city while airport are often far outside.
- heavy snow or fog makes air travel impossible (not unusual in Sapporo Winter)
- Shinkansen arrives in time
- you don't like to spend hours for boarding
>>929623
- No fucking security
- Can carry a ton of baggage for free if it will fit...
- In theory a while after the opening, you can just get the fuck on with no reservation any damn time you need
Now it'll only take another 15 years to finish that shit to Sapporo, then the trip might be more attractive time/cost-wise
>>929991
JR Hokkaido might not exist in 15 years though.
>>916521
The points that they let you disembark are actually in the mainland/Hokkaido near the entrances of the tunnel as they served as evacuation points as well.
>Although it may be reinstated
Sadly they were officially removed as actual stations
>>929623
It is certainly more comfortable than sitting in a plane
>>930117
>yrw the only rail line left in Hokkaido will be the Hokkaido Shinkansen when it is finally completed
>>916521
>Here's the train which currently takes you into the Seikan tunnel.
Nah, I took this one, was more fun.
And with the last Hamanasu train leaving Aomori Station towards Sapporo Station on 10:18 pm March 21st, it marks the end of Seikan Tunnel's regular passenger train operation as JR Hokkaido will perform final preparations for Hokkaido Shinkansen's opening on March 26th
Fun Fact: Hamanasu was the last remaining regular passenger service that uses locomotive-hauled passenger cars
>>935852
Fuck the fucking Shinkansen. High speed rail was a mistake, I want all the murdered sleeper trains back.
>>935852
Huh, didn't know it came in red, I always had blue rolling stock the couple of times I was riding the Hamanasu.
>>935973
That's just a different locomotive for the stretch between Aomori and Hakodate since that section is electrified. The passenger cars are usually blue
Sapporo <> Hakodate: DD51 diesel locomotive (the one in blue in >>934942)
Hakodate <> Aomori: ED79 electric locomotive (the pic that I posted for the last run)
>>935860
Also
>Current Japanese Night trains
This is depressing.
Aren't there also some seasonal ones still running though like the Moonlight Nagara?
>>936028
With 24 hour+ ones you get to look and enjoy a style of ride you can't get elsewhere.
Overnight Japan trains were boss because with a JR pass you could ride many free on nobinobi carpet seat things and save money on a hotel.
>>935860
Bend over
(inb4 april fools dragon dildo)
>>936029
I imagine riding the train multiple times and getting perplexed looks from the crew
>>936028
For certain trips of about 8-12 hours in length they're practical as fuck:
>get on the train late at night after a having had the full day to do stuff
>travel overnight
>get to your destination early in the morning and have all the day left to do stuff
>you get there well rested
while HSR it's more like
>take the train for 3-6 hours depending on trip and if it's HSR line all the way
>lose at least half a day
>if you have to be there in the morning you have to travel the day before and pay for hotel room
>if you have to be there in the evening you have to pay hotel room and take the train the next day.
I'm not saying HSR is bad or anything, it's just that night trains offer a different kind of commodity, and can be useful for other kinds of travelling than HSR is useful for.
>>936027
Moonlight Nagara and Hakuba are still running during holidays and vacations.
I think the recent trend in overnight trains has been a shift from practicality to luxury like 7 stars in Kyushu.
>>935860
>Implying HSR was the sole reason of waning popularity of sleeper trains when overnight highway buses also took a chuck of its share while being cheaper
Starting on March 26th, 2016 the JR Hokkaido 2429D (renumbered to 2427D) local train running between Takikawa and Kushiro will no longer be the longest local train in terms of distance (308.4 km) as the West JR Sanyo Main Line's local 369M (renumbered from 371M) will become the longest running local train again as it will be expanded from Okayama to Shimonoseki (384.7 km. It was shortened from Okayama~Shin-Yamaguchi to Tokuyama, which reduced the distance from 315.8 to 271.5 km in 2015). However, 2427D will still take longer time to finish as the whole journey takes 8 hours and 21 minutes
http://response.jp/article/2016/03/21/271898.html
>>936225
West JR's upcoming TWILIGHT EXPRESS Mizukaze and JR East's TRAIN SUITE - Shikijima are also following that trend (not sure why they put the English in all caps though)
>>936226
It's a pity that Hamanasu is gone, since it ran one of the few routes where there is and cannot be any competing overnight bus service.
