Central Japan Railway, known for operating the Tokaido shinkansen (bullet trains) are discontinuing the food carts and only those who ride the first-class “Green Cars” will be able to order food and beverages through their smnartphone devices starting on November 1st.
Food carts in a train is wonderful and quite often my way of getting my Meiji Almonds during a length train trip.
But due to waning demand and shortage of workers, this was enough to discontinue food carts for Nozomi and Hikari Shinkansen at the end of October.
Of course, people can order bento boxes on the store platforms and vendors will be expanding their lineup for people to purchase. Central Japan Railways will also make sure that vending machine platforms will be selling ice cream and coffee (the two most popular items sold) but to be honest, I typically stop by a kombini and pick up things to eat and drink for a long trip on the shinkansen.
But while it’s sad to see food carts go, it was inevitable and to be perfectly honest, since the pandemic, things are just not back to the way they were.
