Fukui –

An extended section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line will open on Saturday, connecting the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the city of Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.

The opening of the new section is expected to contribute to reconstruction efforts in the Hokuriku region in central Japan following the Noto Peninsula earthquake on Jan. 1, along with a subsidy program for travel to the region that will also be launched on Saturday.

With the new section, Hokuriku Shinkansen trains will travel from Tokyo to Tsuruga in as little as three hours and eight minutes, and from Tokyo to Fukui in 2 hours and 51 minutes. The fares for Tokyo-Tsuruga and Tokyo-Fukui will be ¥16,360 and ¥15,810, respectively.

The opening of the new section has been "our ardent wish," Fukui Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto said. "We will use this opportunity to bring Fukui Prefecture to a new stage."

The 125-kilometer section will serve two stations in Ishikawa, including Komatsu, and four in Fukui, including Echizen-Takefu and Fukui.

Between Tokyo and Tsuruga, Kagayaki trains, which stop at fewer stations, will make a total of nine round trips per day, and Hakutaka trains, which stop at almost all stations from Nagano, will make five.

The construction of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line was decided in 1973. The Takasaki-Nagano section opened in October 1997 and the line was extended to Kanazawa in March 2015.

Construction of the Kanazawa-Tsuruga section began in 2005. The section was originally scheduled to open in spring 2023, but was postponed due to construction delays. A total of ¥1.68 trillion was spent on the new section.

The Hokuriku Shinkansen line will eventually be extended to Osaka. However, it remains uncertain when construction will begin on the remaining section due to delays in an environmental assessment in Kyoto Prefecture.