>>936821
Should get a night bus on one of the ferries.
Hakodate shinkansen starts running tomorrow, shit better be worth killing off the Hamanasu and Cassiopeia.
>>936928
Turns out that the last shinkansen of the day connects to an overnight bus from Shin-Hakodate Sta. to Sapporo Sta.
Sauce: http://tabiris.com/archives/hepass-2/ (Proposal 2)
Not as comfy as a train though.
Live Camera of the Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station's outside, apparently this has been on since last month
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr_zJ5K1AvE
>>937074
And that if you have to change into the first Shinkansen to Tokyo you will have to wait outside the S-H-H station since the bus arrives at 4 something in the morning and the station doesn't open until 6 am
>>937102
excellent webcam
>>937102
>Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto
>wait wait
>building a shinkansen station 30 mins outside the city
WHY JR, THE WHOLE ADVANTAGE YOU HAVE OVER THE AIRLINES IS THE TRAINS ARRIVE IN THE FUCKING CITY CENTRE.
>>937271
It's a better route for getting to Sapporo.
>>937271
Well, the route is supposed to go all the way to Sapporo and building (and rebuilding) infrastructure into Hakodate would probably be too expensive and guarantee to be stuck in legal limbo
>>937304
It's JR Hokkaido's pet project. Save some popcorn just in case they collapse before it's complete. It's probably not implausible that they'd sacrifice all of Hokkaido's rails to keep it going
>>937305
What is everything else unprofitable?
They couldn't get rid of all the lines that's crazy, it's Japan.
>>937308
>What is everything else unprofitable?
Someone posted a few weeks ago in this thread, but the answer is yes, JR Hokkaido is losing money on all its lines.
>>937308
Well, ever since the split into JR Hokkaido in 1987 they already abandoned 987.9 km worth of track (Sauce: JPN Wikipedia page of JR Hokkaido) and there are a lot more unprofitable lines due to extremely low riderships. Even the busiest region aka Sapporo metro area with 8000+ passengers/km/day it would still cost them 111 Yen for every 100 Yen earned after taking management costs into consideration, and then we have sections where they lose a lot of money in absolute terms due to them being essential in passenger services. The company as a whole costs 154 Yen for every 100 Yen earned
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160210-1.pdf
>>937439
If I'm reading this right with my limited moon, for 2013 JR Hokkaido made a loss of 40,037,000,000 yen or around $350 million clapistani burgerdollars.
How the fuck are they still afloat?
>>937458
>JNR
>Ever profitable
laughingaccountants.gif Basically JNR (when it was still government owned) back in the 50s~70s began its mad expansion of building the Shinkansen network, constantly building new rolling stocks, electrification of main lines, move away from steam locomotives, and running many unprofitable rural lines. As a result of the runaway debt that repaying it finally rolled into the National budget in the late 90s. The following might provide a bit more insight into what happened then [lolnospoiler] Fun Fact: The person who wrote it only died recently and he was 95 [/lolnospoiler]
http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr22/pdf/F23_Kakumoto.pdf
After the whole privatization went down the general trend of profitability of the JR Group seems to be like this
East: Profitable due to LOL Tokyo Metro Area
Central: Profitable due to LOL Tokaido Shinkansen
West: Kind of profitable due to Keihanshin area, but they also have to serve quite a large bit of rural areas aka San'in region
Kyushu: Somewhat profitable
Shikoku: Loses money, but it is basically the only way into Shikoku using rail
Hokkaido: Loses a lot of money due to area covered and declining ridership
>Anyway just raise the fares or cut services.
