NAGOYA – Private rooms will be offered on bullet trains linking Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka from Oct. 1, making a comeback to the Tokaido Shinkansen Line for the first time in over two decades, its operator’s president said.
The dedicated rooms will enable passengers to “secure privacy and travel in a refined setting,” Central Japan Railway Co. President Shunsuke Niwa said in a group interview including Kyodo News last month, with demand expected from business leaders and other travelers.
Niwa, 60, said ticket prices will be more expensive than the existing Green Car premium seats, but did not elaborate.
Starting Oct. 1, some N700S trains will be equipped with two private rooms, each accommodating one to two passengers, and will run between Tokyo and Hakata in Fukuoka.
The operator, commonly known as JR Central, also plans to add semiprivate rooms to the service in the business year ending March 2028.
Tokaido shinkansen trains used to offer private rooms, but they were eliminated in 2003 after the 100-series cars were retired.
Regarding the planned high-speed maglev train line between Tokyo and Nagoya, Niwa said the company is seeking to “make solid progress, with a particular focus on the safety of construction work.”
Niwa reiterated that the start of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen project remains unclear as the launch date for construction in Shizuoka Prefecture — through which the line is set to travel — is uncertain.
JR Central has said that it has given up on its goal of opening the first section of the line, from Tokyo’s Shinagawa to Nagoya, by 2027, as the company continues talks with authorities in Shizuoka over the project’s environmental impact.
AloJapan.com