New Shinkansen baggage drop-off system begins in Japan, making prepare journey even simpler

“Hands-Free” service lets Shinkansen travellers ship their suitcases by bullet prepare with out carrying them onboard.

Travelling by Shinkansen is among the highlights of any journey to Japan, however there’s one factor that may take the shine off the expertise – having to lug huge suitcases with you onboard and thru crowded stations in the course of the journey.

Now, East Japan Railways (JR East) is working to alleviate that drawback, by introducing a brand new drop-off baggage choice for travellers to allow them to journey the bullet prepare hands-free.

Introduced as a part of the corporate’s “JRE Tebura Tabi” (“JRE Hands-Free Travel”) service, this new system makes use of JR East prepare station lockers and its Hakobyun baggage transport community to supply a extra seamless drop-off and supply system for patrons. The new service is because of start on 1 August, when passengers will be capable to retailer their baggage in “Multi-Ecube” lockers at Tokyo Station or Sendai Station for same-day supply to motels that settle for deliveries within the different metropolis.

▼ Up till now, these lockers may solely be used to ship baggage to close by motels inside the identical space, however this marks the primary time they are going to be used for same-day supply between completely different prefectures.

To use the brand new cross-prefecture service, merely reserve a locker by the Multi-Ecube web site and place your baggage contained in the assigned locker within the morning for supply to a lodge later that day. Reservations should be made by 9:30 a.m. on the day of use, and baggage should be deposited by 10:30 a.m. The service prices 3,500 yen (US$21.55) for S-size lockers, 3,600 yen for M-size lockers and three,700 yen for L-size lockers, with one bag or case allowed per locker.

Previously, passengers have been solely in a position to make use of the “Hands-Free Travel” service for cross-city deliveries by taking their baggage on to a collaborating station counter. Although that choice nonetheless exists, this new system provides travellers a faster and simpler method to ahead their baggage, serving to to ease the stress related to journey.

Though the preliminary locker dropoff system will join Tokyo and Sendai, the service is anticipated to increase sooner or later, with JR East saying it plans to introduce the system for airport deliveries as properly. From autumn, travellers will be capable to drop their baggage off in a locker in Tokyo and have it delivered on to the counter at Narita or Haneda airports.

JR East can be testing a future system the place travellers may go away their baggage at a station locker earlier than heading to the airport, then gather it from a locker after they arrive. The firm hopes this might finally result in a wholly customer-led system, giving passengers extra freedom of motion and higher autonomy throughout their journeys.

Unlike conventional truck-based baggage forwarding providers, this new cross-city locker drop-off system makes use of JR East’s Hakobyun Quick service, which transports baggage by Shinkansen. The pace of the bullet prepare permits for same-day supply over lengthy distances that might sometimes take in a single day by street.

▼ Tokyo and Sendai are round 350 kilometres aside on the Shinkansen, with the journey taking 1.5 hours by bullet prepare, in comparison with 3.5 hours by street.

JR East is at present main the best way in Shinkansen-based baggage transport, having arrange a complete logistics system that helps not solely the vacationer sector however wider companies resembling eating places, who’re in a position to obtain contemporary produce from rural areas, due to the environment friendly bullet-train community.

With JR East exhibiting how it may be executed, maybe at some point JR Central, the operator of the Tokaido Shinkansen route between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, can even be capable to implement an identical service, though with extra restricted area and fewer time between departures it will be extra of a problem. For now, although, the introduction of the brand new locker drop-off system paves the best way for sooner and extra environment friendly journey up north, which can hopefully encourage extra guests to go to the area and uncover all its hidden charms.

Related: Multi-Ecube reservation site
Source: JR East
Featured picture: Pakutaso
Insert photographs: JR East
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