Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen
The Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen (西九州新幹線, Nishi Kyūshū Shinkansen) is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail line on the northwest part of Kyushu Island that is operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). A segment of the line that connects Nagasaki to Takeo-Onsen commenced service on 23 September 2022.[1][2] The line runs parallel to the existing Nagasaki Main Line and has a total length of 66 kilometers (41 mi), making it the shortest high-speed Shinkansen railway line in Japan in terms of length.
The entire line is envisioned to connect Hakata to Nagasaki, and potentially become an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen in Honshu.[3] However, as of 2022 the route of the segment east of Takeo-Onsen to Hakata via Saga has yet to be decided, and construction has yet to commence.[4] It remains unclear when the entire line will be completed.[5] For the foreseeable future, the Relay Kamome service provides a connection to Hakata.
Services are operated by 6-car N700S series trains, at a maximum speed of 260 km/h (160 mph). Initially, there is only one service type, named Kamome.[6] All Kamome services stop at Takeo-Onsen, Isahaya and Nagasaki, while most stops at the other two stations.[7]
At Takeo-Onsen each Kamome connects to a relay service by means of a cross platform interchange to allow travel between Hakata and Nagasaki.[8][6][9] The relay service is either the Relay Kamome, Midori or Huis Ten Bosch.[10]
With the start of the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, trains are operated by a fleet of four JR Kyushu N700S series trainsets.[13]
Plans for a Shinkansen between Fukuoka and Nagasaki was first laid out in 1971 by the Ministry of Transport.[14] The construction of the route was decided in the 1973 basic plan. At the time the route was decreed to pass through Saga, split from the main Kyushu Shinkansen route in Tsukushi Plain, and share the route with the Kyushu Shinkansen to Fukuoka.[15] In 1985 Japanese National Railways published a map of the line that ran via Haiki in Sasebo.[16][17]
