Lodging in Retired "Blue Train" to Resume in Northeastern Japan

   Kosaka, Akita Pref., May 3 (Jiji Press)--Lodging services using a retired "blue train," or sleeper train, preserved at a railway-themed sightseeing facility in a northeastern Japan town are set to restart Saturday after five years of suspension due to the novel coronavirus crisis.
   Kosaka Railroad Railpark, in the Akita Prefecture town of Kosaka, has collected money to partially cover the costs to repair sleeping cars of the "Akebono" blue train via a crowdfunding scheme.
   "(The Akebono) is here with abundant memories and thoughts of numerous passengers," Jiro Suzuki, the 60-year-old manager of the facility, said. "I want our guests to feel the atmosphere (of the sleeping cars) that can't be experienced in today's railroad cars."
   The Akebono, a limited express train, went into service in 1970, connecting Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and Ueno Station in Tokyo in about 12 and a half hours, via prefectures including Akita. Many people of Kosaka and other local municipalities used the train to travel to and from the Japanese capital. Regular services of the Akebono ended in 2014.
   Also in 2014, Kosaka Railroad Railpark opened. The municipal government of Kosaka, one of the entities in charge of the management of the facility, asked East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, which had operated the Akebono, for the transfer of the decommissioned train as the town hoped to reuse it as an accommodation facility. JR East accepted the request, and the Akebono started its second life at the railway park in 2016.

(2024/05/03-09:01)

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