Well, JR Hokkaido is cutting services and closing some of the stations but I doubt it will do much
>>937470
JR Hokkaido, JR Shikoku, JR Kyushu and JR Freight are still technically under the Japanese governement but operated under some complicated-ass scheme that baka gaijins like us won't get
>>937476
M-maybe they'll nationialize it again when Hokkaido goes bust...
Also you guys seem to have some good info so thought I might ask here, was looking for some info on the history of the JR pass like year first offered/who pushed for its creation/changes over time, but couldn't find anything really. Anyone have any resources?
>>937458
>raise fairs
Every time JNR did that they lost passengers.
>cut services
JR Hokkaido is already doing that.
>>937485
They're in a death spiral. The only thing that could possibly save the whole country is the collapse of other major asian players which won't happen. Or they get the reset switch pushed from another war which is also extremely unlikely and won't solve the lack of people. Immigration would also cause all sorts of shit because the people wouldn't want it anyway
What's going to happen to the Seishun 18 in Hokkaido now with the Shinkansen being the only thing through the tunnel? Are they seriously going to allow it to be used on it?
>>937669
There's a "Hokkaido Shinkansen Option Ticket" that costs 2300 Yen that allows you to take the Hokkaido Shinkansen between Okutsugaru-Imabetsu and Kikonai + the Donan Isabiri Railway between Kikonai and Goryokaku, but according to the article below getting between Aomori and Hakodate would be a colossal pain in the ass due to the extra transfers and the gap between the appropriate trains
Before: Aomori <> Kanita <> Kikonai <> Hakodate
After: Aomori <> Kanita <> Walk between Tsugaru Futamata and Okutsugaru-Imabetsu <> Kikonai <> Hakodate
http://tabiris.com/archives/seishun18-12/
>>937675
Ohhhh Jewpan Rail.
Speaking of cutting services, there is a station in Hokkaido will now have only one train service per day. The Shin-Totsukaga Station, which is the terminus of the shortened Sassho Line will have its only train service depart from the station at 9:40 am towards Ishikari-Tobetsu.
Fun Fact: The Hokkaido-Medical University and Shin-Totsukaga section of the Sassho line has the second worst cost/revenue ratio costing JR Hokkaido 2,162 Yen for every 100 Yen earned (the worst being the Ryomoi and Mashike section of the Ryomoi Main Line with a cost/revenue ratio of 4,554)
http://response.jp/category/railway/2016/03/
>>937677
At that point people would probably be better off taking the Hakodate/Aomori ferry across the Tsugaru Strait as it will be faster most of the time and might be cheaper too
New pdf report from JR Hokkaido telling us how financially fucked they are.
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160328-1.pdf
>>938142
In addition to that, a lot of their DMUs (especially from the JNR days) are getting old as well so they are planning on replacing them (which makes them even more fucked financially)
Local-use DMU
Quantity: 205 cars
Average Age: 32 Years
Average Age for JNR KiHa 40 Series: 35 Years (13 of them are approaching 40 years old)
Express-use DMU
Quantity: 236 cars
Average Age: 20 Years (The median is basically split between the KiHa 183 + 281 series and KiHa 261 + 283 series)
Average Age for JNR KiHa 183 Series: 30 years (34 of them average for 32+ years, which are probably the first production batch of said DMU series)
Considering their plan to replace all the JNR DMUs and even the "newer" 281 + 283 Series down the road along with infrastructure repairs I'm not sure how much more money will they be bleeding
>>938152
There's no way JR Hokkaido has the money to replace all their JNR-era rolling stock. We're already seeing service cuts, and there will be more, plus the abandoning of low-use lines.
