Posted on Monday May 3rd by Melissa Lafsky | 2,173
Nothing drives home the state of your home nation’s infrastructure quite like examining another country’s. A few weeks ago, we spent a week riding the Shinkansen around Japan to get a sense of exactly how high speed rail works in one of the most modern, comprehensive, and highly-trafficked systems in the world. With over 40 years in operation, and over 7 billion-passengers served, how is the Shinkansen experience, from the moment you step on the platform to the time you reach your destination? Here is an overview of what we discovered.
Click on the photo below to begin our Shinkansen photo gallery.
May 3rd, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I was enamored with my trip on the shinkansen as well; the feeling of freedom was amazing, anywhere in Japan in no more than half a day.
However the appeal wears of greatly when you don’t have a JR Pass. The Shinkansen is awesome but expensive. Add up how expensive your rail tickets would have been without the pass and your jaw will drop.
I still would much prefer bullet train service in the US to flying; but neither is it a cost free system. It’s in a mid zone between expensive flights and cheap mass transit.
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:18 pm
A rail pass guarantees travelers an assigned seat in a specific car, similar to air travel seat assignments.
How does this work? Don’t you need a separate reservation?
May 4th, 2010 at 2:17 am
skiddiem it’s anything like the amtrak rail pass, or the european rail passes, you must reserve and select a seat before boarding on certain trains, but theres no additional cost.
May 4th, 2010 at 6:59 am
You only need to make reservations if you want to be guaranteed a seat, and even then, it’s only possible for trains that offer reserved seats (such as express and some rapid trains). For local trains or unreserved seats, you don’t need any reservation–you just show your pass to a station attendant and they wave you in.
May 4th, 2010 at 7:08 am
In a repeat post for reference, here are some YouTube links of Shinkansen and other high speed rail operations. Notable among the Japanese videos are the cab shots showing the Japanese “motormen” at work (these are MU trains, so I use the transit term), including following several safety procedures, among them “calling” signals, as we put it in the US. This is a routine safety proceedure, and goes back into the 19th century in Britaint and the US, and no doubt in Japan as well; the Japanese take it a step further, in which the motoman points to his indicators or cab signals. But if he is the only one in the cab (in contrast to engineer and fireman in steam days, and engineer and conductor on modern American freight trains), who is he calling out to? Is there a voice and/or video recorder in the Japanese cab? And how about that traditional pocket watch as a time-keeping device? I don’t know what this one is, but the standard for American railroad watches (traditionally Hamiltons and Elgins) used to be a minimum 17-jewel movement and a variation time of no more than three seconds per month. . .we used to know how to do things. . .
First a retrospective, with development footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfhTW2VHmFQ&feature=PlayList&p=CE05393561BF79E8&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1
The translation from Japanese to English leaves something to be desired, but we get to see some cab footage with the safety proceedures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF1HhJM7EkM&feature=related
Female runner on the Shinkansen–and she’s cute! (Huff, huff, huff–bad joke!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HUoIcTEL04
Footage of the track and wire diagnostic trainset, named “Dr. Yellow;” the Japanese film crew had fun with the soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABnoEnafGD4
French TGV test set for record speed run; the smooth track is the greatest impression for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw4zn-qw1oM&feature=related
Japanse maglev demonstrator–curious, it sounds like a regular train, including what sounds like rail joint noise in the last sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUVD1rSFpEA&feature=related
I’d like to know why there is such a big deal about rail friction; at the speeds involved, air resistance is the big power sponge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuSrLvCVoVk&feature=related
TGV cab footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih3-2v3FA_M&feature=related
The French engineers looked a little more nervous while setting a record in 1990:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amjxckm148U&feature=related
Enjoy.
May 4th, 2010 at 8:55 am
[...] wondering what it would be like to have access to such a service. Here, take a look at the high speed rail experience in Japan. The Japanese system has been operated for over forty years and served over 7 billion [...]
May 6th, 2010 at 12:14 am
I like those descriptions a lot.
Do you have any impressions of the commuter rail network in Tokyo?