Japan Tests New Bullet Train 539
dmolavi writes "
Japan's largest railway company began a test run for a new bullet train that it eventually aims to operate at a record-breaking 223 miles per hour -- faster than many propeller airplanes -- according to recent news reports.
"
Just a test release (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just a test release (Score:3, Funny)
I think that might cause crashes.
Re:Just a test release (Score:4, Insightful)
Aero braking can be combined with mechanical braking, which should produce a decent deceleration rate. But that still leaves the problems of derailments.
Re:Just a test release (Score:5, Informative)
Happened a few times on the TGV (unforeseen shock, some wheels of a wagon getting offtrack) and wasn't even noticed.
And yes, you need special tracks to run high speed, even though they're usually able to use regular tracks, they're just much slower using them.
Re:Earthquakes might have derailment potential... (Score:3, Funny)
Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technology (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the fact that Amtrak is supposed to compete against airplanes and that Amtrak is covering great distances, it should be using bullet trains exclusively.
Amtrak has been a money-losing operation since day #1. For some reason, the American politicians just cannot determine why Amtrak remains unprofitable. How can anyone be so ignorant that he cannot see the reason? No one wants to ride a train for 2 or 3 days when you can take an airplane for equivalent cost to the same destination in less than a day.
Does any American politician even know the phrase, "Japanese bullet train"? The answer to Amtrak's problems is staring the American government in the face, and no one is adovating the right solution. I almost think that the lobbyists for the commercial aviation industry (i.e. Boeing & Airbus) want to ensure that Amtrak is not allowed to use bullet trains.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Informative)
Besides, where is Amtrak going to get that money? They're struggling to maintain what they already have... What you're talking about is a HUGE investment.
The Acelas on the Northeast Corridor (one of the most important pieces of track Amtrak owns) were intended to provide higher-speed trains on conventional track by leaning into the turns. They generally do provide faster service when they're running, but of course the Acelas haven't been without their problems.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Insightful)
Same place we got the money for the war in Iraq. Why is it our government can invest in conquering another country half a world away, but when it comes to investing in some infrastructure here at home we just can't afford it?
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Insightful)
Look, even if Amtrak did have the billions and billions of dollars of funding it would need to replace tens of thousands of miles of track across the country to create bullet train-ready routes, it would still be wasted money.
The time it would take for a cross-country rail trip might decrease from 60 hours to 25 hours, but it still couldn't beat a 7-hour plane trip.
High-speed rail service makes a lot of sense in a lot of places, but most of the United States is not such a place.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyways, I feel the billion dollar bailouts [cnn.com] repeatedly handed over to the airlines deserve some mention here.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:4, Insightful)
I live on the West Coast, and could definately see people using high-speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, LA to San Francisco and/or Sacramento. SF to Portland & Seattle.
I've ridden on some high-speed rail lines in Germany, Swizerland & Austria, and I would be thrilled if we could get some similar service here in the States. The whole experience was efficient and relaxing. I buy a first-class ticket for $150, walk onto the train, find my reserved seat. The seats are comforatable, I have a ton of room to stretch out, I can get up and walk around at any time, and I have a great view from the large window. The staff are polite, the train is quiet and smooth.
For 8 Euros, I buy a beer, some delicious cooked pork and a candy bar for 8 Euros. My wife & I sit & relax for 5 hours on a trip from Vienna to Frankfurt. It takes less then 5 minutes to get off the train and get my luggage.
I recently flew from Oakland to Seattle & back. The whole experience was a stress-filled nightmare. I had to wait in line for 45 minutes so I could get a ticket from a computer terminal (there were 3 people in front of us). Then we wait another hour in the security line. The flight itself is only 1 hour, but you spend another another 45 minutes strapped to your seat take-off and landing.
I got a teeny bag of pretels & a small cup of orange juice. They sell Budweiser for $4. A can of "import beer" (Heineken) or a bottle wine costs $5.
The seat in front of me is 8 inches from my nose. The fluorescent light above us flickers for the whole flight. The staff yell at the passengers.
It takes 20 minutes to get off the plane, an an hour to get my luggage, all of which has been opened and inspected by Security.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Insightful)
Wake up and smell the stink in DC.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think that's the claim. The issue I personally have is that the Bush administration proposes spending $310 million to fund Iraq's rail system and $0 to fund the US's rail system. This does not seem a bit off to you? These priorities are not out of whack?
