By MASATOMO ONO/ Staff Writer
June 16, 2020 at 08:30 JST
The Shikoku Tosa (Toki no Yoake no Monogatari) sightseeing train on a training run (Provided by JR Shikoku)
TAKAMATSU--Shikoku Railway Co. (JR Shikoku) will resume running sightseeing trains in July that have been suspended due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it announced on May 26.
Express, regular and rapid service trains operating on a reduced schedule will also revert to their normal timetables next month.
The Shikoku Tosa (Toki no Yoake no Monogatari), the Iyonada Monogatari and the Shikoku Mannaka Sennen Monogatari sightseeing trains will return on July 4. The Seto Ohashi Anpanman Torokko train and the YuYu Anpanman Car train will be brought back into service on July 11 and 18, respectively.
The new Shikoku Tosa service was originally scheduled to go into service on April 18. Its debut has been delayed by about three months.
To prevent the coronavirus from spreading, passengers will be required to have their body temperature checked before boarding sightseeing trains. Boards will be set up between the seats facing each other to separate passengers and prevent droplets from landing on others.
JR Shikoku resumed the suspended 78 express and 15 rapid and regular service trains in mid-June, before they return to their normal timetables in July. Station ticket counters with reduced hours also returned to regular hours in June.
Transportation revenues have plunged amid the pandemic. In April they decreased by 78 percent from a year earlier to 813 million yen ($7.5 million), hitting a record low. The figure remained low for the first 24 days in May, showing a year-on-year decrease of 78 percent to 504 million yen for the rail company.
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