Built to connect Tokyo and Niigata and to promote regional development the Jōetsu Shinkansen seems to have been the brainchild of Niigata-born Prime Minister Tanaka, who allegedly drew his proposed route on a map in red pencil.
Tanaka's preferred option ran all the way into Tokyo, terminating at Shinjuku, but economic forced the railway authorities into a line branching off the existing Tōhoku Shinkansen at Ōmiya. Services began in November 1982.
JR East operates two categories of train on the line: the faster Toki and double-decker Max Toki services run between Tokyo and Niigata while the slower all-station Tanigawa and double-decker Max Tanigawa only travel as far Echigo-Yuzawa, with a winter only branch line to the nearby ski resort of Gala-Yuzawa.
Stations: Ueno; Ōmiya; Kumagaya; Honjō-Waseda; Takasaki; Jōmō-Kōgen; Echigo-Yuzawa; Urasa; Nagaoka; Tsubame-Sanjō; Niigata
Route details and maps: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/routemaps/joetsushinkansen.html