Limited Express Sōya

One return working a day to Japan’s northernmost station: five hours up the Sōya Main Line to Wakkanai, in sight of Sakhalin on a clear day.

Stations

1. 0 kmSapporo +4
2. 41 kmIwamizawa +2
3. 58 kmBibai +2
4. 76 kmSunagawa +2
5. 84 kmTakikawa +2
6. 107 kmFukagawa +2
7. Show 6 more stations

   1. 137 kmAsahikawa +2
   2. 173 kmWassamu
   3. 191 kmShibetsu
   4. 213 kmNayoro
   5. 235 kmBifuka
   6. 266 kmOtoineppu
8. 298 kmTeshio-Nakagawa
9. 335 kmHoronobe
10. 352 kmToyotomi
11. 392 kmMinami-Wakkanai
12. 394 kmWakkanai

The stations the Wikipedia article lists as this train’s stops, in order along the line as drawn here, with the distance along it. A train may skip some of them. A +N after a station: N other routes on this map stop or end there, and the map draws it as a station where lines meet.

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from 2 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 1821359 (135 km), relation 1827909 (252 km) — 387 km of the route between them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 7 m from it
• The operator publishes this line's timetable: JR Hokkaido — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Limited Express Sōya?

The Limited Express Sōya runs 396 km from Sapporo to Wakkanai.

How long does the Limited Express Sōya take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 5 h 10 min for the 396 km. That is an average of 77 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 120 km/h.

Who runs the Limited Express Sōya?

JR Hokkaido, with KiHa 261 DMU.

How old is the Limited Express Sōya?

The line has been in service since 1922. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

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