hamburgler

This. Went to an ACCJ Shinkansen event run by JR Central a few years ago and there definitely was a lot of "our shinkansen is better than yours" vibe directed at JR East the whole time.

Among interesting things:
- Joetsu shinkansen is built to a higher weight standard than Tokaido shinkansen, so JR East has motors to rotate the chairs at the end stations, whereas the cleaners have to do it by hand on the JR Central/West/Kyushu sets
- JR Central can add extra trains on just a few weeks notice, and in fact does this regularly, as the schedule has slots for extra sections. As a result they aim to a target load factor of around 70%. JR East, not so much (hello sold out trains on the weekends).

End of the day, I think the station improvements required up and down the line for through-running would make the Fukutoshin through-running setup look like a cakewalk in comparison.

keihin_242

Updated the original post. Here is a graphic of how this might look in practice.



Click here to view on Flickr if you can't see the image.

Not all stations are shown. Major stations are indicated by large black and white circles.

I have included ideas for two types of service here:

(1) A limited-stop Shinkansen service similar to the existing Nozomi or Hayate (not Hayabusa) services connecting Sendai, Tokyo, and Shin-Osaka via the Tohoku and Tokaido Shinkansen lines. Some trains would serve the Joetsu Shinkansen as far as Niigata and some the Hokoriku Shinkansen as far as Nagano.

(2) A local (kakueki) Shinkansen service intended primarily for Kanto-area commuters between Nasu-Shiobara on the Tohoku Shinkansen and Echigo-Yuuzawa on the Joetsu Shinkansen (both existing termini for JR East local Shinkansen services) and Shizuoka. Again, these trains would stop at every station. This would serve residents of Tokyo's distant suburbs whose route may be Oyama - Shin-Yokohama or Shinagawa, or Atami to Ueno or Omiya.

That is indeed an interesting explanation as to why JR East Shinkansen are jammed full on the weekends.

I can certainly appreciate the differences in corporate culture between JR East and JR Tokai (especially as JR East handles the Tokyo area and probably looks down on JR Tokai just as much), but as of 2016 we now have four JR companies sharing operations of Shinkansen - JR Tokai/JR West, JR East/JR West, JR West/JR Kyushu, and finally JR East/JR Hokkaido. If those differences can be ironed out, I think JR East and JR West could do so.

Regarding new stations in Tokyo, Shinjuku or Shibuya will probably not happen just because of the sheer value of the real estate there and the number of subway lines already in place. It would certainly have to be underground unless you built it over the existing Yadanote* Line/Saikyo Line right-of-way.

But I think JR East could improve access to their Shinkansen by building a new station at....

dun dun dun

Akabane.** It's right along the Shinkansen right of way and connects with the Shonan-Shinjuku Line, the Utsunomiya/Tohoku Main Line, the Keihin-Tohuku Line, and the Saikyo Line. This would reduce crowding at Tokyo and improve access to the Shinkansen from Shinjuku and Ikebukuro.

So of course there are obstacles in the way of Shinkansen through service, and the biggest one, I think, is the "lol Tokyo is the center of human civilization" attitude among many in Tokyo and the Shutoken region, which of course insists that "of COURSE all Shinkansen lines must terminate at Tokyo.... I mean, %@#(!!, it's TOKE-KEY-YO!!!!!1!" And that attitude is without a doubt pervasive in the Japanese government and the boardrooms of JR Tokai and JR East.

But I think it's inevitable that the "Tokyo Barrier" is going to come down, and maybe sooner than everyone thinks. It won't be Japanese people who are the driving force, though. With the ever-increasing boom in Japanese tourism, more and more tourists from Asia are showing up, and the ones that plan to do even a little travel (as opposed to pillage-buying diapers) are showing up with rail passes. And once you have easy access to the rest of the country via Shinkansen, you notice that Tokyo is kinda boring (you all can look forward to another post on that from me, eh heh heh heh) once you've looked at the lights and skyline and visited a few restaurants and bars and then people start wondering - "I visited both central and east Japan on that trip. But why did I have to get off at Tokyo with all of my bags and have to change to another train? That doesn't make any sense." And they're gonna fill out their JR Group feedback surveys and it's eventually gonna happen. Because Chinese tourists are one group of people who are less inclined to think Tokyo is the Minas Tirith of the modern age.

