JR Schedule Changes (2021): Cutting a Minute Off the Trip from Ueno to Omiya!

On March 13, 2021 (Reiwa 3), the regular JR timetable revision took place. Personally, the brightest piece of news was perhaps the speed increase on the Tohoku Shinkansen between Ueno and Omiya.

The restriction of 110 km/h—which was agreed upon by the Japan National Railways (JNR) and local residents due to noise concerns when the line opened—has finally been raised to 130 km/h, nearly 40 years after its launch. …It’s a secret that the Saikyo Line, which opened with a bundled agreement, is generating far more excessive noise than this improvement… Thanks to this change, the travel time for the Tohoku, Hokkaido, Joetsu, and Hokuriku Shinkansen has been reduced by “one minute.” Don’t underestimate it just because it’s ‘only one minute!’ The Shinkansen now stretches through Tohoku, Hokkaido, Niigata, and even past Nagano into Kanazawa in Hokuriku. For the Tohoku-Hokkaido Shinkansen, which is planned to extend all the way to Sapporo in ten years, reducing travel time is paramount. Achieving speed increases—such as the 130 km/h section between Ueno and Omiya, the 260 km/h section of the upgraded Shinkansen, or the 140 km/h section through the Seikan Tunnel—requires continuously accumulating small improvements.

In 1992 (Heisei 4), the Kodama 300 series debuted on the Tokaido Shinkansen. Previously, the journey from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka took 2 hours and 52 minutes using the Limited Express Hikari 100 series, but this was significantly reduced to 2 hours and 30 minutes. While there were also ‘secret techniques’ like skipping Nagoya (which greatly angered the Mayor of Nagoya at the time), continuous efforts—such as improvements in braking systems, ATC (Automatic Train Control), acceleration performance, train tilting mechanisms, noise reduction, etc.—were accumulated minute by minute. Despite making Shinagawa and Shin-Yokohama basic stops, the travel time was achieved at 2 hours and 22 minutes in 2015 (Heisei 27).

Since 2019 (Reiwa 1), JR East has been conducting test runs toward commercial operation at 360 km/h using a new test train (nicknamed ALFA-X). For us to utilize that speed, this one-minute reduction is an incredibly important minute—a minute that cannot be taken for granted!

I had planned to only briefly mention the timetable revision, but I ended up rambling about it. So, I plan to keep talking about schedule changes until I’m satisfied, and for today, that will be enough…

See you next time!