Shinano Railway Line

The Shinano Line (Japaneseしなの 鉄道 線, Shinano tetsudō - sen) is a 65.1 km long railway line in Nagano Prefecture in Japan. The route is operated since 1997 by the private tetsudō Shinano (Japaneseしなの 鉄道, dt " Shinano Railway ").

History

The now frequented by the Shinano tetsudō section between Nagano and Karuizawa was until 1997 part of the Shin'etsu Main Line, operated by JR East. With the completion of the Nagano Shinkansen in 1997, the long distance between Nagano and Tokyo was relocated to the new high-speed connection, so that section of the Shin'etsu Main Line for JR East was no longer lucrative.

The company was taken over by the established for this purpose private Shinano tetsudō, whose majority owner is the prefectural government of Nagano. The Shinano- line is an important regional rail link within the Nagano Prefecture represents the route is fully electrified and double-railed. How many railway lines in rural areas of Japan is suffering the Shinano- line despite their major regional function under passenger losses. To address this problem, new stations ( Tekuno - Sakaki, Yashiro - Koko- mae, Shinano Kokubunji ) were opened on the track, which should provide more demand. Furthermore, the route is largely operated without a conductor, so that the staff requirements reduced solely to the driver.

Fleet

• JNR Series 115: eleven sets of three cars
• JNR 169 series: four sets of three cars

The fleet of the Shinano tetsudō consists of the JR East trains acquired the former State Railways of Japan, which were painted after the takeover in the colors of the Shinano tetsudō and have largely been completely redesigned. So many trains have an onboard infotainment system that superimposes information to route and advertising.

In general, the features of the 169 series are used for the Express offer on the track.