>>938169
JR Hokkaido posted a Road Map last year discussing about their short term (Between 2014 and 2018) plan. Some of the things pertaining to rolling stock include:
- Replacing the aging 711 Series EMU with 733 Series EMU (Done)
- Scrap 27 out of 37 of the 785 Series Express EMU used in the Sapporo area and replace them with 789-0 Series EMU made surplus from the opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen (They are probably starting to work on that)
- Replacing the KiHa 183-0 Series DMU with KiHa 261-1000 Series DMU (in progress)
- Build two prototype local use DMU and start doing test runs (Beginning in 2017)
Long Term goals included what I mentioned before and replacing the 721 Series EMU
Sauce (Page 4): http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2015/150508-1.pdf
>There's no way JR Hokkaido has the money to replace all their JNR-era rolling stock
I'm pretty sure they will probably replace the really old ones first and [lolnospoiler] beg the government for funds for the rest fo them [/lolnospoiler] And we haven't even touch the problem of aging infrastructure since they have a lot of ancient as fuck bridges, tunnels, and other things as well
>>938296
I just don't understand why JR Hokkaido is even building a shinkansen given the mess they are in.
>>938532
Now they can go bankrupt and break into JR Hokkaido south, north, west, and east.
Then when those go bankrupt repeat.
>>915795
The entire 3rd sector thing seems to defeat the purpose of establishing JRs
>>922853
>How many lines would JR Hokkaido have if it cut all the low traffic lines according to previous standard
http://trafficnews.jp/post/36962/
>>938532
It's their only hope because Shinkansen means ¥¥¥
>>939152
It's a way of disposing of unwanted lines. The JRs aren't stupid and know the lines will die because the prefectural government ends up being cash strapped and/or stingy and they [the JRs] can now get away with not being responsible for the demise on paper. The public are well and truly aware of the games being played but they can't really do a whole lot
It's like that railway in Tohoku that ended up de electrified and then dead because the fares were double JR fares and the few people who rode it said fuck this. Or the Hokuso/Keisei relationship where people also say fuck you to Hokuso and find ways to avoid their fares
Here's a "press release" on the usage of the Hokkaido Shinkansen during the first three days of opening. Stats included are 1) Ridership compared to last year (same calendar date between Naka-Oguni and Kikonai) 2) Occupancy Rate and 3) Station usage (based on those who used the automatic gates)
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160329-1.pdf
>>939156
>The map has all the lines with less than 2000 passengers/km/day eliminated according to the site
I'm pretty sure people in Wakkanai and Abashiri would throw a bitch fit about that and try to force JR Hokkaido to keep the Soya and Sekihoku Main Lines going
>>939194
>It's like that railway in Tohoku that ended up de electrified and then dead because the fares were double JR fares and the few people who rode it said fuck this
I'm quite curious to which line is this since there weren't many lines that ended up de-electrified (or at least only ended up using DMUs to save costs) as only Hisatsu Orange and Echigo TK are the ones I know that use DMUs on electrified lines
>>939266
Found it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurihara_Den%27en_Railway_Line
They were seemingly so cash strapped they didn't even want to bother removing the wires?
Seems their lifeline was freight though and once that was gone, they had no chance anyway
>>939194
>It's their only hope because Shinkansen means ¥¥¥
By that do you mean government handouts?
>>939266
Top kek regarding that press release. It's like JR Hokkaido is trying to convince people that the Shinkansen will significantly increase the ridership through the Seikan tunnel. Those passenger numbers are probably going to drop down to near pre-Shinkansen levels, if they haven't already.
>>939533
We will probably find out within a year when the novelty/boom dies down just like what happened with the Seikan Tunnel after it opened. As far as the ridership is concerned it might have a 50~100% increase compared to pre-Shinkansen levels (that's just me being generous), but it probably won't be as high as the Nagano-Kanazawa stretch of the Hokuriku Shinkansen due to the distance
>>940391
http://zasshi.news.yahoo.co.jp/article?a=20160401-00088995-hbolz-soci
"JR北海道の想定では、北海道新幹線の1日あたりの平均乗車率は20%台後半。"
JR Hokkaido expects an average daily ridership of 20%. I don't know how that compares with pre-shinkansen ridership levels, but it isn't good.
