Sapporo to Hakodate

Hi, understand that Hakodate railway is closed currently due to the accident. Any idea when will it resume its operations?

I have booked my hotel on 19 Jul at Hakodate and needs to travel from Sapporo to Hakodate on 19 Jul. Pls advise what other means of transportation; costs + time.

Thanks.

Not railway closed
Just operation canceled all same LtdExp cars
between Sapporo and Hakodate/Wakkanai.

So Local train cars(not LtdExp) operate everyday but ride over 9hrs.

Highway bus(need booking) faster than local trains.
http://www.hokto.co.jp/b_hako.htm

No, the line is not closed! A fire broke out on one of the trains on July 7. As a result, all trains that are using the same engine type as the one that had the fire, are currently pulled out of service. This results in the cancellation of 4 out of 11 limited express round trips between Hakodate and Sapporo and one round trip between Sapporo and Wakkanai until further notice.

If you use one of the other 7 limited express trains, you will have no problem to travel from Sapporo to Hakodate. There is no need to take local trains or buses.

The following limited express trains are cancelled until further notice:

-Hokuto 4, 5, 8, 11, 14, 19, 20
-Super Hokuto 15
-Sarobetsu

Current situation in Japanese:
http://mobile.jrhokkaido.co.jp/webunkou/

Thanks.

So can I still travel from Sapporo to Hakodate using the other limited express train which takes about 4 hrs ride? How can I check on the train schedule and costs for this?

Here you go:
http://www.hyperdia.com/

The site above will also list the canceled trains. So, compare them with the list of cancelled trains that I gave you above.

Here is the day's entire list of connections:
http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi/en/intervaltime.html?dep_node=SAPPORO(JR)&...

This is obviously subject to change. So, I recommend to check once more closer to your travel date.

Based on http://www.hyperdia.com/ for 19 July, if I were to take the 7.30am train, it shows 223mins for Yen8,590. This is a direct train right?

Can I use the Hokkaido JR pass for this? Can I reserve seats also? Do I have to make advance reservations for the seats or on 19 July morning is ok? Understand they do not allow online reservations.

Opps sorry, I just checked the 2 websites again, the 7.30am and 9.19am is not operating.

But will they resume operations on 19 July? If no, then 7am train will be my choice.