The is a high-speed

shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

service between and in Japan, operated by the

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

(JR East) since March 1997. It is the only shinkansen service that runs on the Akita Shinkansen, and uses E6 series trains. Between

Tokyo Station Tokyo Station ( ja, 東京駅, ) is a railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is ...

and , it couples with

Tōhoku Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line, connecting Tokyo with Aomori in Aomori Prefecture in a route length of , making it Japan's longest Shinkansen line. It runs through the more sparsely populated Tōhoku region of Japan's main is ...

E5 series The and the related are Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train types built by Hitachi Rail and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The E5 series is operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East); it was introduced on Tohoku Shinkansen services on 5 Ma ...

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C ...

'' and formerly

E2 series The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen train type operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) on the Tohoku Shinkansen high-speed lines in Japan since 1997. They are formed in 8- and 10-car sets. The 8-car sets were used on the Hokurik ...

for E3 series respectively. After Morioka, the ''Komachi'' service continues along

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

tracks that were converted from

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

. Because it then runs on tracks that have

grade crossings A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

, its maximum speed from Morioka to Akita is , compared to on the Tohoku Shinkansen. The ''Komachi'' service was named after a famous poet from the area,

Ono no Komachi was a Japanese waka poet, one of the '' Rokkasen'' — the six best waka poets of the early Heian period. She was renowned for her unusual beauty, and ''Komachi'' is today a synonym for feminine beauty in Japan. She also counts among the ...

, whose name (小町) is also synonymous with "belle" or "beauty" in Japanese.

Station stops

''Komachi'' services stop at the following stations on the Akita Shinkansen between Morioka and Akita.JR Timetable, March 2013 issue For details of station stops between Tokyo and Morioka, see the ''

'' articles. * * * * * * * (*) Not served by all trains.

Train formations

Since 15 March 2014, most ''Komachi'' services have operated by seven-car E6 series trainsets with running at a maximum speed of on the Tohoku Shinkansen coupled to E5 series ''

'' trainsets. Car 11, the "Green" (first class) car, is at the Tokyo end. All seats are reserved and no-smoking.

E3 series

''Komachi'' services were also operated by five-car E3 series trainsets (later augmented to six cars). These sets were formed as shown below, with car 11, the "Green" (first class) car, at the Tokyo end. All seats were reserved and no-smoking.

Accommodation

File:E6 Green Car2.jpg, E6 series Green car interior with 2+2 seating File:JReastE6 E628-5 inside.jpg, E6 series standard class car interior with 2+2 seating

History

''Komachi'' services began on the newly opened Akita Shinkansen line from the start of the revised timetable on 22 March 1997 using a fleet of 16 new 5-car E3 series trains running at a maximum speed of on the Tohoku Shinkansen. The name ''Komachi'' was officially announced in July 1996. Services initially consisted of 13 return workings daily between Tokyo and Akita, and one return working between Sendai and Akita. Most trains ran coupled with 200 series ''

Yamabiko The is a high-speed Shinkansen train service operated on the Tōhoku Shinkansen between and by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. Name The word ''yamabiko'' is usually translated as 'echo', particularly one which is heard in the ...

'' trainsets between Tokyo and Morioka, but three return workings ran coupled with newly introduced E2 series sets, running at a maximum speed of between Utsunomiya and Morioka, and giving a fastest journey time of 3 hours 49 minutes between Tokyo and Akita (an average speed of 163.4 km/h). The train services proved popular, and from the December 1998 timetable revision, an addition return working was added, and the E3 series trains were lengthened to six cars each. From the December 1999 timetable, all ''Komachi'' services ran together with E2 series ''Yamabiko'' trains, allowing overall journey times to be reduced, with a typical journey time of 4 hours 4 minutes. From 16 March 2013, new services started, using new E6 series trains running at a maximum speed of on the Tohoku Shinkansen. Initially, a fleet of four trains was used to operate four return services daily between Tokyo and Akita. The fastest journey time was reduced to 3 hours 45 minutes, 5 minutes faster than the fastest previous ''Komachi'' services. From the start of the revised timetable on 15 March 2014, all services were operated by E6 series trains, and the name was returned to simply ''Komachi''. At the same time, the maximum speed on the Tohoku Shinkansen (on the section between Utsunomiya and Morioka) was further raised to .

References

External links

JR East E6 series ''Komachi''
{{Akita transit Akita Shinkansen Named passenger trains of Japan Passenger trains running at least at 300 km/h in commercial operations Railway services introduced in 1997 Tōhoku Shinkansen 1997 establishments in Japan Named Shinkansen trains