Malcolm12

Can anyone please tell me if there is any green cars on the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo using the JR rail pass? I understand that there is not a green car Osaka to Hiroshima using this pass,

ChrisLi

According to some random check on JR East website it shows that they do have Green car on those trains

Please check http://www.jreast-timetable.jp/1010/...9/1039010.html to see if the exact train you about to take has green car, it will show "グリーン車指定席" if it has green car, you can only take blue and black ones as the red ones are Nozomi

just curious: why you want to get a green car pass instead of a normal car one? I will use the same money by going normal car

jib71

You have answered your own question.

ChrisLi

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3Gs: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Oops I was meant to type save instead of same

ninja138

From Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka, the 16-car Hikari trains run by JR East and Central have Green cars. The 8-car Hikari Railstars run by JR West do not.

All Hikari trains from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo have Green cars.

Steve M

That's true, but the Railstar's single class of service offers 2x2 seating to all passengers, similar to the Green Car on non-Railstar Shinkansen. Perhaps the legroom is not as much - I don't know - but don't feel too shortchanged if you take a Railstar for part of your journey even though you have a Green rail pass.

Malcolm12

Thanks for the info the reason we wanted green car is a i am told they have more room. I am a retired Rugby union player and are 6ft3 and 118kilos my oldest son is a current rugby union player and is 6ft4 and 115kilos so room is important. I thank you all for your advise many thanks

ChrisLi

I am not 100% sure but in such case I will suggest you take the green car as far as possible. The train departings at 03 from Tokyo station go as far as Okayama, which you connect to Hikari Railstar or the slower Kodama, which has the same frequency of RailStar compare with shin-osaka >> Hiroshima and maximize your green car experience

From Okayama to Hiroshima is another 45 minutes of ride on Hikari RailStar which is better than the 1.5 hour from Shin-Osaka (unless you want to walk a bit inside the Osaka station first .... )

Also not 100% sure, may be other can provide more info on this as according to JR West Japanese website, it seems that if you have a group of 3 or 4 you can get the compartment for free on the Railstar train

http://www.jr-odekake.net/train/rail...0/accommo.html

Q Shoe Guy

JR East(JR東日本） runs all Shinkansen NORTH of Tokyo.
JR Central (JR Tokai) runs all Shinkansen between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka.
JR West runs all Shinkansen from Shin Osaka to Hakata (this will change in March 2011, with the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen).

Some of the 700 series train sets (all N700 series) have green cars(often 16 cars long). As others have pointed out you can use these trains when they run as Hikari with your green train pass.

SJUAMMF

The Kodama between Hiroshima and Shin-Osaka has 2x2 seating. If you have time or planned to stop in between, these trains are more comfortable without paying for Green car fare.

railroadtycoon

Regular cars in the Shinkansen already offer much more leg room then your standard airline seats which typically range from 810mm-890mm or so.

If it matters on a standard Hikari series 300 Shinkansen:
Green cars have 1160mm seat pitch.
Ordinary cars have 1040mm seat pitch.

Green cars have 475mm seat breath.
Ordinary cars have between 430-460mm seat breath.

railroadtycoon

I used to love riding the old 0series Shinkansen on this route, the train used older green seats in the ordinary section. The 100 series trains on this route also use retired green seats to my knowledge.

SJUAMMF

I bumped on to this train by accident, from Shin-Kurashiki back to Okayama. They are very nice and with only a few customers since most short distance riders would take the Sanyo mainline.

railroadtycoon

Yes, same route I took as well. If I recall Shin-Kurashiki is only serviced by Kodama Shinkansen trains (and local trains).

SJUAMMF

Only Shinkansen at Shin-Kurashiki station. The JR Kurashiki station on the Sanyo mainline is may be 2km away.