I cannot for the life of me recall a situation in which our government proposed funding an entire industry in one country while
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that depends on where you are. Out west, in Colorado, where I live there is a big interest in it. In 2003 voters approved a 4.7 Billion dollar initiative to extend the light-rail system well outside of the Denver area [rtd-denver.com]. Unfortunately it's going
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:4, Interesting)
I was going to say this same thing, but noticed that you did first.
I'm originally from Maine, though I now live primarily in New York City. Occasionally, I now take the train to Boston and then on the "Downeaster" route, but it took them years to run a train from Boston to Portland. There were a lot of reasons why this took a while, but I remember that one chief problem was that passenger trains needed to go a certain speed. Amtrak wanted the train to go over a hundred miles per hour, but it ended up going slower than that.
Amtrak doesn't own the tracks from Boston through Maine (or, apparently, anywhere else). They're owned by a commercial shipping company. The freight companies have absolutely no interest in upgrading their track to handle higher speeds. You can see why it's not in their best interest...you don't want a million tons of coal going 200 miles per hour, after all.
Anyway, I'm about as far from a socialist as you can get, but I think that internal transportation and communication networks are integral to the function of a country and ought to be publically owned, or that the government should step in and force the freight companies to upgrade track, or give up the track altogether. I'm one that would join in the chorus of not invading Iraq -- or not giving money and weapons to Israel -- and instead spending 30 billion dollars putting in mag-lev trains, starting on the West and East coasts, and working inward, much like we did in the 1800s.
The prospect of going from New York to Boston in two hours, or New York to Chicago in...say...6 hours...would appeal to me as an alternative to flying, especially when I factor in that it takes me an hour to get to any of my local airports from Manhattan, that I have to show up ridiculously early to go through security checks, and when I get there it takes another hour to get into the city I'm traveling to, whereas trains just go from city center to city center, and there's no reason to show up early.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Interesting)
fare to a $300 fair. (2) The plane ticket prices between those two cities on a friday/sunday are $100 round.
You're forgetting several things here:
1) Acela Express service is only one option on the route you're talking about - there are several others that Amtrak offers that cost significantly less. (Acela Regional, Metroliner, etc.)
2) Acela Express trains are one of the only profitable parts of Amtrak's business, so clearly the business model they've set upon for the train works... when the trains themselves work. This is why it was such a disaster when they had to pull them out of service - right now (well, not right now), these trains are subsidizing most of the NEC improvements that are going on.
The story of why these trains have been so unreliable is a long one, and is rooted in the same congress that has been trying to cut Amtrak's funding for so many years. Congress pressured Amtrak to have a North American-built train and it also refused to amend 19th-century era safety standards so that Amtrak could use similar technology to trains built elsewhere (Japan, Europe, etc.). The direct end result of this is the cracks in the brakes that led to Amtrak taking these trains out of service. The Acela Express trains are based on the TGV, but are about twice as heavy due to safety regs in this country - yet Bombardier/Alstom did not redesign the brake system to take this extra weight into account.
3. The reason why air fares are so low on the route you mention is because of pressure from Amtrak. Amtrak's NEC service (all kinds) is popular enough that it has actually taken riders away from airlines, and that has forced airlines both to use smaller planes and to reduce fares.
I really want amtrak to succeed but they either need to give the same subsidies that they do for roads and airports or just kill the thing off; because its too over specialized for people just doing dc/philly/ny in 1->2 hr hops.
Well, fortunately for Amtrak and its riders, the NEC is the last part of the system that would ever be "killed off".
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Interesting)
Years ago, the U.S. decided to pour infrastructure money into the interstate highway system, not rail lines. I'm ambivalent about whether or not that was the right choice. We all love to hate cars and trucks, and they are less efficient than trains, but building fenced lines with elevated crossings would be an astrono
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Insightful)
You won't know until you've tried Nozomi - the current fastest bullet train in Japan... in a luxurious-2-feet-of-room-in-front-of-you seat in a noise-free air-conditioned cabin where you can read, eat lunch, enjoy the view AND sip your beer all the while you are being taken where you want to go. In under 3 hours for most destinations.
Compare this to a 7-hour drive in peak bumper-to-bumper traffic on a 4th of July on interstate 91 going from DC to New York..
