Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Shinkansen shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Shinkansen offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Shinkansen at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Shinkansen? Wrong! If the Shinkansen is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Shinkansen then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Shinkansen? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Shinkansen and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Shinkansen wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Shinkansen then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Shinkansen site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Shinkansen, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Shinkansen, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.





The is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by Japan Railways. Since the initial Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened in 1964 running at 210 km/h (130 mph), the network (2,459 km or 1,528 miles) has expanded to link most major cities on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū with running speeds of up to 300 km/h (188 mph), in an earthquake and typhoon prone environment. Test run speeds have been 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a Land speed record for railed vehicles of 581 km/h (361 mph) for Maglev train trainsets, in 2003.

Shinkansen literally means "New Trunk Line" and hence strictly speaking refers only to the tracks, while the trains themselves are officially referred to as ; however, this distinction is rarely made even in Japan. In contrast to older lines, Shinkansen are standard gauge, and use tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles, rather than around them.

History

Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high speed travel. Because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of narrow gauge railways lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds. Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high speed lines than countries where the existing standard gauge or broad gauge rail system had more upgrade potential.

Early proposals The popular English name bullet train is a literal translation of the Japanese term dangan ressha (), a nickname given to the project while it was initially being discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck due to the Shinkansen locomotive's resemblance to a bullet and its high speed.

The "Shinkansen" name was first formally used in 1940 for a proposed standard gauge passenger/freight line between Tokyo and Shimonoseki, using steam and electric locomotives with a top speed of 200 km/h. Over the next three years, the Ministry of Railways drew up more ambitious plans to extend the line to Beijing (through a tunnel to Korea) and even Singapore, and build connections to the Trans-Siberian Railway and other trunk lines in Asia. These plans were abandoned in 1943, as Japan's position in World War II worsened. However, some construction did commence on the line; several tunnels on the present-day Shinkansen date to the war-era project.

In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its Romancecar 3000 SE service, setting a world speed record of (145 km/h) for a narrow gauge train. The first Shinkansen, the 0 Series, gave designers confidence and built on the success of the Romancecar.

Construction Following the end of World War II, high speed rail was forgotten for several years. By the mid-1950s, the Tōkaidō Main Line was operating at full capacity, and the Ministry of Railways decided to revisit the Shinkansen project. Government approval came in 1958, and construction of the first segment of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in 1959. Much of the construction was financed by a US$80 million loan from the World Bank. A testing facility for rolling stock, now part of the line, opened in Odawara in 1962.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened on October 11964, in time for the 1964 Summer Olympics. It was an immediate success, reaching the 100 million passenger mark in less than three years on July 131967 and one billion passengers in 1976. Sixteen-car trains were introduced for Expo '70 in Osaka.

The 0 Series Shinkansen ran at speeds of up to 210 km/h (130 mph), later increased to 220 km/h (135 mph). Some of these trains, with their classic bullet-nosed appearance, are still in use, and a driving car from one of them is now in the British National Railway Museum in York.

Network expansion This early success prompted an extension of the first line westward to Hiroshima and Fukuoka, Fukuoka (the Sanyo Shinkansen), and was completed in 1975.

Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was an ardent supporter, and his government proposed an extensive network paralleling most existing trunk lines. Two new lines, the Tohoku Shinkansen and Joetsu Shinkansen, were built following this plan. Many other planned lines were delayed or scrapped entirely as the national railway went further into debt, largely due to the high costs of building the Shinkansen network. By the early 1980s, Japan National Railways was practically insolvent, leading to privatization in 1987.

Despite this, development of the Shinkansen continued. Several new models of train followed the first, generally each with its own distinctive appearance. Shinkansen trains now run regularly at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph), putting them among the fastest trains running in the world, along with the French TGV Eurostar Thalys, South Korean KTX, Italian Treno Alta Velocità, Spanish AVE, and German InterCityExpress trains.

Since 1970, development has also been underway for the Chuo Shinkansen, a maglev train planned to run from Tokyo to Osaka. On December 22003, the 3-car maglev trainset JR-Maglev reached a Land speed record for railed vehicles of 581 km/h (361 mph).

