Hokkaido Shinkansen to be Launched March, Sleeper Train to Retire

A shinkansen-bullet train line will link the northern main island of Hokkaido with Tokyo and other stations on the Honshu mainland open March 26 of next year. Hokkaido Railway Co. and East Japan Railway Co. will provide 13 round trips every day on the Hokkaido Shinkansen line, launching the first ever bullet train service to and from Hokkaido.

Hayabusa trains connecting Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station in southern Hokkaido and Tokyo in 4 hours and 10 minutes at the fastest. If a customer chose to fly between Tokyo and Hokkaido, it roughly takes about 4 hours for a single journey. This Shinkansen will reach the maximum speed of 320 kilometers per hour and able to carry 731 customers with all nicely seated.
Once a day, the Shinkansen will be connecting Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto with Sendai, Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture and Morioka in Iwate Prefecture too.  

On the other hand of the launch of Shinkansen to Hokkaido, the luxurious sleeper train Cassiopeia which has been running between Ueno station in Tokyo and Sapporo stations will stop the services in March 2016 

The Cassiopeia made the debut back in 1999 as a luxurious sleeper limited express train, carried thousands of people to and from Tokyo and Hokkaido for many years. Cassiopeia is operating about three times a week. 

It is a sad news to hear that Cassiopeia is no longer in service but according to the company officials, the carriages that are specially produced for the train are relatively new, and JR East is considering continuing to use the vehicles for special trains.

Cassiopeia was one of the last sleeper limited express trains to run in Japan.The Sunrise Izumo which runs between Tokyo and Izumoshi from Shimane prefecture and the Sunrise Seto which runs between Tokyo and Takamatsu from Kagawa prefecture will be the only sleeper limited express trains still in operation in Japan from March 2016.