At Takeo Onsen Station, only relay trains arrive and depart from the transfer platform. There are two types of relay trains on the West Kyushu Shinkansen. The “Midori (Relay Kamome)” is bound for Sasebo, so passengers heading to Takeo Onsen and beyond also use it. However, the “Relay Kamome” trains terminate or start at Takeo Onsen, and passengers can basically assume that they are transferring to the West Kyushu Shinkansen. The arrival and departure numbers of the individual trains at Takeo Onsen Station are as follows. Relay Kamome” and “Midori (Relay Kamome)” trains arrive and depart from platform 10 for face-to-face transfer with the West Kyushu Shinkansen.
The “Midori” and “Huistenbosch” limited express trains bound for Sasebo arrive and depart from platform 1 or 2 for the conventional lines, meaning that passengers cannot enter or exit platform 10 for face-to-face transfers without boarding the “Relay Kamome” or “Midori (Relay Kamome)” trains. When entering platform 10 from outside the station, passengers must pass through the ticket gate on the Shinkansen side, not the conventional line side, so it is not possible to enter or leave the station from the conventional line side without going through the ticket gate. In theory, it is possible to transfer to the West Kyushu Shinkansen from Midori or Huistenbosch, but it takes time to go down the stairs, exit through the ticket gate on the conventional line side, and then go through the ticket gate on the Shinkansen side to get to the platform. The West Kyushu Shinkansen is a single line that dead-ends at the end of the line. Even if you do not have an official ticket or limited express ticket, you can pay the fare at the ticket gate of the Shinkansen station. Since the West Kyushu Shinkansen is a short-distance single line, the calculation of fares and charges is not so complicated. The same was true of the former Shin-Yatsushiro line.
Niigata Station and Shin-Hakodate Hokuto Station are free to come and go with conventional lines. However, the situation is different at Niigata Station and Shin-Hakodate Hokuto Station. In both stations, the conventional train platforms on the same level as the Shinkansen can freely come and go from other conventional train platforms. In some cases, trains arriving and departing on the conventional lines arrive and depart from the Shinkansen platforms without any Shinkansen connection in mind. Under such circumstances, if the Shinkansen platform and the Shinkansen platform are open, it is possible to board the Shinkansen without a regular ticket or limited express ticket. Moreover, the Shinkansen beyond the platform is not a single, dead-end line. In extreme cases, one can take multiple trains from the Shinkansen platform at Niigata Station to Kanazawa, Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, Yamagata, Shinjo, or Akita. In reality, there would be a check at the onboard ticket gate, and at the end of the trip, you would have to exit the ticket gate at one of the stations, so no ticket would be accepted. However, there is the fact that it would increase the burden at the time of settlement, both for the user and for the conductor and station staff. For this reason, Niigata and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto stations have intermediate ticket gates at the boundary between conventional and Shinkansen lines to confirm that passengers are in possession of legitimate train and limited express tickets. Although the stations are on the same level to save travel time, the concept is no different from other Shinkansen/conventional line connecting stations. However, the area near Niigata is already a Suica area, and Kitaca will be introduced between Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto and Hakodate in the spring of 2024. Then, if the ticketless service “Shinkansen e-Ticket” is used on the Shinkansen side, one transportation IC card can be used to seamlessly transfer between Shinkansen and conventional lines. It can be said that this will be easier than using paper tickets.
© Source travel watch