New Hokkaido Shinkansen High Speed Train Service Unveiled In Japan

Japan, September 21, 2015 -

The Hokkaido Shinkansen is ready to fly this coming March. With an agreement between Japan Railways JR East and JR Hokkaido subsidiaries, four new H5 model Shinkansen trainsets for the new line to Japan’s northern-most island.

The daily service pattern breaks down as follows:

·         Ten Hayabusa service trains from Tokyo to Hakodate on Hokkaido island;

·         One round trip from Sendai with two Hayate services, one of them from Morioka and the other from Shin-Aomori;

·         Sixteen 3-car emus will operate between Shin-Hakodate Hokuto and Hakodate city center, and;

·         The existing conventional line between Sapporo and Shin-Hakodate Hokuto will be increased to 12 trains from 9 per day.

In recent years, the trackage through the 53km Seikan tunnel and on Hokkaido have been dual-gauged in anticipation of the new service.

With the start of standard gauge Shinkansen, all of the 1067mm-gauge trains operating between Honshu and Hokkaido, including Cassiopeia, Super Hakucho, Hakucho, and Hamanasu trains will be terminated.

The long term goal is to provide Hokkaido Shinkansen second phase service to Sapporo by 2030 on a 211 kilometer route.

PHOTO CAPTION:  JR East's E5 Shinkansenin Tokyo station.

Tokyo’s Haneda Monorail Improvements Planned

Tokyo, Japan, August 21, 2014 – While most travelers enter Japan from Narita International Airport, Haneda Airport which is closer to Tokyo’s downtown and sees 60 million passengers annually, is being upgraded with improved rail links. The airport has resurfaced as an international destination since a fourth runway was added as part of the Japanese government’s program to increase tourism in the country.

The monorail that’s operated by Japan Railways East (JR East) and its subsidiary Tokyo Monorail are looking to expand the 'train to the plane' system to Shinjuku (a major tourist destination), central Tokyo and Shin-Kiba with a 3 km (about 2 miles). The project is budgeted at $1.1 billion dollars.

Currently, passengers can connect from the monorail to JR East and the Tokyo subway at the at Hamamatsucho monorail terminal. The line extension would reduce the average trip time from 24 to 18 minutes and a train transfer eliminated.

WMATA SmarTrip® Contactless Farecard Contract Awarded

Washington, DC, July 29, 2014 – The Washington Metro is officially moving away from paper fare cards and fully into electronic fare payment systems. An $8 million deal with Cubic to convert, upgrade and retrofit WMATA’s fare devices to work with contactless fare card usage called SmarTrip® within 2 years.

The work includes changing 500 turnstiles and vending machines

Cubic Transportation Systems initially installed WMATA’s paper magnetic farecard system when the system opened during the nation’s bicentennial in 1976.

This is the latest in a series of improvements on the Washington Metro which includes the opening of the Dulles Airport Silver Line earlier this week.

Photo caption: Suica contactless fare cards in use on the Tokyu-Setegaya line in Tokyo, Japan.