JR East will implement a fare revision on March 14. As a result, round-trip tickets and continuous tickets will no longer be available as of March 13. The round-trip discount, which had been applied to one-way trips of 601 kilometers or more, will also be discontinued.
The reason for the end of sales is that the use of round-trip and serial tickets has been decreasing due to the spread of transportation IC cards and discount products available through Internet reservations, etc. Tickets purchased by the 13th can be used until the expiration of their validity period.
In addition, various “discount tickets” such as coupon tickets, free passes, and mobile Suica-only tickets will also have various price hikes starting on the 14th.
Seventeen products of the free pass type with limited areas are covered. For example, the “Tokyo Metropolitan Area Pass” will be revised from 760 yen to 870 yen for one day of unlimited access to stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and the “Echigo Two Day Pass” will be revised from 2,800 yen to 3,300 yen for two days of unlimited access to the Niigata area.
The “W ticket”, a set of two one-way tickets in the Tohoku area, will also increase by up to 200 yen, and the six-pack of limited express coupon tickets (Shinano coupon tickets) that can be used on the “Shinano” train will also increase by up to 420 yen.
The main ticket revisions are as follows (all prices are for adults).
Tokyo Metropolitan Area Pass (Tokyo metropolitan area): 760 yen → 870 yen
Tokyo Free Ticket (Tokyo metropolitan area + subway): 1,600 yen → 1,720 yen
Holiday Outing Pass (Tokyo and surrounding areas): 2,720 yen → 2,950 yen
Nombiri Holiday Suica Pass (Tokyo and surrounding areas): 2,670 yen → 2,850 yen
Small Travel Holiday Pass (South Tohoku area): 2,720 yen → 2,850 yen
Gunma One-Day Local Pass (Gunma area): 2,500 yen → 2,600 yen
Echigo Two Day Pass (Niigata area): 2,800 yen → 3,300 yen
Shinshu One-Day Pass (Nagano area): 2680 yen → 2830 yen
W ticket (Sendai – Yamagata): 1560 yen → 1640 yen
Non-reserved limited express ticket on conventional lines (Nagoya (inner city) to Nagano): 38,280 yen → 38,700 yen
In addition, the fares for “Shinkansen e-Ticket” (including “Tokudare”) and “Tokkyu Tokudare”, which are available only on Ekinet and include a train ticket and a limited express ticket, will also be revised. For the “Hayabusa” Shinkansen e-ticket (basic product, regular season) between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori stations, the price will be increased from the current 17,470 yen to 17,910 yen.
Tickets purchased before March 13 can be used without any difference even if the validity start date is after the revised date, except for some digital tickets. For tickets purchased through Ekinet, the date of payment is treated as the date of purchase.
Ekinet will temporarily suspend payment at convenience stores, financial institutions, and train stations from March 11 to 13 (only cash payment at Seven-Eleven will be available on March 11). In addition, advance registration for trains boarding between April 14 and 20 will be suspended from March 7 to 5:00 a.m. on March 14.
© Source travel watch