JR West Commuter run, Nara to Amagasaki

[Sacto1985]

YouTube user yaeyan20050321 filmed this interesting zenmen tenbou video of a commuter rail trip from Nara Station to Amagasaki Station:

 

 

Note that this trip is interesting because after travelling on the Kansai Main Line from Nara, the train turns north on the Osaka Higashi LIne, then west on the Katamachi Line and the (mostly underground) Tozai LIne to end at Amagasaki.

 

 

[bikkuri bahn]

A couple other interesting services like this out of Nara are the 5:39 kukan kaisoku for Nishi Akashi and the 5:50 kaisoku for Shin Sanda.  These early morning services go in the opposite direction to the service above, going to Kizu and then on the Katamachi Line/Tozai Line routing, with the 5:39 continuing on the JR Kobe/Sanyo Line, and the 5:50 the Fukuchiyama Line.

 

These cross-country type services echo somewhat the routings of the now long-gone JNR express services, which often took rather circuitous journeys utilizing multiple lines to serve intermediate and  smaller markets.