Kyūshū Shinkansen

The nihongo|Kyūshū Shinkansen|九州新幹線|Kyūshū Shinkansen is a 249 km high-speed railway line between the Japanese cities of Fukuoka and Kagoshima, on Kyūshū Island, running parallel to the existing Kagoshima Main Line. The southern 127 km is already in service, while the northern section is under construction. It is currently being built by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyūshū), and scheduled to open in 2011.

Operational life

The segment between Kagoshima and Yatsushiro began operations on March 13, 2004. It cuts travel times between the two cities from 130 minutes to 35 minutes, and reduces the time between Hakata and Kagoshima from 4 hours to just 2 hours. When the entire line is complete, the travel time from Hakata to Kagoshima will be just over an hour.

Like the original Shinkansen lines, the Kyushu Shinkansen is standard gauge.

Future plans

The line will connect to the Sanyō Shinkansen at Hakata Station upon its final completion. It may use part or all of the Hakata Minami Line. A spur to Nagasaki from Shin-Tosu Station is in planning stages, with construction provisionally authorized for part of the line but with the exact route not yet fixed.

Stations

:¹: Tentative name:²: All the trains stop at stations signed "+". Most trains stop at "*". Most trains do not stop at "-".:³: Through service to/from Kyūshū Shinkansen is planned.:⁴: New station will be constructed.

Trains

The line uses a new train set model, the 800 Series Shinkansen, with a maximum speed of 260 km/h (160 mph). The trains have been developed by Hitachi, which also manufactured the 500 and 700 series trains on the Tōkaidō/Sanyō Shinkansen line.

Individual trains are named "Tsubame", or "Swallow," the name of the former Hakata-Kagoshima limited express service. While the line is being completed, the old Tsubame trains carry passengers to Shin-Yatsushiro, where they can transfer to the Shinkansen for the remainder of their journey. The old trains have been redubbed "Relay Tsubame" for this purpose.

External links

*http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/shinkansen (official site in Japanese)
*http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/shinkansen/news/index.html (TVCF movie)
*http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/shinkansen/syaryo_info/index.html (exterior)
*http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/shinkansen/syaryo_info/naiso01.html (interior page1)
*http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/shinkansen/syaryo_info/naiso02.html (interior page2)
*http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/tsubame_top.html (official site in English)