Test runs started Monday for trains to be used on a new section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line that will reach Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, according to East Japan Railway Co. and West Japan Railway Co.

JR East and JR West will continue testing the new E7 series and W7 series trains as well as checking track and station facilities on the line's extended section — between the city of Nagano and Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture — until just before services on the section open to the public on March 14.

The test runs will include training for about 220 drivers and conductors, the operators said.

The trains will make as many as 25 daily round trips between Nagano and midpoint Joetsu-Myoko in Niigata Prefecture, and as many as 14 daily round trips between Joetsu-Myoko and a depot in Hakusan, near Kanazawa.

The fastest express train on the line, the Kagayaki, will connect Tokyo and Kanazawa in two hours and 28 minutes, with other trains on the line including the Hakutaka, Tsurugi and Asama.

No problems were found during earlier tests carried out by the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency, which built the tracks and related facilities.