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Tokyo-Aomori bullet train line fully opens
AOMORI (Kyodo) -- The Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line between Tokyo and Aomori fully opened Saturday with services starting on the extended section between Hachinohe and Shin-Aomori stations, both in Aomori Prefecture. The extension enables people to travel about 675 kilometers between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori stations in about three hours and 20 minutes, about 40 minutes shorter than ever before.
The full service on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line came 38 years after the government decided on basic plans to extend the bullet train line beyond Morioka, Iwate Prefecture.
The first Tokyo-bound train left Shin-Aomori Station at 6:31 a.m. following a ceremony attended by Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura. "The full opening was our earnest desire for 38 years," Mimura said. "I want to share the joy of the start of a new journey."
One of the first train's passengers was Akio Nishino, a 61-year-old carpenter from Shichinohe, Aomori Prefecture, who used to travel to Tokyo in a sleeper train around 40 years ago.
"I couldn't imagine such a (fast-traveling) time would come," he said before boarding the train with around 30 friends.
The first train, however, had trouble connecting with an Akita Shinkansen train at Morioka station, which caused a 13-minute delay in its schedule.
At Tokyo station, meanwhile, some 500 people saw off the first Shin-Aomori-bound train early Saturday morning, with East Japan Railway Co. Chairman Mutsutake Otsuka telling them, "The Tohoku Shinkansen line has been extended northward step by step for the past 30 years or so. I expect many people to use it and visit Aomori."
A 45-year-old man from Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, said, "I hope the Shinkansen line will reach my home province Hokkaido."
Shin-Aomori Station, which opened Saturday, houses 19 shops and restaurants inside the 1,085-square-meter station building.
As the Kyushu Shinkansen Line is scheduled to be fully opened to connect Hakata with Kagoshima next March, bullet train services will link Aomori, at the northern tip of the Honshu main island, and Kagoshima, at the southern tip on the Kyushu main island.
Reference http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101204p2g00m0dm003000c.html
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