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but considering you CAN get a day trip to Hakuba and Shiga Kogen and its an extra 2hrs or so on the "shuttle" bus from Nagano station…….a 20-30 min ride from Iiyama station is nothing…..I don't think cost will be a problem as they'll run shink deals to promote use of the line

 

(Edit: stitched up by apple again!! :angry: )

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I think it's still just set for "Spring 2015".

 

2014年度末 implies maybe before end of March?

 

Iiyama Station 29.9km from Nagano Station.

Joetsu Myoko Station a further 29.3km out.

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It looks like most of the Niigata stations on the Joetsu Shinkansen are a similar distance apart.

 

Wiki says the masterplan for the Hokuriku Shinkansen is from 1970, so don't be surprised if the number of passengers isn't quite what was in the projections.

I guess they are competing with buses from Nagano station, but the existing Myoko Kogen and Togari/Nozawa stations both only get about 300 passengers a day on average.

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Wasn't the master(bate) plan for the Joetsu Shinkansen pushed through by the PM who was from Urasa, hence Urasa eventually getting a shink station?

Urasa is 30km from Yuzawa, but I heard that originally Muikamachi was going to perhaps get it (which is just 20km from Yuzawa).

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It looks like most of the Niigata stations on the Joetsu Shinkansen are a similar distance apart.

 

Yes it hardly gets it's speed up.

 

Just to confuse matters.

 

There is no Joetsu station/stop on the Joetsu Shinkansen. And it doesn't even go through the Joetsu region.

But there will be a Joetsu (Myoko) station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen.

That'll confuse a few.

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I'm sure it was all very corrupt. The same dude, Tanaka Kakuei, made it so that the tolls from the highways would all be pooled, so the popular ones would pay for the non-popular ones. According to their original charter, the Tomei, Chuo etc. would all become toll-free once their construction costs had been covered, which happened years ago. As it is, they end up subsidizing lots of great big highways through inaka with huge long tunnels and no traffic going through them. Hokuriku getting a shinkansen in the masterplan was possibly part of the deal to get Niigata one early on. The large number of stops on what is supposed to be a high speed line will also be to appease lots of people. You can hear the same "me! me!" when they talk about the linear Shinkansen.

 

Looking at Myoko Kogen Station again, wiki says passenger numbers have halved in 12 years. Its the same for next door Kurohime Station, another tourist area. They only get 150 or so more passengers than their neighbouring stations that will get an insignificant number of tourists. That is, the train is only bringing in three busloads of tourists a day at most (possibly less because of differences in local population density, access etc.). Since passenger numbers have not fallen so heavily at such neighbouring stations, it suggests that it's tourist numbers that are falling rapidly, not the number of local people using the train. The situation is the same for Nozawa/Togari Station and the line its on. Anyway, the idea that lots of train-using people are going to start going there by Shinkansen all seems very dubious.

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Yeah, only 300 a day on average for Myoko Kogen, Nozawa/Togari, and indeed for Hakuba Station. You then have to subtract the number of kids going to school in a neighbouring town or city and oldies going wherever to get the number of tourists. It won't be very many, esp when counted in coach loads.

 

The line through Hakuba running north of Hakuba to Itoigawa is a total waste of money and should be replaced with minibuses running along the road that is, err, parallel to the train line. Keeping the line open for nine largely empty two-carriage trains a day must cost an absolute fortune per passenger.

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I know next to nothing about the Hakuba line, and even less about how the financials work for running a train line!

But, the local Joetsu line in this area seems to get lots more 'freight' (if that's the right word) trains going through than passenger ones.

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Wiki says freight stopped through Hakuba in 1967.

 

The part of the line north of Hakuba has had to close during the past two winters for avalanche danger, so it's probably a goner anyway. In 2012, it was for two months.

 

Fwiw, wiki also says that Kamishiro, the closest station to Goryu, got a mighty 58 passengers a day in 2012. That's even with the Azusa express stopping there.

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On the topic of travel to Yuzawa/Nozawa, a new highway extension opened today linking the Tomei, Chuo and Kan'etsu. On the little map on tv, it looked like the final bit on a big outer ring road outside Yokohama on the west side of Tokyo.

 

It sounds like the idea is to stop folks in the Yokohama region from going into Tokyo when heading toward Gunma, Niigata or eastern Nagano. Depending on where the jams form, it might save you a fair bit of time. :friend:

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Have to check this out. Currently going to Gunma or any where in that direction involves a drive though Tokyo streets. Last time we went to Kusatsu we spent more time getting to the horror highway than on it.

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