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Informative)
These tracks are not built to handle high-speed trains. Also, this shared use favors the freight trains; Amtrak trains have to move over if a freight train is coming. This means that if a freight train is leaving a station 1 hour ahead of the Amtrak's current position, and there's a pullover spot right there but no others for the rest of that 1 hour stretch, the Amtrak must get out of the way and wait for an hour at a dead stop, until the freig
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Insightful)
The Acela train is Amtrak's grasping attempt at high-speed rail. The fare is still too expensive: For instance, I can get a bus ticket from Boston to New York for $12, but, last time I checked, Acela was $80. If someone else is paying (i.e. it's a business trip) then it's more sensible to fly. Acela is stuck in a difficult middle-market.
Personally, I think that the problem with public transit in the US is that it interfaces poorly with the automotive system. Here in Boston, commuter lots at suburban train stations fill up quickly, and in many cases are quite expensive. They are also have security problems. Often, stations are in the middle of villages, where there is not the room for parking lot expansion and building a garage would adversly effect the character of the village. There needs to be more funding of vast garages built where high speed rail systems interface to the interstate highway system. The garages need to be inexpensive (no more than $5 a day), secure, 24 hour, and have sufficient bandwidth for rush hour. There should be a number of non-stop, high speed trains to/from the center of the city. These stations should also serve the interstate and local bus lines in the area, with shuttle buses to the outlying airports.
Train fare for such purposes should be at least partially tax-deductible. One should merely have to submit the yearly report from a transit authority account which would list the passes of various types purchased, or retain a collection of receipts for fares bought anonymously.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:5, Informative)
1) private companies built 100's of miles of track
2) New York set price limits to "keep the fare reasonable"
3) the companies go bankrupt
4) the city takes over the system
5) no major improvments for the next 50 years
6) people start paying much more for taxis and express busses so they can get to work
When the subway was private 26 major lines were built, since then practically nothing. The only thing they have left is advertisements bragging that their system is 100 years old. It's the same story for Amtrack.
Re:Another Thought: Amtrak & Japanese Technolo (Score:3, Insightful)
IMHO the important difference to the US is that in Japan the passenger companies own the tracks instead of the cargo companies; while JR is mostly private by now that's a relatively new development and definitely not the reason trains in Japan don't suck as much as in the US.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Only in Japan (Score:5, Funny)
Only in Japan would a train's noses look like manga characters!
Re:Only in Japan (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Only in Japan (Score:3, Funny)
You can see them better at:
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/57981.asp [todayonline.com]
Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:5, Insightful)
When I visited the US I noticed that there were almost no passenger trains. Indeed, I wish there were, because I far prefer trains to planes and driving.
_Continental_ Europe (Score:4, Informative)
Try getting around the UK by train. It's about the equivalent of Sri Lanka in that respect, only not as cheerful.
It's really France and Germany who are of just the right size for train travel and with lots of money to put into it (and, in Germany at least, an unwillingness to cover the entire country in tarmac as the UK is doing).
Re:_Continental_ Europe (Score:5, Funny)
Anyway, I think we should give tube drivers another raise. £60,000 just isn't enough to drive public transport 150 days a year. In fact, they need more holiday too. Won't somebody please think of their children? They only get two weeks off per month!
Re:_Continental_ Europe (Score:3, Informative)
Now, to be fair, London tube drivers only make about 30k GBP (50k USD) a year for their two weeks a month of work, and that's nothing to the amount of money made by contractors and the American shareholders who actually own most UK rail infrastructure.
But I take your point about cost -- my journeys can be 2 or 3 pounds per mile travelled (if and when I get there) and that's an area where Sri Lanka can't equal the UK. Rule Britannia!
Re:_Continental_ Europe (Score:2)
Re:_Continental_ Europe (Score:3, Funny)
Re:_Continental_ Europe (Score:3, Funny)
That said, train booze is far too expensive.
Re:_Continental_ Europe (Score:3, Insightful)
Back in reality-land, Germany has substantially more miles of road per capita than Britain: the UK's per-capita road density is about _HALF_ the EU average. They also have unlimited speed motorways in many places, unlike the crap 70mph motorways in the UK.
Transport infrastructure in the UK is an utter disaster, and another four years of anti-car NuLab is only going to make it worse. We're a 'first-world' n
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:2, Interesting)
OIL companies.
