Quote: › JR putting Blue Trains to bed as passengers find faster ways to travel

12/11/2007, MASANOBU FURUYA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

It will soon be lights out on five routes for traditional sleeper trains.

The Blue Trains, nicknamed after the color of their bodies, currently run on nine routes.

Three of the services are scheduled to be scrapped when Japan Railway companies revise timetables in March, and two more are expected to be discontinued in spring 2009, according to sources.

That would mean railway fans will not be able to spot Blue Trains at Tokyo Station, the capital's terminal for westbound routes.

JR companies have decided to scale back sleeper services because more travelers are choosing Shinkansen bullet trains, airplanes and even buses.

In fiscal 2005, the number of passengers who traveled on Blue Trains from Tokyo to western destinations was one-fifth the number in fiscal 1987, when JR companies were born through privatization of the Japanese National Raiways, according to figures compiled by East Japan Railway Co.

One reason for the decline in passengers is speed.

The sleeper train Hayabusa, for example, takes about 18 hours to link Tokyo and Kumamoto, compared with less than two hours for a plane.

The Hayabusa leaves Tokyo Station just past 6 p.m. and arrives at Kumamoto Station shortly before noon the following day.

JR companies also cited aging carriages and a shortage of overnight personnel as reasons behind the cutbacks.

Blue Trains, by definition, are 14- or 24-series sleepers pulled by locomotives. They are limited express trains, with the exception of the Ginga, an express train that connects Tokyo and Osaka.

In their heyday in the latter 1970s, the trains were featured in many novels.

When timetables are revised in mid-March, fans will be saying goodbye to three services: the Ginga, the Naha and the Akatsuki.

The Naha runs between Kyoto and Kumamoto, and the Akatsuki between Kyoto and Nagasaki.

In addition, services for the Hokutosei, which runs from Tokyo's Ueno to Sapporo, and the Nihonkai, from Osaka to Aomori, will be halved to one round trip daily.

Officials at JR companies also agreed in principle to retire the Hayabusa and the Fuji with the spring 2009 timetable revisions. The Fuji links Tokyo and Oita.

The cutbacks would leave only two services other than the Hokutosei and the Nihonkai: the Akebono, which links Ueno and Aomori, and the Hokuriku, which connects Ueno and Kanazawa.

JR companies are expected to phase out sleeper train services in the long run, with the exception of a few deluxe trains, according to the sources.

The decisions are not expected to be popular, particularly in Kyushu, where the nation's first Blue Train was born.

The Asakaze went into service in 1956 between Tokyo and Hakata in Fukuoka Prefecture. It became known as a "hotel on the move" after it was equipped with air-conditioned coaches in 1958.

The train retired in spring 2005 after the occupancy ratio dropped to less than 30 percent.

In addition to traditional Blue Trains, Japan has modern limited express sleeper trains.

The Sunrise Izumo-Seto is an electric train that connects Tokyo with Izumo and Takamatsu.

The Twilight Express linking Osaka and Sapporo, and the Cassiopeia, which connects Ueno and Sapporo, use deluxe carriages.(IHT/Asahi: December 11,2007)

source : www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200712110111.html