In 2003, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average arrival time was within six seconds of the scheduled time. This includes all natural and human accidents and errors and is calculated from all of about 160,000 trips Shinkansen made. The previous record was from 1997 and was 18 seconds. Japan celebrated 40 years of high speed rail in 2004, with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line alone having carried 4.16 billion passengers. According to Japanrail.com, the website for companies that operate Shinkansen, the network has carried over 6 billion passengers.

Safety record During the Shinkansen's 40-odd year, 6 billion passenger history, there have been no passenger fatalities due to derailments or collisions (including earthquakes and typhoons). Injuries and a single fatality have been caused by doors closing on passengers or their belongings; attendants are employed at platforms to prevent this.

There have been suicides by passengers jumping both from and in front of moving trains.

The only derailment of a Shinkansen train in passenger service occurred during the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake on October 23, 2004. Eight of ten cars of the Toki No. 325 train on the Joetsu Shinkansen derailed near Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka, Niigata, Niigata Prefecture. There were no casualties among the 154 passengers. In the event of an earthquake, an earthquake detection system can bring the train to a stop very quickly. Experimental Fastech 360 trains have ear-like air resistance braking flaps to assist emergency stops at high speeds.

Future Noise pollution concerns mean that increasing speed is becoming more difficult. Current research is primarily aimed at reducing operational noise, particularly the "tunnel boom" phenomenon caused when trains exit tunnels at high speed.

JR East has announced that new trains capable of up to 320 km/h are to be introduced coinciding with the opening of the Tohoku Shinkansen extension from Hachinohe to Shin-Aomori in early 2011. Extensive trials using the Fastech 360 test trains has shown that operation at 360 km/h is not currently feasible due to problems of noise pollution, overhead wire wear, and braking distances. This may indicate the limits to railed Shinkansen technology, and eventually maglev or another technology will need to replace it. Operation at speeds of up to 320 km/h between Utsunomiya and Shin-Aomori is expected to allow journey times of around 3 hours for trains from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori (a distance of approximately 675 km).

The Kyūshū Shinkansen from Kagoshima to Yatsushiro opened in March 2004. Three more extensions are planned for opening by 2010: Hakata-Yatsushiro, Hachinohe-Aomori, Aomori, and by 2014: Nagano-Kanazawa, and 2015: Aomori-Hakodate (through the Seikan Tunnel). There are also long-term plans to extend the network, Hokkaidō Shinkansen from Hakodate to Sapporo, Kyūshū Shinkansen to Nagasaki, as well as to complete a link from Kanazawa back to Osaka, although none of these are likely to be completed by 2020. Also, the CEO of JR Central announced plans to have the Maglev train Chuo Shinkansen operating Tokyo-Nagoya in 1 hr (366 km) by 2025.

The Narita Shinkansen project to connect Tokyo to Narita International Airport, initiated in the 1970s but halted in 1983 after landowner protests, has been officially cancelled and removed from the Basic Plan governing Shinkansen construction. Parts of its planned right-of-way will be utilized by the Narita Rapid Railway link when it opens in 2010. Although the NRR will use standard-gauge track, it will not be built to Shinkansen specifications and it would not be feasible to convert it into a full Shinkansen line.

List of Shinkansen lines
Lines in yellow: Operated by Central Japan Railway Company
Lines in blue: Operated by West Japan Railway Company
Lines in red: Operated by Kyūshū Railway Company
Lines in gray: Planned

The main Shinkansen lines are:



Two further lines, known as Mini-Shinkansen (), have also been constructed by upgrading existing sections of line:



There are two standard gauge not technically classified as Shinkansen lines but with Shinkansen services:



Future lines Many Shinkansen lines were proposed during the boom of the early 1970s but have yet to be constructed. These are called Seibi Shinkansen () or "planned Shinkansen." One of these lines, the Narita Shinkansen to Narita International Airport, has been officially cancelled, but a few remain under development.



Shinkansen technology outside Japan Railways using Shinkansen technology are not limited to those in Japan.



List of Shinkansen train models with Shinkansen and Sakura trees in the foreground in June 2006. S experimental trainTrains can be up to sixteen cars long. With each car measuring 25 m (82 ft) in length, the longest trains are 400 m (1/4 mile) from front to back. Stations are similarly long to accommodate these trains.





