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West Japan Railway Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thunderbird Named passenger trains of Japan Railway services introduced in 1995 West Japan Railway Company
limited express
A limited express is a type of express train service. It refers to an express service that stops at a limited number of stops in comparison to other express services on the same or similar routes.
Japan
The term "limited express" is a common ...
train service operated by the West Japan Railway Company
, also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...
(JR West) between and
or in Japan, using portions of the Tokaido Main Line, Kosei Line
The is a commuter rail line in Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The line was completed in 1974 by the former Japanese National Railways (JNR) to provide faster access from the Kansai region t ...
, Hokuriku Main Line
The Hokuriku Main Line ( ja, 北陸本線, ) is a 176.6 kilometer railway line owned by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting the Maibara Station in Maibara, Shiga, with the Naoetsu Station in Joetsu, Niigata. The section betwe ...
, IR Ishikawa Railway Line
The is a Japanese third-sector railway company established in 2012 to operate passenger railway services on the section of the JR West Hokuriku Main Line within Ishikawa Prefecture. The main line was separated from the JR West network on 14 ...
, and Nanao Line
The is a railway line in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and the Noto Railway. It runs between Tsubata Station in Tsubata and Anamizu Station in Anamizu.
JR West operates the section between Tsu ...
.
Station stops
Stations in parentheses are not served by all services.''Thunderbird''
Osaka – Kanazawa: Osaka - - () - - () - () - () - () - () - - () - () - () - () - Kanazawa – Wakuraonsen: Kanazawa - () - () - () - - () - -''Business Thunderbird''
(an extra train which runs from Osaka to Kanazawa in the morning on weekdays after holidays) Osaka → Shin-Osaka → Kyoto → Tsuruga → Takefu → Fukui → Awaraonsen → Komatsu → KanazawaRolling stock
* 681 series
__NOTOC__
Year 681 ( DCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 681 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...
EMUs (since April 1995)
* 683 series EMUs (since March 2001)
Formations
*Green: Green car (first class) *White: Standard class car *R: Reserved seats *NR: Non-reserved seats''Thunderbird''
''Business Thunderbird''
History
From the start of the 20 April 1995 timetable revision, new681 series
__NOTOC__
Year 681 ( DCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 681 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...
EMUs were introduced on Osaka to Toyama services, named ''Super Raichō (Thunderbird)''. These became simply ''Thunderbird'' from March 1997.
The last remaining ''Raichō
The was a limited express train operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) between and in Japan until March 2011, using portions of the Tōkaidō Main Line, Kosei Line, and Hokuriku Main Line.
The characters 雷 鳥 literally ...
'' service was discontinued from the start of the 12 March 2011 timetable revision, with all trains subsequently using the ''Thunderbird'' name.
From the start of the revised timetable on 14 March 2015, with the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen
The is a high-speed Shinkansen railway line jointly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), connecting Tokyo with in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The first section, between and in Nagano Pr ...
, all ''Thunderbird'' services were truncated to operate between Osaka, Kanazawa and Wakura-Onsen.
2006 rape incident
On 3 August 2006, a woman was raped by a 36-year-old man in a train toilet while travelling on the ''Thunderbird'' 50 service (just after Fukui Station), despite the car being occupied by approximately 40 other passengers. As a result, JR West introduced a "women-only" section in the reserved-seating cars of ''Raichō'' and ''Thunderbird'' trains from October 2007, and JR East added prominent "SOS" stickers inside all of its trains in June 2007. On 17 January 2008, the district court in Otsu sentenced the man to 18 years in prison.Future developments
All of the 681 and 683 series trainsets used on ''Thunderbird'' limited express services are scheduled to undergo a programme of refurbishment from autumn 2015 until the end of fiscal 2018.See also
* '' Shirasagi'': Limited-express service betweenNagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...
and the Hokuriku region, using identical rolling stock with slightly different livery
References
External links
West Japan Railway Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thunderbird Named passenger trains of Japan Railway services introduced in 1995 West Japan Railway Company