International Railroad Discussion > Railway station under the OCEAN!!!

The other day i decided to take the train from Hachinohe to Hakodate from Honshu to Hokkaido.......it runs thru the worlds longest railway tunnel of nearly 55 kilometres.......the train was the 0850 departure the #1071M "HAKUCHO" north east express EMU stock.......

My train entered the tunnell entrance at 1041

The conductor announced the next station stop a few moments before the train stopped in the middle of the tunnell under the sea at a platform called Yoshioka-Katei at 1059

after 2 minutes the train departed and reached the Hokkaido side of the tunnell at 1114 precisly...........

I presume this under sea station is some sort of escape route......

no passengers or staff were observed here......

i took a picture of one of the ramps leading from the platform......

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Welcome to Zone 539!!

240 meter under the sea level, 53.85 Kilo meter long tunnel including 23.3 kilo meter section direct under the channel was officially opened on March 13, 1988. The tunnel with the width of 9.7 meter and the height of 7.65 meter is big enough to host double Shinkansen tracks but instead it hosts double regular tracks that link Honsyu and Hokkaido.

There are two underground stations, namely, Yoshioka Kaitei Station and Tappi Kaitei Station once they were served as the material supply depots throughout 24 year long construction work. Both have various display and panels to show the history of the including one hour guided tour.

Hope this helps.

Hiroshi