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Green class is equivalent to First class. Gran Class is 'super-luxury'. The standard class doesn't have a special designation. Seats in Standard class are pretty variable. Not great on local and commuter trains (largely longitudinal seating, even for long journeys). Some of the old intercity...

Different lines can be quite different to each other. I have found that most of the JR lines (including the Yamonote) are relatively conservative in the way they accelerate and brake. But contrast that with some of the private lines such as the Keikyu in Tokyo or the Hankyu in Osaka. Those...

I think this is why JR Hokkaido is offering the local Government to financially support many of the services. While the various JR companies are arguably still semi-nationalised, it is clear that they are trying to get on to a commercial footing. JR Kyushu has just had an IPO, and this seems...

It's really easy to forget how massive and sparesely populated Hokkaido is. It's really sad, but seems rational. It's really pretty up there. If only the Japanese were better at promoting it as a tourist destination. It seems that very few go from abroad, unless it is for winter sports.

I'm afraid that Indian Railways have a different level of tolerance to death and risk generally than you would find in the UK. Most days in Mumbai several people die on the railway. They don't stop the trains. It reflects a different approach to death more generally. When it surrounds you all...

The Shinkansen timetable can vary wildly according to the season. During peak holiday times there are many more trains put on than on other days. So if you are looking at the current timetable, it may not reflect what you did in August. The Sakura trains generally run Shin-Osaka to...

Bear in mind that Kyoto is very close to Osaka, and you really don't have to be restricted to using Shinkansen for travel between the two. The local trains (both JR and provate) are pretty quick, and much, much cheaper than Shinkansen if you don't have a JR rail pass. If you want a cheap...

JR will only allow you to get a reservation at the same time or after you have a ticket. If you are getting a JR railpass, you will only receive your ticket when you exchange your voucher at a railway station. That's why you can't get a reservation now. Most of the time, reservations really...

What you need to do is convert the name of the train in English into Japanese. For some of them you can do that by putting the english name into Wikipedia (English version), and it will give the Japanese name in brackets at the top of the article. As an example, if you want to use SL Banetsu...

I don't know of any simple way. This website (https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/joyful/index.html) gives details of all of the Joyful (i.e. special) trains in the JR East area, which includes the running steam trains. In many cases you can use JR rail passes for these trains with a small supplement...

It's now much easier to use ATMs in Japan. International cards are accepted in Post Offices (watch the opening times, though), as well as a lot of convinience stores. HSBC has closed down in Japan. Credit Card are increasingly accepted too. You'll be asked a strange question each time you use it...

Last time I travelled on the Mumbai suburban railway, the going rate was the equivalent of 5 pence for 6 miles. Didn't get a closing door on the train however...

Japan: huge range of rolling stock run by dozens of companies. Everything spotlessly clean and on time, with quirky attention to detail (like the trains on the Keikyu railway that have motors tuned to play a musical scale as they accelerate). Stunning countryside on lines in the mountains...

Nothing quite compares to the aroma of a whole carriage of Curry and various deep fried food served out on long distance Indian trains.

As a number of people have mentioned, it's pretty common in Japan. The Shinkansen don't have a driver's eye view, nor do some of the faster trains on classic lines. But almost all commuter trains and slower regional trains do. This leads to some interesting consequences: - The drivers are always...

I'm a big fan of Japanese railways. Many people know about the JR Railpass which is a much cheaper way for foreigners to use Japanese long-distance trains than simply buying tickets. But very few seem to know about an even bigger bargain: the Seishun 18 kippu. For around 12,000 yen (between...

I'm not sure the programme was aimed at train enthusiasts (apart from giving us a warm glow that the BBC cares about us). And I don't think its purpose was to inform the public about railways. Which is probably a good thing because the programme makers might have decided that the most important...

Japan uses a variety of track gauges (the privatised JR companies use a narrow gauge for traditional lines and standard gauge for Shinkansen operations, the various private railways use several different track gauges including standard gauge). However, even on the narrow gauge trains, the...