That N'Ex schedule effective April 4 includes no trains at all in the afternoon, which is when virtually all flights to/from North America arrive and depart. So it will be useless for US and Canadian traffic. Wonder why they picked the times that they did?

Perhaps to bring local business travel back to NRT? I suspect they think long haul pax are willing to put up with a longer trip to the airport than those just going on a day trip to FUK (assuming many of those flights go out of NRT and are not just confined to HND). Just a guess.

I'd imagine that it's because commuter trains are pretty tolerable in the middle of the day, and can accommodate plenty of pax with luggage, but are hellishly crowded during the rush hours. Operating NEX during rush hour takes some very space-consuming load off the slower trains.

The problem is that the JR Airport-Narita rapid train isn't just a bit slower than the N'Ex, it's a LOT slower, typically including one or two long halts in places like Chiba or Sakura.

So JR is still not an option for most of us who read this forum, use Keisei to/from NRT.

I've at last found the revised Keisei Skyliner timetable.

http://www.keisei.co.jp/keisei/tetud...y/skyliner.pdf

It's in Japanese but should be reasonably self-explanatory. From the top Skyliner weekday timetable, Saturday/Sunday/holiday timetable, Morning/Evening Liner weekday timetable and Morning/Evening Liner Saturday/Sunday/holiday timetable. Ueno to Narita Airport on the left and Narita Airport to Ueno on the right.

Stations listed on the Skyliner timetables are:

上野 = Ueno
日暮里 = Nippori
空港第2ビル = Narita Airport Terminal 2
成田空港 = Narita Airport Terminal 1

発 = depart
着 = arrive

The timetables are valid from 4th April.

Link to the English, Chinese, Korean version.

That's true now, but if there are large-scale rolling blackouts in the region (as there may be in a month or two when it's hotter outside), JR will have its own power source and Keisei will not.

Tohoku Shinkansen updates
 

Tokyo - Fukushima : reduced service (until 24th April)
Fukushima - Sendai : no service (expected to reopen on 25th April)
Sendai - Ichinoseki : no service (expected to reopen around 30th April)
Ichinoseki - Morioka : 8 trains per day (starting on 23rd April)
Morioka - Shin Aomori : 10 trains per day in each direction

In addition Tohoku Honsen runs services between:
Fukushima - Sendai (some connecting to Shinkansen at Fukushima)
Sendai - Ichinoseki (starting on 21st April)

The JR East page now officially says that the Tohoku shinkansen has been re-opened from Morioka to Ichinoseki; i.e., it no longer says service is suspended from Morioka to Fukushima but from Ichinoseki to Fukushima.

Tohoku Shinkansen between Morioka and Ichinoseki indeed reopened today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QklaMiasBJM

Sendai-Fukushima will reopen on Monday 25th and Ichinoseki-Sendai is expected to reopen on 29th.

Right on target! As of now, the JR East page now says that the only suspended part is between Sendai and Ichinoseki.

Clearly they are doing their very best to have everything possible up and running for Golden Week.

Tohoku Shinkansen "Yamabiko" leaving Sendai for Tokyo at 06:02 this morning. There will be 44 trains daily between Sendai and Tokyo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a06Jw8x-amE

Except the JR East page now says the service between Tokyo and Sendai is suspended due to an electrical outage! Hopefully this won't last long.

Oh dear!

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/...na021000c.html

Any word when the Skyliner will be back to normal?

As of 26 April some Skyliner trains are still not running.