Bullet trains start running on Kyushu Shinkansen Line's new Nagasaki route

The Mainichi 
September 23, 2022 (Japan)

Bullet trains on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line's new Nagasaki route in southwest Japan made their debut on the morning of Sept. 23 to the delight of railway fans.

The new line connects Takeo-Onsen Station in the Saga Prefecture city of Takeo and Nagasaki Station in the city of Nagasaki. Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) operates the country's shortest shinkansen line, which is not connected to other shinkansen lines because the construction of a section in Saga Prefecture has not started. By using limited express trains for that section and the new bullet trains, passengers now can travel between Hakata Station in the city of Fukuoka and Nagasaki Station in as little as one hour and 20 minutes, some 30 minutes shorter than before.

Local officials celebrated the opening of the Nagasaki route at all five stations on Sept. 23. The very first "Kamome" (seagull) bullet train full of passengers departed Nagasaki Station at 6:17 a.m.

The six-carriage Kamome trains were created based on Central Japan Railway Co.'s N700S series bullet trains by industrial designer Eiji Mitooka, who is known for having worked on the "Seven Stars in Kyushu" luxury sleeper trains. The Kamome bullet trains and the "Relay Kamome" limited express trains will run 44 times a day for the time being. JR Kyushu will operate more trains mainly on weekends depending on a boost in passenger numbers following the coronavirus pandemic. Passengers can transfer between the bullet trains and limited express trains on the same platform at Takeo-Onsen Station.

The Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen Line was first planned in 1973. The national government proceeded to develop gauge-changing trains, which can run on both conventional lines and shinkansen lines, and initially planned to operate bullet trains between Hakata and Nagasaki stations including a conventional line section between Shin-Tosu Station in the Saga Prefecture city of Tosu and Takeo-Onsen Station. However, the central government gave up on the development of gauge-changing trains in 2018, and altered the plan to construct a shinkansen line with a standard gauge. The construction cost for the finally opened 66-kilometer section was 620 billion yen (roughly $4.36 billion).

(Japanese original by Hiroshi Hisano, Kyushu Business News Department; Video by Hiroyuki Takahashi, Nagasaki Bureau, Hiroshi Hisano, Kyushu Business News Department, Noriko Tokuno, Kyushu Photo Department, and Keiichi Sugiyama, Isahaya Resident Bureau)

Source
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220923/p2a/00m/0bu/007000c