 From 3 December 1994, "Soyokaze" was down-graded to become an occasional service run between Ueno and Nagano, and was phased out before the opening of the Nagano Shinkansen.Seasonal "Salon Express Soyokaze" services operated between 28 April 1984 and 5 May 1988 using the "Salon Express Tokyo" Joyful Train locomotive-hauled trainset.On 30 and 31 August 2003, JR East operated a special "Soyokaze" service between Ueno and using 189 series EMUs.