Know Your Trains: Shirasagi and Thunderbird

A 683-series Thunderbird train at Kanazawa Station.
Taken on Tuesday, 15 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I made my way up from Kyoto to Toyama, my base camp for the next few days.  Now, it's pretty obvious how one would get there from Tokyo, and that would be on the Hokuriku Shinkansen.  But with that line not yet extended westward, there are a couple of limited-express train services that offer the fastest and most direct access from western cities.  The "Shirasagi" starts from Nagoya, and the "Thunderbird" starts from Osaka and Kyoto, with both ending up in Kanazawa, where one may transfer to the Shinkansen.  In 2015, these were also supplemented by some new, smaller-scale services called the "Dinostar" and "Noto Kagaribi".

Name	Start Station	End Station(s)	Time	Max. Frequency*
Shirasagi	Nagoya	Kanazawa	3 hours	1 per 1-2 hours
	Maibara		1 hour 50 minutes	1 per hour
Thunderbird	Osaka	Kanazawa	2 hours 30-50 minutes	1-2 per hour
		Wakura Onsen	4 hours	1 per day
Dinostar	Fukui	Kanazawa	45 minutes	3 per day
Noto Kagaribi	Kanazawa	Wakura Onsen	1 hour	1 per 3 hours

*Departures are based on April 2019 schedules and are subject to change.

The Thunderbird starts from Osaka Station and goes along the Kyoto and Kosei lines, passing Lake Biwa to the west.  Meanwhile, the Shirasagi starts from Nagoya Station and goes along the Tokaido and Hokuriku lines, passing Lake Biwa to the east.  Note that a few Shirasagis, mainly during the early morning or late evening, start or end at Maibara instead of Nagoya.  From Tsuruga Station on, both trains follow the same path up the Hokuriku Main Line, until reaching Kanazawa.  The Dinostar follows a shortened version of this section, between Fukui and Kanazawa.  Finally, rounding out the lineup on hand, the Noto Kagaribi goes north from Kanazawa up the Noto Peninsula, via the IR Ishikawa and JR Nanao lines.  One Thunderbird per day also continues along this path.  There are even more once-daily services like the Business Thunderbird (Osaka-Kanazawa) and Ohayo Express (Tsuruga-Kanazawa), which I felt were of too little use for travellers to list in detail.

No.	Name (English)	Name (Japanese)	Line	Shirasagi	Thunderbird	Dinostar	Noto Kagaribi
A47	Osaka	大阪	JR Kyoto (A)	I	X	I	I
A46	Shin-Osaka	新大阪		I	X	I	I
A38	Takatsuki	高槻		I	O	I	I
A31	Kyoto	京都		I	X	I	I
			JR Kosei (B)
B25	Katata	堅田		I	O	I	I
B14	Omi-Imazu	近江今津		I	O	I	I
CA68	Nagoya	名古屋	JR Tokaido (CA)	X	I	I	I
CA72	Owari Ichinomiya	尾張一宮		X	I	I	I
CA74	Gifu	岐阜		X	I	I	I
CA77	Ogaki	大垣		X	I	I	I
CA83	Maibara	米原		X	I	I	I
			JR Hokuriku (A)
A09	Nagahama	長浜		O	I	I	I
A01	Tsuruga	敦賀		X	O	I	I
	Takefu	武生		X	O	I	I
	Sabae	鯖江		X	O	I	I
	Fukui	福井		X	X	X	I
	Awara Onsen	芦原温泉		X	O	X	I
	Kaga Onsen	加賀温泉		X	O	X	I
	Komatsu	小松		X	O	X	I
	Matto	松任		O	O	I	I
	Kanazawa	金沢		X	X	X	X
			JR Nanao
	Unoke	宇野気		I	I	I	O
	Takamatsu	高松		I	I	I	O
	Hakui	羽咋		I	O	I	X
	Yoshikawa	良川		I	I	I	O
	Nanao	七尾		I	O	I	X
	Wakura-Onsen	和倉温泉		I	O	I	X

Legend
X: All trains stop at this station.
O: Some trains stop at this station.
I: No trains stop at this station.

