Photo/Illutration The Doctor Yellow Shinkansen test train (Provided by Central Japan Railway Co.)

Paid visitors will be allowed to board the Shinkansen track-testing trains known as Doctor Yellow and East i this month as railway companies try to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will be a rare treat for visitors considering that even the operation schedules for such trains are not normally disclosed to the public. Sightings of the trains are said to bring good luck.

Reflecting the popularity of the trains, tickets were immediately sold out.

“We would like to organize tours (of Doctor Yellow) for parents and children in the future, too,” said an official of Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai).

JR Tokai’s Doctor Yellow is based on the 700 Series Shinkansen. East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) operates the East i, which is based on the E3 Series Shinkansen.

The technical name of the trains is “electric track comprehensive testing vehicle,” and they run on Shinkansen tracks once every 10 days or so to check the conditions of the rails, overhead wires and signal current.

JR Tokai and JR East, both from Japan Railway Group, saw passenger numbers on their regular lines decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allowing people to enter the test trains is one way they’re trying to recoup their losses.

JR Tokai will allow paid visitors to board Doctor Yellow on March 22 and 23.

Doctor Yellow will make one inbound journey and one outbound journey between Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka Station on each day.

This will be the first time for Doctor Yellow to run with passengers since JR Tokai was created through the division and privatization of Japanese National Railways in 1987.

Passengers will be able to see test equipment onboard and the “observation dome,” a room on the train’s roof that inspects overhead wires while Doctor Yellow is running.

The ticket price is 23,620 yen ($176), or around 9,000 yen more than the Nozomi Shinkansen ticket price for the journey between Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka Station.

The tickets are limited to adults, and 50 passengers will be able to experience the test train for each journey, meaning a total of 200 lucky train aficionados.

JR Tokai received about 100 times more applications than available tickets on its website over five days from Feb. 24.

JR East, meanwhile, will let visitors board East i at Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture on March 26, but the train will remain at the platform for Shinkansen.

Visitors will be led to a corridor beneath the platform that is normally for staff only. They will be able to see East i and other trains, such as the Tohoku Shinkansen, from below.

“We have shown (East i) to paid visitors at a depot before, but this will be the first time that we will do so at a platform,” said a JR East official. “We would like visitors to see the suspension systems of the train cars that are normally invisible.”

All tickets were taken in just two minutes when they were sold on a first-come-first-served basis on March 7.

Thirty people will be allowed to see the train in morning and afternoon slots each.

Tickets cost 11,000 yen for a pair of one parent and one child, while tickets for junior high school students or older were 7,000 yen.

The company will consider providing more opportunities for paid visitors to see East i, the official said.

Related News