>>935860>Implying HSR was the sole reason of waning popularity of sleeper trains when overnight highway buses also took a chuck of its share while being cheaperStarting on March 26th, 2016 the JR Hokkaido 2429D (renumbered to 2427D) local train running between Takikawa and Kushiro will no longer be the longest local train in terms of distance (308.4 km) as the West JR Sanyo Main Line's local 369M (renumbered from 371M) will become the longest running local train again as it will be expanded from Okayama to Shimonoseki (384.7 km. It was shortened from Okayama~Shin-Yamaguchi to Tokuyama, which reduced the distance from 315.8 to 271.5 km in 2015). However, 2427D will still take longer time to finish as the whole journey takes 8 hours and 21 minutes
http://response.jp/article/2016/03/21/271898.html>>936225West JR's upcoming TWILIGHT EXPRESS Mizukaze and JR East's TRAIN SUITE - Shikijima are also following that trend (not sure why they put the English in all caps though)