*= This is not a misspelling.
**= Near Saitama? Yes. Actually Saitama? Unknown.

keihin_242

I once used a JR East pass to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Ueno. The people lining up to board in Ueno were certainly surprised to see someone getting off.

keihin_242

OK, finally got the correct url from Flickr.



Click here to view on Flickr if you can't see the image.

AlwaysAisle

Alright, I never heard of “Yadanote.” Where or which railway line is this?

keihin_242

The one in Tokyo that goes in a loop and stops at every station. I avoid using it whenever possible*, therefore yadanote. Mrs. keihin_242 gives me the look when I say it. オヤジギャグです。。。

*I prefer the Shonan-Shinjuku Line. I don't have a silly name for that one yet though.

AlwaysAisle

So, “Yada” on “Yadanote” is いやだ~(嫌だ～)… That is pretty bad one for オヤジギャグ, I must say… Your Mrs. stayed married with you after that bad オヤジギャグ…?

jib71

+1
Take his cushions away.

KPT

Before doing this, it'd be worth actually getting sample data at Tokyo station of how many people are actually doing this transfer. Right now we have a sample size of...1 on FT.

It's a cool idea, nonetheless. You could run these trains just barely frequently enough for demand, and keep the majority Osaka-Tokyo as they are now.

Also, it could be worse -- you could be transferring from the Tokaido Shinkansen to the...Keiyo Line for Disney.

joejones

There's an interesting article in Nikkei (Japanese) about why we don't have through service at Tokyo Station. http://style.nikkei.com/article/DGXN...Z20C14A1000000

Tl;dr summary:

• In 1971, while the Tohoku Shinkansen was under construction, JNR used the slogan "Hikari to the North" (ひかりは北へ) based on the assumption that Hikari services would be extended north from Tokyo. At the time, the plan was for all five of the current Shinkansen platforms to serve both northbound and southbound trains.
• JNR ended up abandoning this plan around 1977 for operational reasons, the most specific being that Tohoku trains were likely to be delayed by snow and they didn't want to cause a ripple effect that would impede Tokaido service. However, tracks 14/15 on the Tokaido side were kept angling inward toward the Tohoku tracks (an artifact of their original usage for limited express trains), so there was an option to use these tracks for through service (which they expected would mainly be by one-off group charters).
• The through service plan completely fell apart after the JNR privatization in 1987, the main hurdle now being train servicing. JR East trains were to be serviced at Central's Oi yards (which you can see from the Tokyo Monorail) while JR Central trains were to be serviced up by Tabata. Central didn't want a bunch of out-of-service East trains clogging up the already congested Tokaido tracks between Tokyo and Shinagawa.
• After some further bickering and government intervention (amid a parallel dispute over tracks 14/15), East and Central finally decided in 1996 that they weren't going to pursue through service, and notified the government accordingly.
• In 1991, the CEO of JR Central publicly commented that through service might be a possibility once the Chuo linear maglev opens (since it will reduce demand on the Tokaido Shinkansen).

shuigao

I've visited Japan 4 times in the last 4 years, each time spending a few days in Tokyo, and not in any of those times would through service have made any difference to my plans

msp3

Spouse is actually from Saitama, but describes herself as "grew up in Tokyo" when asked where she's from...

You may recall that episode of 秘密のケンミンSHOW when that newlywed couple moves around Japan for work and the episode where they get sent to Saitama they realize it's within commuting distance from their home in Tokyo and there's nothing in Saitama so they turn around and goes home (cutting the entire segment short)

5khours

We're still talking about this?

ksandness

How is changing at Tokyo any more inconvenient than having to change at Shin-Osaka when you're traveling from Tokyo to Hiroshima on a JR Pass?

bluemeansgo

Tokyo to Hiroshima on a JR Pass can be done one a one-seat Hikari, if I'm not mistaken.

And in any case, transferring in Osaka is pretty simple. Get off train. Stand right there and wait for another train. The Tokyo transfer involves going to a completely different part of the station.

Oh, and this problem will only get worse, folks, when the Chuo Line opens up to Nagoya.

Imagine trying to take a train from Osaka to Saitama:
Osaka - Nagoya (transfer) - Nagoya - Shinagawa (transfer) Shinagawa - Tokyo (transfer). Tokyo - Omiya.

A through train would mean you won't have to transfer twice in Tokyo to get to the Tohoku line.