The is an

airport rail link An airport rail link is a service providing passenger rail transport from an airport to a nearby city by mainline or commuter trains, rapid transit, people mover, or light rail. Direct links operate straight to the airport terminal, while o ...

service connecting

Sendai Airport is an international airport located in the city of Natori, Miyagi, south southeast of Sendai metropolis, Sendai, Japan. The airport is alternatively referred to as . History In 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army built Sendai Airport in order ...

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

Miyagi Miyagi may refer to: Places * Miyagi Prefecture, one of the 47 major divisions of Japan * Miyagi, Gunma, a village in Japan, merged into Maebashi in 2004 *Miyagi District, Miyagi, a district in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan Other uses * Miyagi (surna ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Rail service began on March 18, 2007.

Data

The third-sector Sendai Airport Transit Co., Ltd. (SAT) started construction of the line in 2002. The construction cost is expected to reach 34.9 billion

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

, and it may take as long as thirty years before the railway turns a profit. *Route: Natori Station – Sendai Airport Station *Length: 7.1 km *

Gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

: *Number of stations: 4, including terminals *Multiple-track sections: Single-track except for passing loop at Mitazono Station *Electrification: 20,000 V AC *Block system: Special automatic blocking (planned) *Rolling stock: JR E721-500 and SAT721 series 2-car EMUs

Station list

Rolling stock

SAT has ordered six 2-car SAT721 trainsets which are used in conjunction with similar design JR E721-500 series sets. The stainless-steel bodied trains feature barrier-free design and have a top speed of 120 km/h. LED indicators show the stations and destination. Train interior and exterior announcements are given in Japanese and English. File:SAT-721.JPG, SAT721 series File:JRE E721 500.JPG, JR E721-500 series

Connections

From Natori Station, service extends via the

Tōhoku Main Line The Tōhoku Main Line ( ja, 東北本線, ) is a long railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fukush ...

tracks to Sendai Station, a stop for the

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 ...

express trains located in central

. From Sendai Station, it takes 17 minutes (rapid service) or 25 minutes (local service) to get to the airport. The railway also has advertised that Sendai Airport can be reached from neighboring cities such as

Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

and

Ichinoseki is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. , the city had a population of 114,476 and a population density of 91 persons per km² in 46,375 households. It is currently the second largest city by population in ...

in under one hour. Trains can be up to six cars in length. Besides being faster than existing bus services from the city, with a fare of 400 yen from Natori Station, or 650 yen from Sendai Station, the rail service is also less expensive.

Sendai Airport Transit

is a third-sector company in charge of constructing and running the Sendai Airport Line train service between Sendai Airport Station and Natori Station in

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

, Japan.

History

The company was founded on April 7, 2000, and has capital of over seven billion

. The Sendai Airport Line opened on March 18, 2007, electrified at 20 kV AC. The line was severely damaged by the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, and service was suspended indefinitely from March 11, 2011, and reopened on October 1 of that year.

Rolling stock

The company owns three two-car SAT721 series

EMU The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

trains (identical in design to the JR East E721-500 series sets)

References

External links

Sendai Airport Transit website
*

(how-to movies on transportation in Sendai)

(how-to movies on transportation in Sendai) {{authority control Railway lines in Japan Rail transport in Miyagi Prefecture Airport rail links in Japan Railway lines opened in 2007 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Japanese third-sector railway lines 2007 establishments in Japan Railway companies of Japan Railway companies established in 2000