>>941132
>Ridership
That's supposed to be the occupancy rate. Even with an average of around 25% occupancy rate it would be around 182~3 passengers per train (a E5/H5 has 731 seats)
Considering that the Tsugaru-Kaikyo Line had around 2000~4000 passengers/km/day the Hokkaido Shinkansen will probably have to have at least 6000 passengers/km/day to be considered an "improvement" over the previous Limited Express options
The following is just a comparison of the capacity of the EMUs used for the (Super) Hakucho services and how using a E6 set would still be sufficient on normal times if the occupancy rate is that bad
E6 Series Shinkansen: 336 passengers (7-car set)
485-3000 Series EMU: 382 passengers (standard 6-car set)
789-0 Series EMU: 347 passengers (standard 6-car set)
Finally.
http://tabiris.com/archives/rumoi-3/
>>942442
That's just the 16.7 km section between Ryomoi and Mashike, which had the lowest ridership density of 39 passengers/km/day and the worst Operating Cost Ratio of 4,554 Yen for every 100 Yen earned. Which is frankly just a drop of the bucket to JR Hokkaido's problems
>>943199
I know. JR Hokkaido was taking a while to announce the exact date that they were closing the line.
>>943439
Well, that particular section was also closed sometime in February this year due to the snow melting and there was no concrete schedule of reopening. inb4 they will just not bother to reopen and just close it officially in December 5th
Another month, another batch of PDFs from JR Hokkaido
Discussing about the age of its Express DMU fleet, page 3 contains some of the problems of their oldest DMU (KiHa 183-0 Series) and page 4 contains ridership data of its Limited Express trains and a comparison between 1991 and 2015 (aka they all dropped)
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160413-1.pdf
Hokkaido Shinkansen's ridership during the first 16 days
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160413-4.pdf
And speaking of the aging of said trains, JR Hokkaido plans to scrap 68 out of its 90 KiHa 183 DMUs by 2017 (the 22 that had its engine and other parts swapped in 2014 are excluded). And since JR Hokkaido is too cash strapped to replace them with the same number of KiHa 261 Express DMUs they are considering to have the Super Soya and Okhotsk Ltd Express services end at Asahikawa instead due to not having enough rolling stock and declining ridership
http://tabiris.com/archives/kiha183-2/
The story of JR Hokkaido seems like the story of Japan in general. Long, slow, quiet decline.
>>943785
Both are tied to declining population. It remains to be seen whether JR Hokkaido and/or Japan can handle this change gracefully or not.
>>944023
>Expecting a bunch of betas to actually do anything meaningful about their population problem
At this rate two decades of economic recession isn't enough, etc.
15 of the 20 14 Series passenger cars that were used for the Hamanasu service were transferred from Sapporo Operation Center to the Naebo Works (top link) and Jinyamachi (near Muroran, bottom link), they are assumed to be scrapped
http://railf.jp/news/2016/04/15/150000.html
http://railf.jp/news/2016/04/14/153000.html
>>944572
Compared to other countries, why does Japan favor EMUs/DMUs over locomotive-hauled trains when it comes to passenger trains?
>>944849
less total weight, lower total cost, traction distributed all over the train meaning much higher possible accelerations (they have rather small distances between stations, compared to the states), lower lenght of the train (meaning more passenger-cars fit on the same platform, identical running behaviour in both directions (pushing locomotives cause some instabilities and are thus not allowed to go as fast)
>>944849
Japan used to have quite a lot of passenger cars back in the JNR Era, but they gradually get phased out in favor of EMUs/DMUs due to the reasons stated in >>945347 and JNR couldn't into passenger car design. Their only local passenger car in the JNR Era (50 Series) only had 2 pairs of doors, which resulted in boarding/unboarding in the main lines a pain in the ass and causes delays.
Looks like the closed section between Rumoi and Mashike for the Rumoi Line will reopen for the last time in April 28th
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160420-1.pdf
>>923539
Today i learn new thing.