List of types of Shinkansen services to Takamatsu Station is coupled with a Shinkansen surcharge ticket from Tokyo to Okayama Station, allowing use of the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Okayama and use of local lines from Okayama to Takamatsu. For trips exclusively on one Shinkansen, the ordinary fare and Shinkansen surcharge may be combined on one ticket.Originally intended to carry passenger and freight trains by day and night, the Shinkansen lines carry only passenger trains. The system shuts down between midnight and 06:00 every day for maintenance. The few overnight trains that still run in Japan run on the old narrow gauge network that the Shinkansen parallels.

Speed records {| class="wikitable"|-! km/h (mph) !! Train !! Location !! Date !! Comments|-|| 200 (124.3) || 1000 Type Shinkansen || Odawara, Kanagawa test track, now part of Tōkaidō Shinkansen ] 1962 ] 1963 ] for Electric multiple unit trains.|-|| 286 (177.7) || 951 Type Shinkansen || Sanyō Shinkansen ] 1972 ] test track, now part of Tōhoku Shinkansen ] 1979 ] 1991 || [30 October 1992 ] 1993 ] 1996 ] 1996 |||}

Further reading

See also

External links





The is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by Japan Railways. Since the initial Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened in 1964 running at 210 km/h (130 mph), the network (2,459 km or 1,528 miles) has expanded to link most major cities on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū with running speeds of up to 300 km/h (188 mph), in an earthquake and typhoon prone environment. Test run speeds have been 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a Land speed record for railed vehicles of 581 km/h (361 mph) for Maglev train trainsets, in 2003.

Shinkansen literally means "New Trunk Line" and hence strictly speaking refers only to the tracks, while the trains themselves are officially referred to as ; however, this distinction is rarely made even in Japan. In contrast to older lines, Shinkansen are standard gauge, and use tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles, rather than around them.

History

Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high speed travel. Because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of narrow gauge railways lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds. Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high speed lines than countries where the existing standard gauge or broad gauge rail system had more upgrade potential.

Early proposals The popular English name bullet train is a literal translation of the Japanese term dangan ressha (), a nickname given to the project while it was initially being discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck due to the Shinkansen locomotive's resemblance to a bullet and its high speed.

The "Shinkansen" name was first formally used in 1940 for a proposed standard gauge passenger/freight line between Tokyo and Shimonoseki, using steam and electric locomotives with a top speed of 200 km/h. Over the next three years, the Ministry of Railways drew up more ambitious plans to extend the line to Beijing (through a tunnel to Korea) and even Singapore, and build connections to the Trans-Siberian Railway and other trunk lines in Asia. These plans were abandoned in 1943, as Japan's position in World War II worsened. However, some construction did commence on the line; several tunnels on the present-day Shinkansen date to the war-era project.

In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its Romancecar 3000 SE service, setting a world speed record of (145 km/h) for a narrow gauge train. The first Shinkansen, the 0 Series, gave designers confidence and built on the success of the Romancecar.

Construction Following the end of World War II, high speed rail was forgotten for several years. By the mid-1950s, the Tōkaidō Main Line was operating at full capacity, and the Ministry of Railways decided to revisit the Shinkansen project. Government approval came in 1958, and construction of the first segment of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in 1959. Much of the construction was financed by a US$80 million loan from the World Bank. A testing facility for rolling stock, now part of the line, opened in Odawara in 1962.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened on October 11964, in time for the 1964 Summer Olympics. It was an immediate success, reaching the 100 million passenger mark in less than three years on July 131967 and one billion passengers in 1976. Sixteen-car trains were introduced for Expo '70 in Osaka.

The 0 Series Shinkansen ran at speeds of up to 210 km/h (130 mph), later increased to 220 km/h (135 mph). Some of these trains, with their classic bullet-nosed appearance, are still in use, and a driving car from one of them is now in the British National Railway Museum in York.

Network expansion This early success prompted an extension of the first line westward to Hiroshima and Fukuoka, Fukuoka (the Sanyo Shinkansen), and was completed in 1975.

Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was an ardent supporter, and his government proposed an extensive network paralleling most existing trunk lines. Two new lines, the Tohoku Shinkansen and Joetsu Shinkansen, were built following this plan. Many other planned lines were delayed or scrapped entirely as the national railway went further into debt, largely due to the high costs of building the Shinkansen network. By the early 1980s, Japan National Railways was practically insolvent, leading to privatization in 1987.

Despite this, development of the Shinkansen continued. Several new models of train followed the first, generally each with its own distinctive appearance. Shinkansen trains now run regularly at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph), putting them among the fastest trains running in the world, along with the French TGV Eurostar Thalys, South Korean KTX, Italian Treno Alta Velocità, Spanish AVE, and German InterCityExpress trains.

Since 1970, development has also been underway for the Chuo Shinkansen, a maglev train planned to run from Tokyo to Osaka. On December 22003, the 3-car maglev trainset JR-Maglev reached a Land speed record for railed vehicles of 581 km/h (361 mph).

In 2003, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average arrival time was within six seconds of the scheduled time. This includes all natural and human accidents and errors and is calculated from all of about 160,000 trips Shinkansen made. The previous record was from 1997 and was 18 seconds. Japan celebrated 40 years of high speed rail in 2004, with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line alone having carried 4.16 billion passengers. According to Japanrail.com, the website for companies that operate Shinkansen, the network has carried over 6 billion passengers.

Safety record During the Shinkansen's 40-odd year, 6 billion passenger history, there have been no passenger fatalities due to derailments or collisions (including earthquakes and typhoons). Injuries and a single fatality have been caused by doors closing on passengers or their belongings; attendants are employed at platforms to prevent this.

There have been suicides by passengers jumping both from and in front of moving trains.

The only derailment of a Shinkansen train in passenger service occurred during the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake on October 23, 2004. Eight of ten cars of the Toki No. 325 train on the Joetsu Shinkansen derailed near Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka, Niigata, Niigata Prefecture. There were no casualties among the 154 passengers. In the event of an earthquake, an earthquake detection system can bring the train to a stop very quickly. Experimental Fastech 360 trains have ear-like air resistance braking flaps to assist emergency stops at high speeds.

Future Noise pollution concerns mean that increasing speed is becoming more difficult. Current research is primarily aimed at reducing operational noise, particularly the "tunnel boom" phenomenon caused when trains exit tunnels at high speed.

JR East has announced that new trains capable of up to 320 km/h are to be introduced coinciding with the opening of the Tohoku Shinkansen extension from Hachinohe to Shin-Aomori in early 2011. Extensive trials using the Fastech 360 test trains has shown that operation at 360 km/h is not currently feasible due to problems of noise pollution, overhead wire wear, and braking distances. This may indicate the limits to railed Shinkansen technology, and eventually maglev or another technology will need to replace it. Operation at speeds of up to 320 km/h between Utsunomiya and Shin-Aomori is expected to allow journey times of around 3 hours for trains from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori (a distance of approximately 675 km).

The Kyūshū Shinkansen from Kagoshima to Yatsushiro opened in March 2004. Three more extensions are planned for opening by 2010: Hakata-Yatsushiro, Hachinohe-Aomori, Aomori, and by 2014: Nagano-Kanazawa, and 2015: Aomori-Hakodate (through the Seikan Tunnel). There are also long-term plans to extend the network, Hokkaidō Shinkansen from Hakodate to Sapporo, Kyūshū Shinkansen to Nagasaki, as well as to complete a link from Kanazawa back to Osaka, although none of these are likely to be completed by 2020. Also, the CEO of JR Central announced plans to have the Maglev train Chuo Shinkansen operating Tokyo-Nagoya in 1 hr (366 km) by 2025.

The Narita Shinkansen project to connect Tokyo to Narita International Airport, initiated in the 1970s but halted in 1983 after landowner protests, has been officially cancelled and removed from the Basic Plan governing Shinkansen construction. Parts of its planned right-of-way will be utilized by the Narita Rapid Railway link when it opens in 2010. Although the NRR will use standard-gauge track, it will not be built to Shinkansen specifications and it would not be feasible to convert it into a full Shinkansen line.

