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Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Trains Celebrate 50th Anniversary

Posted by samzenpus on from the greased-lightning dept.

AmiMoJo writes Japan's Shinkansen bullet-train has marked its 50th anniversary. The first Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka debuted on October 1st, 1964, ahead of the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Since then, the Shinkansen has run about 2 billion kilometers, or the equivalent of 50,000 times around the earth. It has carried about 5.6 billion passengers. The latest series to enter operation, the E5, operates at 320km/h.

1 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Punctuality. by crazyvas · · Score: 5, Informative

    One thing that has always impressed me about the Shinkansen is its near obscene punctuality:

    Quote from http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Shi... :
    The Shinkansen is very reliable thanks to several factors, including its near-total separation from slower traffic. In 2012, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average delay from schedule per train was 36 seconds. This includes delays due to uncontrollable causes, such as natural disasters.[14] The record, in 1997, was 18 seconds.