The long-awaited 125km Hokuriku Shinkansen line connecting Kanazawa Station (Kanazawa City) to Tsuruga Station (Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture) opened on the 16th. The opening is expected to have a significant impact, including promoting exchanges between the Hokuriku area and the Tokyo and Kansai metropolitan areas. Early the same day, departure ceremonies for the first train were held at each station to celebrate the new beginning.
Mr. Nakajo and Station Chief Uejima signaled departure
This section is an extension of the line from Nagano to Kanazawa (about 228 km) in March 2015. Five new stations were built: Komatsu Station, Kaga Onsen Station, Awara Onsen Station, Echizen Takefu Station and Tsuruga Station. With this opening, Tokyo will be directly connected to Tsuruga with the fastest time of 3 hours and 8 minutes. By changing from the regular limited express train at Tsuruga Station, the travel time between Osaka and Kanazawa will be about 22 minutes and between Osaka and Toyama about 29 minutes.
President Hasegawa
Since the Fukui Station area was pre-developed in 2005, construction work has been carried out one after another under orders from the Japan Railway Construction and Transportation Facility Development Support Agency. About 52% of the total length of 115 km is viaduct, with 12 tunnels and 298 bridges. Many iconic projects have been completed, including the Kuzuryu River Bridge, the first Shinkansen road/rail bridge, and the new Hokuriku Tunnel (about 20 km long).
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Saito
On the same day, at Tsuruga Station, the ceremony was attended by JR West President Kazuaki Hasegawa, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Tetsuo Saito, Fukui Prefectural Governor Tatsuharu Sugimoto, Chairman of the Organization Japan Railways and Transport Authority Kozo Fujita, among others. guest. President Hasegawa said, ``Tsuruga will become a transportation hub from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, and many people will visit Hokuriku in the future. We will handle the passenger transportation in a well-prepared manner.''
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Saito said: ``I would like to take this anniversary opening as an opportunity to do our best to rebuild the affected areas by the Noto Peninsula earthquake. We will strive to realize the Shin-Osaka extension to create redundancy on the national axis.” Stated. The Kusudama ribbon cutting and unveiling ceremony was held, and special guests Ayami Nakajo and Station Chief Toyotoshi Ueshima signaled the departure of Kagayaki No. 502, departing at 6:11 a.m.
For the remaining extension, between Tsuruga and Shin-Osaka, procedures are currently underway to prepare the publication of the environmental impact assessment (environmental assessment) preparatory document. It was decided that in fiscal year 2023, as part of the ``Hokuriku Shinkansen Project Promotion Study'', a preliminary and in-depth study will be conducted to resolve construction issues. Commenting on the opening of the line, Masayoshi Matsumoto, President of the Kansai Economic Federation, said: ``I want to express my respect for the efforts of everyone involved until today. We will continue to build momentum and make requests for full line openings.''
