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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.

2 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Let's put things back into perspective by remi2402 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to sound too pedantic, Shinkansen started out far from 320km/h. In fact, the original "bullet trains" back in 1965 were limited to 210km/h (about 130mph y'all non metric folks). The mighty Penn RR had GG1s pulling trains from NYC to DC at 100mph around the same time. Back in (my beloved old) Europe, SNCF class BB 9200 electric locomotives were pulling 200 km/h (120mph) trains in 1967 on part of the way from Paris to Toulouse; in Germany, Class 110 were pulling express trains at speeds similar to that of the GG1s.

    Now, if anything should be remembered from JR of yesteryear was their bet against air and road traffic. It truly was against all odds that JR executives fought for proper rail infrastructure. For a completely new standard-gauge network, that did not exist. Unlike other countries, Japan's high speed standard-gauge network was built from scratch, with connections to the narrow-gauge network being done in the late 90's. This high-speed network has since then been upgraded to 320km/h operations over the past decades. Regardless of top speed, this is what Shinkansen should be remembered for: 20/20 hindsight.

    As a Frenchman proud the national TGV network, I tip my hat off the Japanese engineers and executives who envisioned and built the Shinkansen.

    1. Re:Let's put things back into perspective by Guspaz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes, how minor an accomplishment for a country still recovering from being destroyed in a devastating world war to produce trains in 1963 that were a mere 31% faster than the GG1. Shattering the speed record for actual passenger service is such an inconsequential accomplishment.

      The Shinkansen may not have held that record for long, but it's been on the forefront of high-speed rail ever since. And compared to the average speed of the fastest trains between Montreal and New York City in 2014 (around 50 kilometers per hour), it's blazing fast.