On Wednesday 13th July, JR Hokkaido published two press releases regarding its rolling stock. On the one hand, KiHa 281 and 183 series will retire in September 2022 and March 2023, respectively. On the other hand, KiHa 283 series, which has been taken out of passenger service since this spring, will be reinstated in March 2023.
 |
| KiHa 281 series |
The KiHa 281 series was introduced in 1992-93 to Limited Express Super Hokuto (Hakodate - Sapporo). At the time of introduction, it was known for the fastest diesel train in the country, which could run at 130 km/h (81 mph). The series also has a tilting feature that allows running at faster speed than other trains at curves. It dramatically cut journey time between the two cities from 3.5 hours to less than three hours, though not as fast as that in these days.
The series will be taken out of all regular services on 30th September, and farewell rail tours will be held in the following month.
 |
| KiHa 183 series |
The KiHa 183 series was developed by Japanese National Railways, and has been used for various intercity services in the island of Hokkaido. Existing carriages were introduced in 1988-92, and they are now used for Limited Express Okhotsk (Sapporo – Abashiri) and Taisetsu (Asahikawa – Abashiri). Despite being old and poor condition, JR Hokkaido has been retaining the series due to lack of funding, but finally they decided to replace them with newer trains. The KiHa 183 series will be withdrawn from all regular services in March 2023, but a few might remain for a while as farewell rail tours will likely be held.
 |
| KiHa 283 series |
There is also good news. The KiHa 283 series will be coming back to mainline. The series had been used for Limited Express Ozora (Sapporo – Kushiro) until March 2022. All existing carriages are no more than 24 years old, but it was uncertain if they will be reinstated due to not-good condition because of overuse. The company decided to use them for Limited Express Okhotsk and Taisetsu from March 2023, effectively replacing the KiHa 183 series.
JR Hokkaido has been suffering from huge deficit so that they have been reluctant to invest in anything, but it seems that they had no choice but to replace the old trains in order to continue their business. The timetable revisions in autumn and spring will hopefully make trains slightly faster and reliable.
- The official announcement regarding the KiHa 281 series
- The other regarding the KiHa 183 and 283 series
*Articles on The Red List of Trains in Japan will be updated in due course.
No comments:
Post a Comment