MLIT is now floating the idea of using dedicated Shinkansen trainsets to move freight in the Seikan Tunnel to reduce bottledeck and reduce transportation times. The concept is that the dedicated freight Shinkansen sets will be taking shipping pallets and have depots in Sapporo and three throughout the Tohoku area. It is kind of flawed in execution though since it'd only have a capacity of around 65 tons when a typical freight train is at around 500 tons
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190710-00010000-doshin-hokFirst two of the six 3-car sets for the JR West 271 Series EMU has been delivered and revealed to the public
https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20190710-jrwest271/>>1359189The boring machine probably bored too far, drilled through the tunnel and hit the train. We will eventually find out what happened when MLIT releases a full report on the incident.