JR Hokkaido published the usage statistics of the Hokkaido Shinkansen after its inauguration month, again the ridership comparison is from the same stretch as the PDF I posted earlier and overall occupancy rates. The ridership number inside the parenthesis excludes overnight services aka Hamanasu
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160426-1.pdf
Remember the 3-car KiHa 285 prototype that JR Hokkaido spent 2.5 Billion Yen to develop only to forego production and they will just build more KiHa 261-1000 in 2014? Apparently it will be scrapped after all since converting it into a track/electrical inspection train is a lot more difficult than it appeared and more expensive than just buying one off the shelf
http://dd.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/society/society/1-0263551.html (the link might eventually be pruned since that's how Japanese news links work)
http://news.mynavi.jp/series/railwaynews/018/
>>952152
>JR Hokkaido spent 2.5 Billion Yen to develop only to forego production and they will just build more KiHa 261-1000 in 2014?
>Apparently it will be scrapped
SHAMEFUR DISPRAY
>>956167
Well, a lot of things have went wrong for JR Hokkaido in the 2010s, which basically forced them to put more emphasis on safety and what not. That basically caused them to stop its development, lowered the speed of its Limited Express trains (from 130 km/h to 110 km/h, stopped the usage of the tilting system, etc.) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, here's some of the major accidents (or things that have gone wrong) since the 2010s. There were also various minor mishaps and one of the President committed suicide in 2011 as well.
2010: A 5-car 789-1000 EMU hit a dump truck and derailed near Fukagawa on the Hakodate Main Line (the whole set was scrapped)
2011: A 6-car KiHa 283 DMU caught fire in a tunnel on the Sekisho Line (all cars were scrapped)
2013: A freight train derailed near Onuma Station
2013: A KiHa 183 DMU caught fire, which caused JR Hokkaido to stop using all 36 cars that used the same engine until 2014
>>956522
*driver
Also, keeps the snow away from the windscreen and partially being a relic of trains with a gangway door or just high cab in general (hello 485!)
In modern times, probably saves the driver's head against a bus or something too (though the legs might have to go)
The future looks grim for JR Hokkaido, but what about JR Shikoku? Both companies operate all the former JNR lines on their respective islands and were expected to have financial difficulties after privatization.
http://www.jr-shikoku.co.jp/03_news/press/2016%2005%2009%2001.pdf
Ridership actually increased slightly across all lines (see pg.5) in contrast to JR Hokkaido.
>>957635
Whoops, should do my research before posting. JR Hokkaido actually had increased ridership on a lot of its lines (FY H26 vs H27).
http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/press/2016/160509-3.pdf (pg.8)
Since the thread is still alive, might as well post here instead of the Japanese train one
For the soon to be closed section of the Rumoi Line between Rumoi and Mashike, JR Hokkaido will be selling memorial ticket sets
http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2016/06/10/434/
Oigawa Railway (in Shizuoka Prefecture) bought 4 of the 14 Series passenger cars that were used in the former Hamanasu overnight service from JR Hokkaido to be used for its SL (Steam Locomotive) services starting in June 2017
http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2016/06/10/423/
>>965507
I have to wonder what will JR Hokkaido do with the remaining DD51 Diesel Locomotives since they have basically nothing else to haul anymore
>>966848
>I have to wonder what will JR Hokkaido do with the remaining DD51 Diesel Locomotives
Either scrapped, donated to Myanmar, or preserved as monuments.
>>970189
>Thread about Hokkaido Transporation
>Posts a JR East E751 EMU (somewhere in Aomori)
u wot mate
It appears that with the opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen the ridership for the Seikan Ferry between Hakodate and Aomori actually increased. Despite the fact that it takes around 4 hours to cross the Tsugaru Strait ridership has gone up due to the fact that it is a lot cheaper (around 2,000 Yen compared to 7,500 Yen for the Hokkaido Shinkansen before any discounts) and people don't have to transfer twice at Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto and Shin-Aomori stations
http://tabiris.com/archives/seikan-2/
