South Hokkaido Railway

[disturbman]

Nice video of the South Hokkaido Railway
 

 

[kvp]

3 hours ago, disturbman said:

Nice video of the South Hokkaido Railway

The question is how long could they operate with 9 ancient Kiha40-s while keeping the 38 km line operational? (afaik JRF also uses part of the route so that might be good as long as the Hokkaido freight routes remain operational, so around until 2020)

[Densha]

Where did you get the information that JR Freight will stop operating in Hokkaido in 2020?

[kvp]

1 hour ago, Densha said:

Where did you get the information that JR Freight will stop operating in Hokkaido in 2020?

They probably won't but line closures will cut off a rather large portion of the network from access through the Seikan tunnel. Unless they get some of the tracks for freight only access of course or a 3rd sector company gets arranged to keep a route to Sapporo open. One of such companies is the South Hokkaido Railway and at least one more will be needed as a gap filler between JR Hokkaido tracks.

 

Another alternative is to run freight on the shinkansen line all the way to Sapporo. Either on piggyback railcars or standard gauge container cars.