Hyperdia.com icons question
 

Hyperdia.com has been quite useful to plan my itineraries in the past and hopefully so in the future. I do have a question, something I'm not completely sure I understand because of the lack of a legend or description of the icons they use on the site.

Once you type in the two stations you are interested in departing and arriving, one has the option of discriminating what modes of transport you want to use. If you un-click "Private Railway" and you get "No routes found" it must mean that your itinerary must contain private rail lines, your JR Pass will not come into play on a portion of your trip and you must pay for that portion not covered by Japan Rail. I get that, it's fairly straightforward. The part that's unclear to me is how much of the trip is not covered.

After a bit of research, I came to a possible way it's displayed. There is a train icon, either a tram-looking train or a shinkansen, on every distinct portion of the trip. The tram-looking icon can either be light green or light pink in color. From what I gather, the light green one is the JR train and the light pink one is the non-JR line trains. Am I correct in this assumption? Without a legend to explain what the symbols mean, I can only guess what they represent. Of course, the train icon is followed by the rail line name, such as: JR Ryomo Line, etc. But the pink ones only have the name, such as: Tobu Line Section Rapid. Is it these pink ones always the private railways that the JR Pass doesn't cover? It would surely help to calculate how much more one would have to pay to get there.

I do have an additional question about a specific rail line: the LTD. Express Kinugawa. Wikipedia describes this line as a limited express train services in Japan operated jointly by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Tobu Railway. I am unsure what this really means. Is this a train that is operated by JR East but since it runs on private railway lines, one must pay for the fare, or will the JR Pass be sufficient for the fare?

Thanks in advance!

Yes I think you are right. Green one is Japan Railway(JR) pink one is Private Railway.

The JR Pass website states that you will need to pay a separate fair between Kurihashi and Kinugawa Onsen, which appears to be 1,740 yen one way according to another website.

JAPAN RAIL PASS validity

It means that the train becomes operated by Tobu at the boundary.
example from Station A - Station B : the train is operated by JR East
then After Station B - Station C : the train is now operated by Tobu.

So if you have a JR Pass , it is only valid until Station B, you need to pay an extra charge from that point on.

To Answer your first question:
Yes, green ones are JR (as the line is always named JR as well) and the pink ones are Private (So in you example name the operator is Tobu).

Usually u can cover most trips with the JR pass, if you go from Tokyo to Sapporo on Local trains only (wich is did with the seishun 18 kippu) you will only need 640yen for a private line once. You can also use JR buses that operate smaller places, like in Tohoku from aomori to Lake Towada or similar.

Thanks all of you for your replies! I Have been made aware there is actually a legend for the icons on a page easily accessible from the Japanese side of the site, but not the English side. It does clear things up a bit for me.

It's funny you mention Lake Towada, of all places, as this is a place I got to know real well. I drove up the Oirase Gorge up to the lake countless times when I was stationed about 45 minutes away. It was one of my favorite places to get away from it all....