Getting to Hiroshima by Train

Getting to Hiroshima by Train

Hiroshima is connected to the rest of the country by a network of rails which run from the Hiroshima Station. A number of trains run to Hiroshima carrying more than seventy thousand passengers each day.

Hiroshima is connected by both the local trains and the Shinkansen or bullet trains. The city is an important station on the Sanyo Shinkansen line. Both local and Shinkansen trains run from Hiroshima. The Shinkansen railway takes around 40 minutes to reach the city from Okayama and around 90 minutes from Shin-Osaka. The Shinkansen trains are so fast that they connect Hiroshima with Kyoto in less than an hour. The journey from Himaji is also barely an hour. The route via Nozomi takes 4 hours and the one via Hikari is a 5 hour journey, with a change of train at Shin-Osaka or Okayama. The route via Kodama is a longer one and can take another couple of hours extra to reach Hiroshima.

The overnight trains to Hiroshima include the Hayabusa sleeper trains which start from Tokyo at 6 in the morning, and reach Hiroshima in around twenty four hours. Another overnight train from Tokyo is the Sunrise Izumo/Seto train, which leaves at 10 in the night for Okayama from where the Sanyo Shinkansen trains reach Hiroshima the next day.

Hiroshima can also be reached by local trains. The train service is cheaper than the Shinkansen trains, though one has to compromise on speed when it comes to traveling by local trains.

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