The is an overnight

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. The first such cars ...

train service in Japan operated jointly by

Central Japan Railway Company is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...

(JR Central) and

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) since July 1998.

Operations

The ''Sunrise Seto'' runs daily between and in

Kagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kagawa Prefecture has a population of 949,358 (as of 2020) and is the smallest prefecture by geographic area at . Kagawa Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the southwest and Tok ...

on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

, taking about 9 hours 30 minutes for the journey. The service operates in conjunction with the '' Sunrise Izumo'' service to between Tokyo and . The combined 14-car train departs from Tokyo, and stops at , , , , , (final midnight stop), (first morning stop), and arrives at , where the train splits, with the ''Sunrise Izumo'' half of the train heading to . Between Okayama and Takamatsu, the 7-car ''Sunrise Seto'' train stops at and , before arriving in Takamatsu. The return train departs from Takamatsu, and is coupled with the ''Sunrise Izumo'' from Izumoshi at Okayama Station, departing together from there, and arriving at Tokyo Station in the next morning. There are seasonal extended services which ''Sunrise Seto'' trains from Tokyo run beyond Takamatsu, to on the Dosan Line. These extended service trains run during particular seasons (Differs each year), and during the holidays. Sunrise Izumo and Sunrise Seto pass through stations in

Nagoya 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 po ...

and

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

without stopping due to the fact that they arrive at these stations around midnight and are unable to play the announcements. File:JRW series285 Sanyo.JPG, A ''Sunrise Seto'' & ''Sunrise Izumo'' combined formation on the Sanyo Main Line, May 2012 File:Jr 285 undocking Okayama 20130331.jpg, ''Sunrise Izumo'' and ''Sunrise Seto'' units being uncoupled at Okayama Station, March 2013 File:Sunrise seto10.jpg, Destination indicator for a Tokyo-bound service

Station list

* Trains make brief stops for several reasons, here being crew changes at JR region boundaries. Passengers cannot board or get off the train when it makes such stops. * Regularly, only eastbound services will operate between Atami and Yokohama via the Tōkaidō Freight Line, where trains enter the line at

Odawara is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 188,482 and a population density of 1,700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Odawara lies in the Ashigara Plains, in the far western por ...

and exit at Chigasaki back to the

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

Formation

Trains are formed of dedicated 7-car 285 series ''Sunrise Express''

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

s (EMUs) owned by both JR Central and JR West. They are formed as shown below, with cars numbered 8 to 14 in the down (westbound) direction, with car 14 at the Tokyo end, and 1 to 7 in the up (Tokyo-bound) direction, with car 7 at the Tokyo end. * Car 2/9 has a wheelchair-accessible compartment * Each car has toilet facilities at one end. * Smoking is permitted in car 6/13, and some compartments in car 4/11.

Accommodation, Ticketing and Facilities

The ''Sunrise Express'' services consist of six types of accommodation. There are five types of berths: A Single Deluxe, B Sunrise Twin (2-person use), B Single Twin (1 or 2-person use), B Single and B Solo. There is also a carpeted sleeping space called the ''Nobinobi'' sleeping area. To ride the train, several fares are required. All passengers require a and a based on the distance traveled. On top of these, those wishing to travel in a private room must also pay for a , while those traveling in the ''Nobinobi'' sleeping area must pay a small in order to reserve an individual sleeping space. The berth and seat reservation charges are fixed, regardless of where the journey starts and ends. Tickets can be purchased up to one month before departure at a JR ''

Midori no Madoguchi , which stands for ''Multi Access (originally Magnetic-electronic Automatic) seat Reservation System'', is a train ticket reservation system used by the railway companies of former Japanese National Railways, currently Japan Railways Group (JR Gro ...

'' in Japan, or online through the JR West Seat Reservation website. Holders of the

Japan Rail Pass The , also called the JR Pass, is a rail pass for overseas visitors sold by the Japan Railways Group, and is valid for travel on all major forms of transportation provided by the JR Group in Japan, with a few exceptions. The Rail Pass is designed ...

can reserve a ''Nobinobi'' space for free, or reserve a berth by paying the limited express and berth charges. A shower is located in cars 3 and 10. Passengers using the A Single Deluxe compartments are provided with a free shower card to use the showers on the train, while other passengers have to pay ¥330 for a shower card if they desire to use the showers. Lounges are also located in cars 3 and 10. Drink vending machines are available in cars 3, 5, 10 and 12. File:Sunrise seto19.jpg, "Single Deluxe" compartment File:Sunrise seto14.jpg, Car 4/11 corridor File:Jr285 single.jpg, Single berth File:JRW series285 Single Twin.JPG, Single-twin berth File:JRW series285 'Nobinobi Seat' (Upper section).JPG, ''Nobinobi'' open-plan sleeping area (car 5/12, upper floor) File:JRW series285 'Nobinobi Seat' (Lower berth).JPG, ''Nobinobi'' open-plan sleeping area (car 5/12, lower floor) File:285系特急型電車シャワー室.jpg, Shower cubicle (car 3/10) File:JRW series285 Lounge.JPG, Mini lounge area (car 3/10)

History

The ''Sunrise Seto'' services were introduced together with the ''Sunrise Izumo'' on 10 July 1998. Previously, the ''

Seto Seto may refer to: Places * Seto, Aichi, production place of Japanese pottery and venue of Expo 2005 * Seto, Ehime, facing the Seto Inland Sea *Seto, Okayama, adjacent to Okayama, in Okayama Prefecture *Seto Inland Sea of Japan * Setomaa (''Seto ...

'' operated as a separate " Blue train" service connecting Tokyo with Takamatsu. The ''Sunrise Izumo'' was intended to attract more passengers to train transportation by introducing newly designed trains and by reducing the journey time. Ridership on overnight trains in Japan continues to decline, and from March 2009, the ''Sunrise Izumo'' and ''Sunrise Seto'' became the only overnight sleeping car trains to operate west of Tokyo via the Tokaido Line. From the start of the revised timetable on 12 March 2021, the departure time of the ''Sunrise Izumo'' and ''Sunrise Seto'' from Tokyo was changed from 10:00 PM to 9:50 PM. It is the first time that the departure time was changed since the services' introduction in 1998. The change cleared the 10:00 PM departure slot for one of the new '' Shōnan'' limited express services to

References

External links

JR West ''Sunrise Izumo / Sunrise Seto''
{{JR West trains West Japan Railway Company Named passenger trains of Japan Night trains of Japan Railway services introduced in 1998