 |
||
|
Cutting-edge Technology that Combines High-Speed
Performance and Low Environmental Impact
 The 500 Series {Shinkansen}, the latest version of the bullet trains developed by West Japan Railway Company, started services with one round trip a day between Shin-osaka and Hakata in March 1997. In November that year, the operation was expanded to a practical level: the service distance was extended to connect between Tokyo and Hakata and the number of runs was increased. The 500 Series has attained the world's fastest operating speed of 300 km/h (186 mph), which equals the TGV of France, and it travels between Tokyo and Hakata in four hours and fifty minutes, 15 minutes shorter than the previous 300 Series does. It also recorded the fastest average operating speed between two stations, and thus edged ahead of the TGV in this ranking.  Indispensable to contemporary society, high-speed railways offer seemingly incompatible benefits; high-speed performance and friendliness to people and the environment. This is the design concept of the 500 Series Bullet Trains. The train body with a long nose and a circular cross-sectional shape offers higher aerodynamic performance and less noise. Many other designs were newly devised to reduce environmental impacts along the railway and to increase passenger comfort: for example, wing-shaped pantographs make much less noise than traditionally-shaped ones, and brazed aluminum honeycomb panels for the wall and floor sections of the car body help reduce the noise in cabins because the material has low sound transmissivity. Photos: The 500 Series Bullet Train (West Japan Railway Company). Unauthorized reproduction of the
photos in this page is prohibited.
Related Links: |
|
