THE 124km extension to the Hokuriku Shinkansen high-speed line from Kanazawa southwest via Fukui to Tsuruga will open on March 16 2024. This will herald significant reductions in journey times and a major restructuring of the train services operating in the area.
JR East and JR West, which jointly operate the Hokuriku Shinkansen linking Nagano, Toyama and Kanazawa, have announced details of the high-speed and connecting conventional services they plan to operate.
The two railways intend to run 14 round trips per day between Tokyo, Kanazawa and Tsuruga using 12-car series E7/W7 trains. The Tokyo - Fukui journey time will be reduced by 36 minutes to 2h 51min while the Tokyo - Tsuruga trip time will be cut by 50 minutes to 3h 8min. There will also be frequent regional Shinkansen services running between Tsuruga, Kanazawa and Toyama.
Connecting conventional services will run 25 times per day from Tsuruga to Osaka and eight times per day to Nagoya. There will also be five round trips per day by limited express service from Kanazawa north to Wakura Onsen.
For more data on Asia rail projects, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
