East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) introduces a revolutionary Shinkansen train that defies all norms. This new train features seven unadorned white carriages with no seats or passengers. What’s crazier is that it’s designed to transport fresh fish, vegetables, precision electronics, and other high-end items at speeds exceeding 300km/h.
The E3 series train used to run on the Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa route, however it has been completely redesigned. All 394 seats have been removed, and a new non-slip floor has been erected, as well as some quite heavy-duty machinery to keep all of the goods in place as it zooms along. Windows remain, but JR East has covered them with representations of area products, such as fish from the shore, vegetables from fields, and medical supplies, to prevent extra light and heat while creating a sense of local flavor.
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The real beauty of this is that it will enhance JR East’s Hakobyun service. They currently ship items on the Shinkansen, but they’ve upgraded to a proper freight train that can transport up to 1,000 packages or 17.4 tons of merchandise in one trip, five times more than their previous approach.
The train is scheduled to begin running on weekdays on March 23rd, 2026, and will travel approximately 500 kilometers between Morioka in Iwate Prefecture and Tokyo. The key advantage is that it will travel alongside a conventional passenger train, the Yamabiko, and that the station depots will have automated carts to make loading and unloading easier, even when there are less people on board.
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