Skip to main content

THE BULLET TRAIN

Japan had the first bullet train more than 60 years ago.  It was 10October1964, when the opening ceremony was held in Tokyo in anticipation of Japan's first-ever Olympic Games, which began that day.

  • The Shinkansen, meaning new mainline, with a separate track, arrived when normal train traffic had reached the limit for carrying passengers and freight.  
  • A train trip between Osaka and Tokyo dropped from 6 hours and 40 minutes to 4 hours, shortened to 3 hours and 10 minutes by 1964, and is now 2 hours and 30 minutes.  From the Shin-Osaka Station to the Shin-Yokohama Station only takes a little more than 2 hours.
  • In 1964 the track was 320 miles long.  Today, it's up to 1484 miles.  The original itinerary incorporating Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka now carries 159 million passengers/year.  In this 6 decade period, more than 10 billion passengers have been safely handled.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT NOT ONE PASSENGER HAS YET BEEN KILLED IN A DERAILMENT, COLLISION OR TRAIN ACCIDENT?
  • The Shinkansen has maximum speeds from 160-200 MPH.  Faster speeds are not deemed feasible because of noise pollution.
  • Trains are up to 16 cars long and they all run on time, with exceptions, like typhoon, snowstorm, earthquake or other circumstances.
  • Traveling by the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka produces only around 16% the carbon dioxide equivalent journey by car.
  • There are three classes:
    • Second class
    • First class, or Green Car
    • Gran class, with more premium services
  • The system shuts down between midnight and 6AM for maintenance.
  • The Tohoku line was expanded to Shin-Hakodate in 2016, and will in 2039 reach Sapporo
  • Current plans are to begin using maglev trains with speeds up to 310 MPH around 2034, if noise and other problems can be overcome.
  • In 2011, the Chinese high-speed railway network passed Japan with 370 million passengers/year.
    • All Chinese high-speed trains use Japanese technology.
    • China now leads the world in high-speed rail use with two-thirds of the world networks.
    • The Shanghai maglev (magnetic levitation) train uses German technology and is the only one currently in operation with a top speed of 268 MPH.  Commenced service in 2001. I rode it a couple times, and the noise, especially outside the train, was horrendous.  However, because of that problem, the speed since 2021 has been reduced to 186 MPH.  While noise pollution and electromagnetic radiation remain problems, what is holding this technology back is said to be cost.
    • According to a report in the People's Railway Post in January, average seat occupancy is 70% and second-class fares range from $US 0.045 per km on 200-250km/h routes to $US 0.077 on higher-speed lines. This is three to four times the fare charged on conventional express trains but lower than or comparable with discounted air fares and, at the lower end, similar to intercity bus fares. By international standards Chinese high-speed fares are extremely low, being around a quarter to a fifth of the typical ticket price in other countries.
  • India could be using Japanese Shinkansen trains by 2029.
  • France, Italy and Germany helped pioneer the bullet train in Europe from the late 1970s.
    • The Trans-European high-speed rail network is a goal of the European Union.
    • Italy had their first bullet train in 1977 at 160 MPH, with now 834 track miles and a top speed of 186 MPH.
    • France was next in 1981 with their TGV service, now up to 1740 miles.
    • Germany introduced high-speed service in 1991, and now has 1030 miles of track.
    • The Channel Tunnel was completed in 1994, and now takes slightly less than 2 hours between London and Paris/Brussels.  The maximum speed is only 99 MPH.
    • As of 2025, Spain operates the largest system at 2469 miles, trailing only China.
    • The major high-speed trains can go up to 198 MPH.
  • Does the U.S. have high-speed trains?  Yes.
    • The most common international definition of high-speed rail travel begins at 155 MPH.  However, some consider 124 MPH on older lines good enough.
Prior to departure for our bullet train ride, had breakfast at our hotel.
Caught the Midosuji metro to Shin-Osaka.  Looked around for our train bento.  Borrowed beer from the Marriott.  Videos of our Nozomi Shinkansen arriving and leaving, with a quick seat view of the ouside.
The bullet train arrived a few minutes late, so by the time we boarded and barely got to our seat, the doors closed and our Nozomi left Shin-Osaka.  My lunch.
We sat on the left side of the Shinkansen, but clouds blocked the view of Mount Fuji.  Got from Shin-Osaka to Shin-Yokohama in 2 hours 8 minutes.  This is photo of what we could have seen.
We had a confusing, but ultimately, expeditious and cheaper connection to Yokohama Station.  
  • Somehow, we got on the wrong JR train, which terminated after a few stops.  
  • So we got off and looked lost.  Some nice man noticed our dilemma and suggested that we catch the next train on the other side of the platform, and get off at Yokohama Station.  
  • We did, and after arriving at the exit gate, showed the attendant our Shinkansen ticket, he kept that ticket and waved us through.  We never had to use our Suica card for the transfer from Shin-Yokohama Station to Yokohama Station.  We might have found a loophole in the system. Asked him about the direction to the Sheraton Yokohama Bay, and he pointed in a certain direction.  
  • After a couple of minutes, we were lost again, but saw an Information Desk sign pointing one escalator floor up.  We did so, but could not find that desk.
  • However, I looked up, and there was the Sheraton.  Took a convenient elevator one floor up and crossed the bridge to our hotel.
Checked in and they gave us a terrific room, on the 26th floor, with view of Mount Fuji, and two doors away from the Club Lounge.  It was still cloudy, so no Mount Fuji...yet.  However, the suitcases we sent the previous day using Minato luggage forwarding service, were sitting in our room.
It was around 5:30PM when the lounge opened for food/drinks, so we walked a few feet to get in,.
There was a ramen bar too.  They change ramens daily.
We spent 4.5 hours in the lounge.  Several ramens and drinks later, we carefully walked back to our room.  Slept well and went down to the Compass Restaurant, famous for its Kanagawa buffet breakfast.  
Had two courses.  First, another ramen with a Japanese version of Hawaiian poke.
Then a more traditional Japanese breakfast with rice, miso soup, natto, cubes of raw tuna, tofu, pork tonkatsu, pork with miso, two eggs over easy and assorted Japanese pickles.
Today, we rest.
-

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...
Post a Comment
Read more

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases.  Very few are aware that a new one,   BA.4.6,  is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples .  However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6.  Here is a  reference  as to what this means.  A series of two injections is involved.  Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab  co-packaged with  cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on  subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...
Post a Comment
Read more

IS FLORIDA AGAIN THREATENED BY A MEGA TSUNAMI FROM LA PALMA?

 From the morning  New York Times : Here is a graph comparing average daily COVID-19 deaths/100,000 people, and the USA is doing something really wrong: The difference between our country and Europe is that we have flubbed the availability of cheap and ubiquitous at-home RAPID testing.  They have covered this base. There are two obvious problems: The FDA is much too bureaucratic about quickly approving anything related to this pandemic, including testing. We seem stuck with the test that takes one to several days to get your result. The good news is that the Biden administration has finally realized this problem and through executive order hope to soon flood the market with take home testing that at first will be subsidized to make it affordable. Now, on to getting everyone vaccinated, especially 5-11 years olds ( and we are close to getting to making this happen ), the undereducated and Republicans.  What to do about the latter two? The other concern is whether we a...
Post a Comment
Read more