Introduction
Sendai, a city in Miyagi Prefecture with a population of 1.1 million people, is approximately 305 km (190 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Most people use Shinkansen high-speed rail, but there is another railway that connects the two cities: Limited Express Hitachi. This article is about its timetables, fares and comparison with Shinkansen and other alternatives. There are also old timetables of Hitachi.
What is Hitachi?
Hitachi often refers to a company specialising in high technology, developing and producing various things including nuclear power plants, trains, lifts and escalators as well as healthcare products. However, Hitachi in this article means a series of limited express service operated by JR East.
The name of limited express Hitachi stems from Hitachi Province, which was first established in the late 7th century. Today, it mostly corresponds to the same area as Ibaraki Prefecture, which is why the limited express has been named as such.
Limited express Hitachi mostly runs between Shinagawa in Tokyo and Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture via Joban line, and all services have been heavily used by businesspeople. In addition, there is a similar limited express called Tokiwa, which is shorter and call at more stations than Hitachi.
Just three out of fifteen services in each direction per day are extended to Sendai. Hitachi between Shinagawa and Sendai is the second longest train service in Japan (in terms of distance, excluding bullet trains and night trains) after limited express Nichirin Seagaia that runs between Hakata and Miyazaki Airport via Oita.
All services have been provided by E657 series since 2015. As it happens, 60 out of 190 carriages in total were built by rolling stock manufacturing division of Hitachi, Ltd.
These services call at small stations on the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture including Futaba, the closest station to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The area has been decontaminated so that the station and a nearby community centre are no longer off-limits, but a large part of the town has had a high level of radiation, and thus it has still been designated as "difficult-to-return zone". That is why, the station itself looks abandoned even thirteen years after the triple disasters.
Timetables
A trip between Tokyo and Sendai stations by the fastest high-speed train, Hayabusa on Tohoku Shinkansen, takes just 90 minutes. Meanwhile, even the fastest Hitachi between those stations takes nearly 4.5 hours. Timetables as of 2024 are as follows.
They are clearly not for passengers going from Tokyo to Sendai and vice versa. Given that all of these trains call at small stations in Fukushima and northern Ibaraki Prefectures, it seems that JR East targets businesspeople to and local residents in the area. In fact, when I took Hitachi 3 from Tokyo to Sendai, nobody on a carriage I had been went through the entire journey.
The journey was more comfortable than I thought, probably because the train has been equipped with active suspension (though the train got a little bumpy in the disaster zone due to poor maintenance work). This is how a standard-class seat looks like. It is spacious and has a reclining function and a table. Free Wi-Fi is also available. A trolley service with foods and drinks is available on some trains.
Fares
JR bullet trains and limited express trains require a special ticket in addition to a standard fare ticket, and Hitachi is no exception. A pair of single tickets from Tokyo to Sendai (and vice versa) costs as follows. Note that all fares are normal period prices (not peak, busy or off-peak periods) as of 2024.
| Tohoku Shinkansen | |||
| Hayabusa | Yamabiko | Hitachi | |
| Standard fare | 6,050 yen | 6,050 yen | 6,380 yen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Additional fare | 5,360 yen | 5,040 yen | 2,900 yen |
| Total amount | 11,410 yen | 11,090 yen | 9,280 yen |
| Journey time | 90 mins | 120 mins | 4.5 hrs |
Hitachi is cheaper than bullet trains, but given the duration of the journey, it might not offer good value for money. Eki-net, an online reservation service that is highly unpopular even among Japanese users due to an unfriendly user interface and lack of coverage, offers discount tickets for smartphone app users.
| Tohoku Shinkansen | |||
| Hayabusa | Yamabiko | Hitachi | |
| Paper tickets | 11,410 yen | 11,090 yen | 9,280 yen |
|---|---|---|---|
| e-ticket | 11,210 yen | 10,890 yen | 9,180 yen |
| Ticketless 35% off | - | - | 8,260 yen |
The 35% discount for Hitachi is applied only to a limited express ticket while the standard fare remains unchanged. Hence, even with the Eki-net, it is not as cheap as everybody expected.
Another option is that purchasing a single ticket from "Tokyo to Ueno via Joban line, Sendai and Tohoku Shinkansen (or via Tohoku Shinkansen, Sendai and Joban line)", in which case a de facto return standard ticket costs 9,870 yen while a genuine return standard ticket is 12,100 yen. A long one-way ticket is generally cheaper than a return ticket of the same distance, and with the Eki-net discount, it could be much cheaper. However, this option is not available for those going from Sendai to Tokyo.
Even so, none of them is cheaper than coaches. A coach between Shinjuku Bus Terminal and Sendai usually costs 3,000 – 5,000 yen. It takes around five hours (or more when there is a traffic jam), but it is always more attractive than trains when it comes to cost. Hence, Hitachi is recommended only to travellers who are particularly interested in train journeys.
From old timetables
Finally, it might be interesting to see some old timetables and see how Joban line intercity trains between Tokyo and Sendai have changed in the last 50 years. Note that Iwaki station was called Taira until 1994.