Heaven forbid if the oil companies ( exxonmobile,shell,BP, ect..) lost any money to trains. that would be a ctastrophe. people would actualy have another way to commute to work and not have to pay the exhorbanent gas prices at the pump. my god what a revolution that would be. Though all this can be summed up by one phrase
"capitalism good for the economy, bad for the person"
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:2, Informative)
Depends on where you live.
I live in NJ and trains cover a large portion of my area. On the Eastern coast of the US (particularly north east) there are a lot of rails you can take. Unfortunately I've rarely had to venture out West so I don't know much about that.
Case-in-point, Amtrack covers a lot of New York and new Jersey, and I use it whenever I h
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:2)
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:2)
There are some places that have a practical passenger train system, mostly subways and light rail systems inside a few of the very large cities. I used to ride a train to work in Philadelphia. It was rather slow (an hour by train vs. 35 minutes by car). The only thing which made it practical was the cost ($100 a month by train vs. $400 by car, after you consider tolls, gas, and par
Re:Trains like this are revolutionizing Europe. (Score:2)
Pff, big deal. I know people in Buffalo, NY who are able to work in Canada and it's only a 10 minute bike ride each way!
I have a dumb question (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:I have a dumb question (Score:3, Informative)
Far less pollution, lower cost, fuel efficiency.. (Score:4, Informative)
Not to mention REfueling (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I have a dumb question (Score:3, Informative)
In many places in the world, the infrastructure for trains is already in place. Tracks are laid, stations are ready, power lines are set up, railway crossings are set up, and so on.
OTOH airport facilities may not be available, and I'm guessing that in Japan the space required to construct new small-town airports would be fairly tough to find. This is probably why they prefer speeding up their trains. Air travel may not be easily possible at all.
Re:I have a dumb question (Score:3, Insightful)
When trains with speeds in the area of this new one is put into operation, you can easily extend that radius to 1000 miles and the train will win every time over a plane.
Re:I have a dumb question (Score:3, Informative)
More flexible scheduling in peak hours and seasons.
More security. France's TGV high speed train network has moved hundreds of millions of passengers since the early 80s and not a single person lost her life in an accident, even though trains went off track at full speed (180+ mph) on one or two occasions.
More comfort. No more going to and from remote airports. No more stripping for the security. No more waiting for boarding or for checking in
Re:I have a dumb question (Score:2)
Re:I have a dumb question (Score:2)
SUPERTRAAAIIIIIIIINNN!!!! (Score:2)
Trouble with the neighbors (Score:5, Funny)
Japan Tests New Bullet Train
Meanwhile, in other news...
North Korea Tests New Bullet
Bah, Blaine breaks the sound barrier (Score:2)
What a strange comparison (Score:3, Informative)
If, on the other hand, the submitter is comparing it to Turboprop commuter airplanes (to suggest that the train is faster then the plane you might otherwise use), then those typically have cruise speeds of 250-350mph, so...
Finally, I'm guessing we can appreciate the cruise speed on its own merits. There's probably no need to give the unladen speed of the next flying whatchamacality in 'mpa' (many propeller airplanes). "Ah yes, the Rotamo air car flies at 1.5mpa!" It'll be the new LoC measurement for speed.
Re:What a strange comparison (Score:4, Funny)
The problem is lack of standardization. While libraries of congress, football fields, elephants, and Rhode Island (in the US) are standard for information, distance, weight and large areas, there is no standard for speed.
I propose that an international standard system of junk-science measures be used, and that the measurement of speed be 'thicknesses of a human hair per thousandth of the time it takes to blink'.
Re:What a strange comparison (Score:2)
How many furlongs per fortnight does that come out to?
Re:What a strange comparison (Score:4, Funny)
Better suggestion (Score:3, Insightful)
air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow
Re:What a strange comparison (Score:4, Interesting)
Thickness of human hair: 20-40 micrometers
Time to blink: ~75 milliseconds
Thair/(1/1000)Tblink = ~0.5 meters/second
Oddly enough, that's almost exactly 1 mile per hour. Did you plan it that way?
It would be cool to see these in North America.... (Score:2)
You don't get much chance to ride on the ground at that speed. The price of the ticket probably going to cost similar to a plane ticket, but I will definite try it when I go to Tokyo.