Notable Stops

• Shin-Osaka: The economic and culinary centre of the Kansai region.
• Kyoto: Japan's history-laden former capital city.
• Nagoya: An economic centre with industrial and historical sites.
• Maibara: A good place to transfer to/from the Tokaido Shinkansen.
• Tsuruga: The future terminus of the Hokuriku Shinkansen.
• Fukui: The eponymous capital of Fukui Prefecture
• Kaga Onsen: A collection of hot-spring towns at the base of the sacred Mt. Haku.
• Komatsu: Close to the regional airport.
• Kanazawa: A historically-preserved city, famous for the Kenroku-en garden.
• Wakura Onsen: A hot-spring town and bus hub on the Noto Peninsula

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The Shirasagi, Thunderbird, and other such trains alternate between using 681-series and 683-series trainsets.  Train arrangements also vary, with services using sets of 3, 6, or 9 cars.  On Thunderbird services that go all the way to Wakura-Onsen, only cars 1 through 6 are used beyond Kanazawa.  In all cases, seats are laid out 2+2 across with 97cm (38 inches) of seat pitch in regular cars, and 2+1 and 116cm (45 inches) in the Green Car.

Service	Total Cars	Non-Reserved Cars	Reserved Cars	Green Cars
Shirasagi	6	2 (Cars #5-6)	3 (Cars #2-4)	1 (Car #1)
Thunderbird	6	3 (Cars #5-7)	5 (Cars #2-4, 8-9)	1 (Car #1)
	9	2 (Cars #5-6)	2 (Cars #5-6)
Dinostar	6	2 (Cars #5-6)	3 (Cars #2-4)	1 (Car #1)
Noto Kagaribi	6	2 (Cars #5-6)	3 (Cars #2-4)	1 (Car #1)
	3	2 (Cars #1-2)	1 (Car #3)	0

A 683-series Shirasagi train near Kurikara Station, on the former Hokuriku Main Line (currently the IR Ishikawa railway). Before 2015, these trains used to take this route to get to Toyama.
By Toshinori baba [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Tips

• Coming from Nagoya, it may be faster to take the Tokaido Shinkansen to Maibara, and transfer to a Shirasagi from there.  This can save up to half an hour of travel time, offers more frequent connections, and only costs about ¥200 (unreserved) to ¥700 (reserved) extra, if not using the Japan Rail Pass.  Only Kodama and some Hikari trains stop at Maibara.
• Thunderbird and Noto Kagaribi trains use the IR Ishikawa line, which is not normally covered by the Japan Rail Pass.  However, a special provision of the pass allows users to ride the section between Kanazawa and Tsubata, as used by those trains, for free.

Trivia

• The name "Shirasagi" (しらさぎ) means "white heron".  (Coinicidentally, this is also a common nickname of Himeji Castle.)  The Shirasagi train service was started in 1964.  Originally it went all the way to Toyama, but seems to have been truncated at Kanazawa with the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen.
• The "Thunderbird" (サンダーバード, Sandābādo) service was started in 1995, and was formerly named "Super Raicho" until 1997.
• The Thunderbird is a successor to the "Raicho" (雷鳥, raichō) limited express between Osaka and Toyama, in service from 1964 to 2011.  The name "Raicho" literally means "lightning/thunder bird", hence its modern name, but is also the Japanese name of the Rock ptarmigan, a bird which is common in the Hokuriku region.
• The name "Dinostar" (ダイノスター, Dainosutā) is a reference to Fukui Prefecture's association with dinosaurs.  Many dinosaur fossils have been found in the area, and the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, regarded as one of the best dinosaur museums in the world, is just over an hour east of downtown Fukui,
• The name "Noto Kagaribi" (能登かがり火, lit. "Noto bonfire") refers to bonfires lit during summer festivals on the Noto Peninsula.