The other day, I was on an outing to a certain area. At the last minute, I checked the time for the bus to the airport and was impatient when I realized that it had moved up 10 minutes from the plan at hand. If I missed it, I could catch the next bus to catch my scheduled flight, but I would have less time to spend at the airport.
It is not always only the timetable revision that changes the time.
I usually make plans and arrangements relatively late in the day. The recent outing, however, was an exception, as I had about three months from the time I made the schedule to the time of execution. So, during that time, the schedule had to be changed. This is a story about buses, not trains, but even trains can change their schedules, so you need to be careful.
In the past, major revisions to the Japan National Railways (JNR) timetable were usually made in October, but recently the JR Group has been changing its timetable in late March, which affects the private railway companies as well, due to the mutual boarding and connecting of trains. As a result, most of the railway companies change their timetables in late March.
It is important to be careful when such a schedule revision occurs between the planning and execution of the schedule. It is possible that an itinerary planned before the schedule revision may not be usable after the revision.
If you have reserved seats, you will inevitably be aware of the arrival and departure times of the trains, which is still good. In comparison, you need to be more careful when you have a nonreserved seat or take a local train. This is because you have less chance to be aware of the arrival and departure times of the trains.
Unless there is an event that causes a major change, such as the opening of a new line or the setting up of a new train, there are few major tweaks to the timetable. However, even without major changes, minor fluctuations are surprisingly common. For example, the “limit of a one-day trip from Tokyo using the Seishun 18 ticket” often changes with each timetable revision.
In the case of the March 2023 revision, the “Okhotsk” and “Taisetsu” limited expresses on the Ishihoku Main Line underwent a slight time change in conjunction with the replacement of Series 183 diesel trains with Series 283 diesel trains.
Apart from the national network timetable revision, local timetable revision may occur. For example, from May 20, 2023, the diesel trains previously used on the Muroran Main Line between Muroran, Higashi-Muroran, and Tomakomai will be replaced by the new 737 series trains. In relation to this, there will be a time change associated with the speed increase.
© Source travel watch