The technical aspert certainly sound interesting too, I remember reading a japanese comic about a teenage who live in a neightbodhood that are ruinned by the noise of a bullet train. So from my understanding Japanese might not be too happy a
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Score:2, Informative)
Economic aside (Score:2)
While Japan Rail is indeed a ubiquitous state controlled company, the actual system is quite clever. Private enterprise is free to create rail lines on a route they think will be profitable, e.g. the toyoko-sen. Then, the government builds slow trains on the little routes that private enterprise doesn't want, to ensure that all areas are covered. Thus, everyone has rail service, and the most important routes are kept effective by competition. It also means that major factories and (in the past) stores c
Not that amazing (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not that amazing (Score:5, Informative)
more than 300km/h since 1981 (cruise speed)
515.3 km/h (320.2 mph) in 1990 (a record)
Wow, this is scary... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: cat ears (Score:3, Funny)
And those anime-girls seem to have no problems surviving 300-mph crashes, so, those cat-ears must work!
It's still Public Transportation (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe the Japanese, with their famously polite society can make this kind of thing work, but it's doomed here in America.
sigh
Japan's marvelous mass transit system (Score:2)
Don't like the transit people pushing people into the train during rush-hour in Japan, though. Sure it's efficient, but it's also extremely uncomfortabl
And they're going to run it slowly? (Score:4, Interesting)
A train that can do over 200 mph, and they're planning to run it just over 120 mph. Any ideas why? Are there lots of stops?
Re:And they're going to run it slowly? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's called efficiency. The engines or motors or whatever are probably only most efficient in certain lobes of speed [e.g. like a car at ~90km/h].
You'd be surprised [hopefully not] but driving a normal car at 150km for 30 mins will burn more fuel then a car at 75km for 60 mins. [well not always but your mpg goes way down].
The point is the train is probably rated to hit 200mph if they make it the least efficient thing in the world.
See also: Diminishing returns.
Tom
Re:And they're going to run it slowly? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is true, up to a point. On most consumer vehicles, this point is in the 60-70kph region. Beyond that, the increased drag overshadows any efficiency gains. So, to be perfectly efficient, one should drive at the speed ideal for your car and never stop at red lights or stop signs.
Re:And they're going to run it slowly? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's certainly one reason. Depending on the number of stops and the rate of acceleration this beast can handle, you're going to take a bite out of your average speed.
The big thing is whether or not the track can handle it. The train has to run much more slowly over curves, or else it crunches the passengers against the side of the coach...or just rolls sideways off the track.
faster than planes (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a few key reasons why they are so great:
1. Central terminals: trains tend to depart and arrive near the center of cities, while airports tend to be located outside the city. When I take the Eurostar train from London to Paris, I knock off 1/2 hour travel time at each end just because of the location.
2. No airports: flying in America (and to a lesser extent other places) is painful. You're asked to arrive a few hours early and treated like a criminal. I traveled in Japan on the bullet trains, and we had to arrive before the train left (they are famous for being on time) but that was it. No body cavity search, no x-rays, no checking in a few hours early. No only did I leave and arrive right in the middle of the respective cities (saving time) I did so according to the actual travel schedule, not according to some ridiculous security schedule.
3. Comfort: trains are the most comfortable way to travel. They are quieter than planes, roomier, have bigger windows and nice views (when flying I sometimes get a nice view out the window, but usually just see clouds or the dude sitting next to me), the air is normal pressure, you can walk around at any time, etc. You also have your luggage right there in the car with you so you can get to it at any time. A recent train ride I took from London to Edinburgh took half the time driving takes, each seat had power outlets, and there was WiFi access available as well as a full meal car.
4. Distances: when traveling in Europe and Japan, travel time isn't dominated as much by the distance. The end-to-end time is often better on trains when traveling between major cities (with good rail links). You arrive at the centrally located station a few minutes before the train leaves, enjoy a (relatively) comfortable ride, then step off at the other end with your bags (no waiting for baggage claim) and walk out into the center of your destination city. The timing may not work quite as well for New York to Los Angeles, but for London to Paris or Brussels, or for Los Angeles to San Francisco, a good train line makes a lot of sense.
- Russ
security checks for trains will come (Score:3, Interesting)
In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
Japanese mentality (Score:3, Interesting)
2004 Earthquakes and the cat ears (Score:3, Informative)
In short, JR dodged a disaster. They don't want to press their luck. If a train could rapidly decelerate, then perhaps the risk of a crash could be reduced.
Then again, maybe someone watched Totoro [wikipedia.org] once too many times.