List of Shinkansen lines
Lines in yellow: Operated by Central Japan Railway Company
Lines in blue: Operated by West Japan Railway Company
Lines in red: Operated by Kyūshū Railway Company
Lines in gray: Planned

The main Shinkansen lines are:



Two further lines, known as Mini-Shinkansen (), have also been constructed by upgrading existing sections of line:



There are two standard gauge not technically classified as Shinkansen lines but with Shinkansen services:



Future lines Many Shinkansen lines were proposed during the boom of the early 1970s but have yet to be constructed. These are called Seibi Shinkansen () or "planned Shinkansen." One of these lines, the Narita Shinkansen to Narita International Airport, has been officially cancelled, but a few remain under development.



Shinkansen technology outside Japan Railways using Shinkansen technology are not limited to those in Japan.



List of Shinkansen train models with Shinkansen and Sakura trees in the foreground in June 2006. S experimental trainTrains can be up to sixteen cars long. With each car measuring 25 m (82 ft) in length, the longest trains are 400 m (1/4 mile) from front to back. Stations are similarly long to accommodate these trains.





List of types of Shinkansen services to Takamatsu Station is coupled with a Shinkansen surcharge ticket from Tokyo to Okayama Station, allowing use of the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Okayama and use of local lines from Okayama to Takamatsu. For trips exclusively on one Shinkansen, the ordinary fare and Shinkansen surcharge may be combined on one ticket.Originally intended to carry passenger and freight trains by day and night, the Shinkansen lines carry only passenger trains. The system shuts down between midnight and 06:00 every day for maintenance. The few overnight trains that still run in Japan run on the old narrow gauge network that the Shinkansen parallels.

Speed records {| class="wikitable"|-! km/h (mph) !! Train !! Location !! Date !! Comments|-|| 200 (124.3) || 1000 Type Shinkansen || Odawara, Kanagawa test track, now part of Tōkaidō Shinkansen ] 1962 ] 1963 ] for Electric multiple unit trains.|-|| 286 (177.7) || 951 Type Shinkansen || Sanyō Shinkansen ] 1972 ] test track, now part of Tōhoku Shinkansen ] 1979 ] 1991 || [30 October 1992 ] 1993 ] 1996 ] 1996 |||}

Further reading

See also

External links



Shinkansen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shinkansen (新幹線, Shinkansen?) is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by four Japan Railways Group companies. Since the initial Tōkaidō Shinkansen ...

The shinkansen Collection : shinkansen
shinkansen. shinkansen general archive site pre 2000 (constructed in-house in 1996) and incorporating the Connectivity Online Forum (built in 1997 for a network of live and digital ...

operated by JR Central Railway Technology
News and project information on the Shinkansen High Speed 'Bullet Train' operated by JR Central, Japan

shinkansen
This website is part of the Shinkansen Collection : 1989 – 2004 Shinkansen Collection Portal

N700 Shinkansen Railway Technology
The new N700 Shinkansen will be used on the Tokaido Shinkansen – the very first high-speed line in Japan – increasing the maximum speed from 270km/h (168.5mph) to 300km/h ...

Japan Railways Group - Shinkansen (Bullet Train)
Shinkansen is a high-speed rail system that serves as the core of Japan's rail transportation network. Each line has its own name (Tokaido, Tohoku etc.), and each type of train is ...

NRM | Online Exhibitions | Shinkansen 'Bullet Train' exhibition
Shinkansen 'Bullet Train' exhibition Shinkansen story. The Shinkansen Line opened from Tokyo to Osaka in 1964 operating with 12-car trains and initially running at a then ...

NRM | Online Exhibitions | Shinkansen 'Bullet Train' exhibition
Shinkansen 'Bullet Train' exhibition Introduction. A major new permanent exhibition has been launched at the National Railway Museum to showcase the world famous Japanese 'Bullet ...

The shinkansen Collection : 1989 - 2004
The shinkansen Collection promotes the unique artistic legacy of shinkansen, a collaborative unit renowned for its innovative and pioneering work in sound and movement ...

Sarah Records and Shinkansen Recordings
Shinkansen Recordings Official Home Page ... SARAH RECORDS AND SHINKANSEN RECORDINGS. The Official Website. THESE PAGES WERE LAST UPDATED IN AUGUST 2008

 

Shinkansen



 
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