The journey time for the 714km trip between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori has been reduced by 39 minutes to 3h 20min, and will fall even further when 320km/h operation begins on the Utsonomiya - Morioka section in 2013. From March 2011, JR East will introduce its E5 high-speed trains on Hayabusa services to Shin-Aomori. The fleet of 23 10-car trains is being manufactured by Hitachi and Kawasaki. Construction is underway on the next phase, which will link Aomori with the Seikan Tunnel, and allow the extension of Shinkansen services through to Hakodate at the southern tip of Hokkaido. Meanwhile at the other end of the country, the gap between the Sanyo Shinkansen and the isolated section of the Kyushu Shinkansen will be eliminated with the opening of the 130km section from Hakata to Shin Yatsushiro on March 12 2012.