But can it outrun Godzilla? (Score:5, Funny)
The train only needs to be fast enough to outrun Godzilla the next time he decides to stomp Tokyo. Of course, they'd need some kind of shielding to protect against his breath [sixtiescity.com] which they can't outrun. I don't think those really cute Hello Kitty ears [yimg.com] really help with aerodynamics.
Bullet Train aka Shinkansen (Score:5, Interesting)
It's still online....
I was on a platform, on the bullet line, one time, outside Tokyo, about 1/4 mile from a tunnel entrance/exit. The tracks leading to the station platform were canted so the train could bank into the turn. You could feel the ion change in the air that preceded the train as it exploded out of the tunnel and blasted past the platform...the locals had one hand on the newspaper and the other wrapped around the nearest pole to counter the terrific buffering as the 1,000 seat wonder blew past. Inside, there are LCDs showing live telemetry - it's very hard to tell how fast you're really moving, since the ride is so smooth and quiet.
I saw a video on TV one time, showing how they run field tests of various sorts...one segment showed a technician putting on an old leather flying helmet and goggles. He climbed a small ladder and slid open a hatch in the roof and stuck his head out...while the train was hurtling along at full speed in the dark of night.
The trains shut down automatically if a quake threatens...they have to keep the lines a significant distance from buildings and roads, so when one of them goes down, it takes a portable bridge crew to get to them. They clean ice off the boggies with high-pressure steam cleaners mounted on bridges when the weather turns cold. Color cameras are mounted everywhere, so that the crew and central control can do visual checks at will.
When the bullets pull into Tokyo Station, the stews inside are just like on a 747, with a replacement crew lined up along the platform, waiting for shift change. All neat as a pin. The 'pilots' are dressed just like commercial airline staff, and draw huge crowds, with autograph seekers and train groupies galore. I had my photo taken with one, and he even let me wear his hat
They have a mini-shinkansen that goes up into the mountains for weekend ski trips that is the best looking...all smoked glass and dark gun-metal gray, with green pinstripes. The mega-shinkansen is a double-decker design, that looks a bit ungainly, yet it still manages speeds high enough to match domestic airline travel times.
You have to ride on one of these beasts to appreciate them.
223 Mph? Pah. Try 310 mph. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm from the UK... (Score:3, Funny)
Fast Steam Locos (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:how fast (Score:5, Informative)
Cat ears brakes. Hmmm.... (Score:3, Funny)
=^_^=
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:5, Informative)
They are also much cheaper than flying and rail stations tend to be right downtown.
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:5, Informative)
On top of this, boarding is a lot lot faster (no need to be there 1 hour before departure).
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:2)
As far as I know, flying on a commercial jet was always safer than any other type of public transportation.
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:2)
And it's much less dangerous, you can't even compare bullet train danger with planes danger (one of the factor being that if the engines fail the tain just stops...)
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:2)
Not really, considering how cheap air travel has become. But consider the following advantages:
- This train can make a few stops along the way; something rather impractical for an aircraft. You can even have it pick up passengers at a few stations in the same town, then accelerate to the top speed for the long haul.
- You can board the train right in town (or even in a choice of towns, see previous point). Compare that to airports that usual
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, aircraft tend to be more fragile to onboard attacks. However trains have tracks which can't easily be monito
Re:Why are the japanese so intrested in bullet tra (Score:4, Insightful)
In contrast, most of the high-speed train track is well away from populated areas. The passengers are at risk if something goes wrong, but no one else is (excluding disasters with chemical freight trains). And if you happen to be in a train which crashes at high speed, your chances of survival are still better than a crashing airplane.
Re:Why does Amtrak suck so bad? (Score:2)
If Amtrak had more riders, or if the cities were closer together (ie, Detroit to chicago on a fast train would still be over 2 hours) then they would have reason to do fast trains.
Maintaining 300 miles of high speed rail is a very expensive proposition, and the volume just isn't there to support the price people are willing to pay.
It's also a catch-22 type problem. We won't get the passengers until the railway is faster, and the railway isn't goin
RTFA (Score:2)
Re:Miles?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why don't we have trains like this in US? (Score:3, Interesting)
The passenger train system (the Key System / Key Route) was successful but somewhat limited as the East Bay area spread out away from SF/Oakland. It was discontinued in 1958. General Motors (surprise, surprise) obtained 64% of the stock of the company which ran the