Not forgetting, the Yamagata Shinkansen runs past many small towns with loads of farmland, so I don't think the locals will be very happy if a viaduct for a Shinkansen was constructed, taking up some of their land and blocking out the sun to grow their crops during some parts of the day. Maybe they should not only focus on tunnel construction, but also upgrading the trackbed of some straight sections of the existing conventional line to allow for increased operating speed up to 160km/h - 170km/h, if they really want to reduce the travel time to Shinjo.

I do wonder how the travel times would look if they not only upgraded the tracks to shinjo to minimize delays but then continued the line up to Omagari to link up with the route to Akita. In the case of Yamagata any improvements really help speed up access to Tsuruoka and Sakata. The Tsuruoka area especially has very untapped potential for enhanced tourism. There is many great shrines and temples as well as natural attractions in the area. In the case of Akita Yokota would appear to benefit most from having the direct connection to the shinkansen network yet how much different would the time really be comped to taking the local from Kitakami or connecting via Omagari. Clearly it would be a lot slower so who really benefits from this I suspect would be people living north of Yamagata city and people living around Sakata and Tsuruoka. However, I can see only limited application for this as how often are people living in these locations trying to go north? Lets face it that the real $ is to and from Tokyo. As a tourist I would love a faster way to get from Yamagata to Akita but I feel that in all cases would it not be cheaper and improve access for locals if instead the moneys for this was used to improve the travel times on conventional lines from Shinjo to Furukawa and Yamagata to Sendai. Honestly, it would be interesting to see the loop going to Furukawa from Shinjo and back so you would go Fukushima to Furukawa via Yamagata and could link back up and then go to Akita or to Tokyo from there. This may act to make the entire Yamagata region more accessible from both North and South. For example for a traveler in Sendai imagine being able to get on a single train direct to Shinjo for the transfer to Sakata or Tsuruoka. Sometimes it is not just about Tokyo but also improving access to and from other major cities in the region for both locals living in those places and travelers who already at said locations.

I tend to agree. The cost of a full Shinkansen upgrade would be enormous. Building the Shin-Itaya tunnel will do a lot to eliminate the slow, winding (and unreliable in winter) route and will create the best improvement for the Yamagata Shinkansen. There could be smaller improvements along the existing lines from Yonezawa north, such as curve reduction, sound barrier installation and level crossing removal that could help to improve the overall line speed within the existing corridor as well. Maintaining as a mini-Shinkansen also at least leaves the door open for a potential future extension - I tend to be more of an advocate for extending to Tsuruoka or Sakata than to Omagari along the Rikuu-West Line than further on the Ou Main Line - I think the region might get more out of having a mini-Shinkansen than the sparsely populated (but very scenic) section between Shinjo and Omagari... but I'm of two minds about it. It could be cheaper and faster to make targeted improvements to the Uetsu Line and limited express trains through to Niigata (assuming a Tokyo connection is the key objective).

I do wonder if they'd do what they did with the Akita Shinkansen and have dual guage tracks to allow freight and holiday trains to use the Ou Mainline again. Its not like the lines are super busy as it is.

プレゼン資料としてとても素晴らしいと思います。日本語版も見ました。 率直な気持ちとして、英文で書くなら米ドルかユーロにしたほうが実感がわくと思います。 編集の都合もあるでしょうから日本円を外貨に置き換えるのは難しい部分もあると推察しつつコメントしました。 お世辞抜きで本当に素晴らしい動画だと思います。 英語がお上手だし動画編集もすごいし同じ日本人として尊敬しています。

I think this plan would profit from extending to Akita, however you mentioned Akita was already very satisfied with their own connection to Tohoku Shinkansen and aren't active on Ou shinkansen plan. I think, they need to reconsider. The Ou shinkansen and Akita shinkansen could be operated together. And the previous route for the Current line could be ran by a limited express shuttle type train between the Tohoku and Ou shinkansen lines.

Takeshi-san I was wondering where the Hokuriku shinkansen extension would end at Osaka. Is there place at Shin-Osaka for it to terminate? Could you explain how that situation will look like when finished?

very interesting

Would it make sense to make to Ou shinkansen continue from Shinjo to Akita replacing both mini shinkansen lines by one fully high speed ones?

Agree with you that only the construction of tunnel is needed.

I wonder, if the tunnel is built, how far the speed could be increased there. You want trains to be able to pass one another there, but you want them fast. Could they push it as far as 200 km/h within the tunnel?

Smart move bypass the curves

Isn't the Yamagata Shinkansen getting the new E8 train sets starting in 2022-2023 to cut the travel time anyway? A big problem with the current E3 train sets is the top speed limit of 275 km/h, well under the speeds capable by the E5, H5 and E6 train sets now operating.

Fully agree with you, Takeshi. But, may be it is better to continue Yamagata Shinkansen to Akita, in order to increase the passenger number?

I got an idea, how about do some further upgrade to some major parts of Yamagata Shinkansen (makes it becomes Super-Express) and speed up the operation speed to 160 km/h (or even 200km/h)?

Hi Takeshi-san, thank you for the new video! For the new tunnel and full shinkansen, I think now they are at the crossroad already as JR East has announced the construction of Fukushima station ramps. If they really want the full shinkansen, they'd better do the ramp improvement work and new line work together. What I can think of is, to build the full shinkansen from Fukishima to Yonezawa. And the local Yamagata line to run like Fukui LRT, which build more stops along the Fukushima area, but JR shall still deploy minimum trains between Fukushima and Yonezawa, and Yamagata prefecture shall bear the maintenance between Yonezawa and Niwasaka. Then it will be fair to all parties because 我田引鐵 shall have a price... And for the Fukui prefecture bearing percentage, did they enjoyed any advantage? You know how fierce the Fukui government were when the line was only constructed to Kanazawa but Fukui...

Why not let only Shinkansen in the tunnel and let them run at 275km/h (260 if seibi shinkansen)? Just let conventional trains pass the old route. Combining the double tracking and Shin-Itaya tunnel will shorten the trip from Tokyo to Yamagata to 2 hours.

At least building a tunnel sounds better than destroying someone's home ...