Photo/Illutration Fish hauled in at Kanazawa Port in the morning arrive at the platform of JR Kanazawa Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line on May 26. (Michiyo Sato)

KANAZAWA--West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) plans to expand its delivery service on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line to cover fresh food and mechanical parts and reach more destinations in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The goal is to show off specialties from Ishikawa Prefecture in and around the capital and to improve revenue at a time when passenger numbers on the line are at 30 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

“I expect the service to be a new business model,” said Hiroaki Maeda, head of the Kanazawa branch of JR West. “I hope the offering will provide a chance for people in the Tokyo metropolitan region to become aware of food and other specialties in this (Hokuriku) area and to visit here.”

The Kanazawa branch said the delivery service along the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line was proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic, and goods were first transported in February and October last year.

The products were sent to stores and events on the grounds of Tokyo Station.

But the new service, run with East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), will bring deliveries to retailers elsewhere in and around the capital. JR East Logistics Co. will be responsible for accepting orders from freight owners and taking goods from Tokyo Station to shops.

More regular deliveries and services for non-food products are also planned.

On a test basis, fresh fish will be delivered twice a week through the end of June. On the morning of May 26, a bullet train left Kanazawa Station carrying 30 boxes of young yellowtail for supermarkets in Tokyo.

The goods were placed in areas on the train secured for preparing on-board sales of meals and other items.

The bullet trains are expected to deliver the products faster because their operations are not affected by weather conditions as severely as trucks and other transportation means.

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