Akebono, the memory of "Blue Train"

Introduction

Night trains were once common in Japan, and many of them were called "Blue Train". Blue Train did not just mean trains painted blue. Strictly speaking, it meant overnight limited express services using sleeper coaches (20 series, 14 series or 24 series). The first Blue Train was Limited Express Asakaze (Tokyo - Hakata), introduced in 1958.

50 years later, night trains in Japan were nearly extinct. Most people have already shifted to faster transport such as flights and high-speed trains (with cheap business hotels), or cheaper road transport. By April 2012, there were only two regular Blue Train services (excluding Express Hamanasu, and two more that ran only during holidays). As the demise of the Blue Train seemed imminent, I tried Akebono from Ueno to Aomori on Tuesday 28th August 2012.

What was Akebono?

Akebono was a sleeper limited express service introduced in 1970. "Akebono" means dawn in classical Japanese, and appears in the very first sentence of The Pillow Book (Makura no Soshi), an essay written around 1001 AD. Unlike other night trains focused on passengers to and from Hokkaido, such as Limited Express Hakutsuru (Ueno – Aomori via Fukushima and Sendai) and Yuzuru (Ueno – Aomori via Mito and Taira), Akebono was for passengers travelling between Tokyo and cities or towns in Tohoku region. Its route changed several times, but it ran via Tohoku Main, Takasaki, Joetsu, Shin-etsu Main, Uetsu Main and Ou Main Lines after 1997.

Unlike other night trains, Akebono remained fairly popular. To-o Nippo, a local newspaper in Aomori, reported that the average ridership was around 60% in 2009. This was probably why JR East kept the service running even after the Tohoku Shinkansen extension (between Hachinohe and Shin-Aomori) in 2010. However, due to a gradual decline in ridership and deteriorated coaches, the company downgraded Akebono from a regular train to a seasonal train in March 2014, and discontinued in January 2015.

Historical background

(This video was taken in Kagoshima, but similar scenes were also observed in Tohoku)

Akebono was also known as one of the so-called "trains of promotion" (though I suspect "trains of success" sounds better in English). The term "trains of promotion", originally "出世列車 (shusse ressha)" in Japanese, referred to certain express or limited express trains in Tohoku region. When Japan was in the midst of the economic miracle from the 1950s to early 1970s, offices and factories in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas were eager to hire young workers who had just graduated from secondary school (i.e. just at age 15), many of whom could not afford high school. Tens of thousands of them in the Tohoku region, where many towns and villages were agricultural and suffered from severe poverty, had to move to Tokyo every year to support themselves. They could not easily return to their hometown, and even when they decided to do so during holidays, they could not afford sleeper train tickets. Thus, they had to get on slow, uncomfortable trains instead. Trains like Limited Express Akebono and Express Tsugaru were regarded by them as symbols of success. Many of them dreamed of returning to their hometown one day using those trains, while working long hours every day for little wages.

The timetable

Ueno	21:15
Omiya	21:40
Takasaki	22:48
Murakami	3:19
Atsumi-Onsen	4:06
Tsuruoka	4:34
Amarume	4:48
Sakata	5:02
Yuza	5:13
Kisakata	5:37
Nikaho	5:48
Ugo-Honjo	6:01
Akita	6:42
Hachirogata	7:08
Moritake	7:31
Higashi-Noshiro	7:49
Futatsui	8:04
Takanosu	8:16
Odate	8:34
Ikarigaseki	8:55
Owani-Onsen	9:03
Hirosaki	9:15
Shin-Aomori	9:48
Aomori	9:55
(Duration: 12h 40m)

As mentioned above, Akebono was primarily for those travelling between Tokyo and towns in Tohoku, and that is why the train called at many small stations in Yamagata, Akita and Aomori Prefectures.

At Ueno

On 28th August 2012, I was at Ueno station as part of a trip to Hakodate. An old 24 series train was waiting for passengers at platform 13. The train was formed of nine coaches including a luggage van, which had generators to supply power to coaches.

Like many other Blue Trains, a large round-shaped signboard, which clearly reads "Akebono", was installed to a locomotive. Since this Japanese word means dawn, a picture of the sea just before sunrise was depicted.

Generally speaking, night train accommodation can be classified into two categories, Class A and Class B. Class A is first class, equivalent to Green Car. After the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, JRs refurbished many coaches to attract passengers, so there were several types of Class B rooms on Akebono. To be specific:

• Single DX (Class A private room)
• Solo (Class B, private room)
• Standard couchette (Class B)
• Goronto Seat (standard class seating)

Goronto Seat looked the same as the standard couchette, but there were no bedclothes. There was even a Goronto Seat coach for women, which male passengers could not enter.

The couchette

I chose the standard couchette, because it was how Blue Trains supposed to be during the golden age in the 1970s. There was a narrow corridor on the left and beds on the right. The upper bed could be accessed using a ladder. Each passengers had a mattress, a duvet, pyjamas, a hanger and slippers. My favourite was the pyjamas, as there was a JR-logo pattern.

(Some smartphones may fail to view the image correctly)

Whenever possible, I always chose the lower bed, as it swayed less than the upper one. The lower bed had little space for luggage, but it did not matter for me.

There was a light by the bed. The sticker suggested that smoking was once allowed on the train, though it was prohibited in bed for obvious reasons. There was a radio in the Single DX rooms, but there was no such thing for standard couchette passengers.

There was no dining car or onboard trolley service, but there was a tap water tank. This tiny envelope-like paper was a disposable cup.

Towards north

The train kept running at night. According to the timetable, the next stop after Takasaki was Murakami in Niigata Prefecture. However, the train did stop several times because of driver changes. That was why it took nearly 4.5 hours to run 273.1 km (169.7 miles).

The train was hauled by Class EF64 locomotive between Ueno and Nagaoka, and Class EF81 locomotive between Nagaoka and Aomori. Like many other sleeper trains, Akebono was one of few loco-hauled trains in Japan.

Since it was two weeks after the obon holidays, the train was mostly empty. The coach I took was about 30% full when the train left Ueno but became completely empty after leaving Akita at 6:42 in the morning. After that, literally nobody was on this coach.

The bed was not uncomfortable, but I was awakened by shock several times at night when the train pulled out. Since it was loco-hauled, couplers connecting coaches always made a large noise when the locomotive pulled them.

As the empty train ran by the paddy fields, I could not help but thinking about history of the "trains of promotion", once seen as a symbol of economic success with poverty and potential disconnection with family in background, and the fact that such history was about to be forgotten.

The train arrived at Aomori on time. According to my diary, around 20-30 people alighted from the train in total. The maximum capacity of the train on this day was 223 passengers, so even taking others who alighted from the train before Aomori into account, the ridership did not sound high.

Eight minutes after arrival, a shunter (Class DE10 locomotive) took the train towards Aomori depot. A handful of passengers and train enthusiasts were watching it leaving.

13 years on...

I have never had a chance to take a Blue Train again. As all traditional sleeper trains were discontinued by 2016. In hindsight, I should have also tried other coaches like Solo, but given that I was a university student who could not easily afford such a trip then, I was still fortunate enough to actually experience it.