Keeping the Best for the Last: Shinkansen Bullet Ride.

This is the last weekend before I fly back to Bangalore on Thursday evening. With Aonami line ,SCMaglev And Railway Park ticked off in the first weekend, the second weekend concentrated on the Nagoya Subway exploration.Third weekend was dedicated to the Meitetsu Commuter Lines and the Kintetsu Short Haul Commuter section.JR commuter Lines were identical to the Meitetsu and I had seen them criss cross multiple times.So, naturally the last weekend had to do the most exciting part of a Railfans’ dream when travelling to Japan. JR Central, the company which operates the Shinkansen Bullet trains offers you three varieties of these in operation. Kodama, Hikari and Nozomi.

Though all the three operate with same trainsets nowadays and the fares are identical, the only difference is of time and stops. While I had done a Shinkansen ride last year from Odawara near Mount Fuji to Tokyo, returning back from Nagoya without a ride in it again would have been a sin.I didn't want to travel out too far as fares on the Shinkansen are on the higher side and also it gets monotonous after a few minutes as you just keep seeing scenery skipping without even being able to adore it. High speeds are exciting for a few minutes and after that it gets boring due to almost Aircraft like cabin and minimalistic sound of tracks or trains from outside. Many places around cities have View Cutters and Sound Barriers thus making viewing out difficult. All said and done, a ride in Shinkansen for the sheer experience is a must and I highly recommend this to all.

Nagoya is a compulsory stop for all types of Bullet trains. Nozomi can travel directly to Kyoto (40 min ride) and burn away 3500 Yen one way. (Approx : Rs 3000) and being out far, returning will also have to be in bullet train and that would mean a cool 7000 Yen down in  1 hr 20 min. Kodama had closer stops on the ride to Gifu towards Osaka or at Mikawa-anjo towards Tokyo. But those were barely 10 min ride . But, the  good part was both stations had Meitetsu trains and one can ride back in a lesser speed and lower cost train to Nagoya back. Again the cost was almost 2000 Yen for a return trip.And more importantly, I wasn't sure if Bullet can reach high MPS within that short time frame.

So Hikari came to my rescue. Towards Tokyo, Hikari runs one in an hour on weekends, in between the Nozomis which almost run within a gap of 8 min along with Kodamas . Basically, if you stand at the Bullet train platforms there is a bullet every 4 minutes.Frantic search on multiple private railways maps and calculating fares led me to a website, hyperdia.com.

Its a very simple site and of great help to people who have zero Japanese knowledge.The interface is simple, you can select any stations, date and hour of travel and then choose as many filters as possible and it will give you all options like Airways, commuter trains, buses, pvt railways and even bullet trains. Its a Trivago of railways search.I settled for Nagoya to Toyohashi a ride of 19 min covering 72.4 km with an average of 230kmph from start to stop and the MPS of around 280 kmh.

Tickets have a base fare of 1320 yen for this 19 min ride with a compulsory add on of 980 for unreserved seat(3*2 seating), 2000 more for a reserved seat(same 3*2 seating but with a reserved seat number printed) and around 3000 for a Green Seat(2*2 Executive styled). I picked the unreserved seat at 1320+980 Yen one way.

A little bit of research meant that I can very well go with a Unreserved seat booking as at prime stations like Nagoya one does have a good chance to get a window in non festival days.For me, Toyohashi was preferable as I could ride back in a normal Meitetsu commuter taking around 55 min for the same 72.4 km ride at a cheaper fare in a Limited Express with 6 stops . A slightly different alignment though.

 I walked down from my apartment to Nagoya a 5 min leisurely walk adhering to all road signals, otherwise this could be a 2 min walk in India. Used my Credit Card on the Ticket Vending Machine to buy myself a Hikari Ticket to be departing from pf 14.There are 4 pfs (2 island styled 14,15,16,17 numbered) dedicated platforms to Bullet trains for Tokyo and Osaka. There were 2 Nozomis scheduled from same pf before mine arrived. There are platform screens to prevent trespassing onto the tracks. The tracks looked SG Gauge and OHE was charged to 25KV

Commuters waiting patiently at the Mall within the Station to open its doors at 10 am.

That's my train indicated in Red

OHE 

Ticket for the ride.

A typical station  with restrooms, smoking rooms and convenience store on the bullet train platform.

I captured the other trains till mine arrived. People as usual queued up for entering the train in true Japanese Style. In a 16 car ( twin 8 car train sets coupled) , cars 1-3 are non reserved in Nozomis and in Hikari cars 1-5 are non reserved. I queued up for car 4. To be the first one to enter to get a window at the earliest. In a 16 car set, except for the first and last car all the 14 cars have traction motors powered bogies and that gives the Bullet trains the power to accelerate and decelerate so quickly. The nose is a mix of science and art. It looks so beautiful and the livery of white with blue stripe is so simple yet stunning . It glitters in the sunshine.

A Panoramic Shot of the 16 coach bullet  train at Nagoya.

Goods trains speeding through Nagoya

Auto door closing mechanism

 Finally, Hikari arrived and I was lucky to get a window seat 1E . Settled down and a typical chair car layout consisted of 3*2 seating and 18 rows making it 90 seater. 

3 x 2 Seating

Very good Leg room

The coach composition with a smoking room and adjacent coach for Trash and Toilet is schematically given behind each seat for ease of access.

We start right on time. I had placed my phone sticking to the glass window to get an uninterrupted shot of the run till it achieves MPS.We depart and whoosh... It accelerates like a rocket out and there is no slowdown , simply gaining speed per second till it reaches MPS .

Speedometer and the stats while we rush past the suburbs.

View cutters are a dampener at certain places but otherwise the movement is too fast for our eyes to register them.The cabin is completely silent and the only slight noise you might here is when we cross another Bullet on the opposite track, which comes and goes like another whooshh.

The outskirts of Nagoya are green and full of paddy fields but, there is no dearth of infrastructure development. Roads, Highways and basic infrastructure looks well built.The ride last about 18 min and a few seconds and well in time, we reach Toyohashi as promised by Japanese Punctuality.

One more to relish the memories.

Approaching Toyohashi. See how commuters line up to enter. You can also see a lot of JR Maintenance Wagons waiting.

Nozomi headed to Tokyo.

Nozomi headed to Osaka.

Satisfied with all the video shots, I head back to the FOB and check out of the JR lines to get to the Meitetsu platform without any tickets. I had a Manaca IC Card but it was not getting checked in. I inquired with station staff but, they were of no good use as they didn't understand a single word. I returned back to FOB and checked with a JR official and he said to carry in to the Meitetsu train and don't worry till I get out at Nagoya as it will be dealt there. Meitetsu platform entry didn't have IC Card readers capable of reading my transfer probably as I had not ventured out of the station  at Toyohashi but on his recommendation I walked into a Meitetsu Commuter train which had 6 stops to Nagoya in a 55 min ride.

At Nagoya, I tried walking out and naturally the doors closed on me. An official directed me to the Fare Adjustment counter where he asked me the originating station for the ride. He did something on the reader at his console with my Card on it and asked me to try walking out again. I was successful in doing so. Thanked him with a head nod with a bent back and walked back to my apartment.Thats all folks on my Japanese adventures.

For Railfans: No matter where we go , we are always on the look out for  trains. Other things are too mainstream for us. Hope you enjoyed this longish blog.