The Seikan Undersea Tunnel is the longest
railroad tunnel in the world that goes under water. It is a
rail that connects the island Hokkaido with the main one
known as Honshu.
The Seikan Undersea Tunnel is 54
kilometers (33
miles)
long and goes about 240 meters (14 miles) under the
Tsugaru Strait. It was a project that took 17 years to
finish and cost about 530 billion yen to build. Its’
construction began in 1971 by the Japanese National
Railways. Prior to its construction the idea of a tunnel
was considered in the Taisho period (1912-1925), but
surveying did not begin until after World War II and
the
sinking of the Toya Maru ferry. The construction of the
tunnel was to help increase traffic between Honshu
and
Hokkaido because of the economic boom when
everyone was traveling more than usual.
BR>
Predicted passenger numbers were too much for the
ferries back then to handle. At the completion of the
tunnel in 1988 all railway transports between
Hokkaido
and Honshu utilized it. In one day there were 50
scheduled trains using the Seikan Undersea Tunnel
from Shin Aomori to Shin Hakodate. Then in 2016
Shinkansen (bullet trains) trains were able to use the
tunnel. This new service allowed travel time to be cut
down by two hours. It is a great achievement and
proof
of the engineering capabilities that were put into the
Seikan Undersea Tunnel.
Please
see below for tours that include Seikan Undersea
Tunnel:
