Tokaido Shinkansen

Shin-Kan-Sen" means "New Trunk Line"




The Tokaido Shinkansen is a high-speed railway running roughly 515 km from Tokyo, the nation's capital, to Osaka, Japan's second largest metropolis. The Tokaido Line became unable to cope with continually growing passenger and freight demands, and a far-reaching solution was found by constructing an entirely separate, high-speed line. Boasting new technical and service standards, the line was completed in 1964 by Japanese National Railways (JNR) in time for the
Tokyo Olympics. 

The Shinkansen quickly became famous as the world's first train to routinely
travel over 200 km/h. Background to development of the Tokaido Shinkansen
Japan's first railway opened in 1872. Technical support for construction was provided by Britain at the request of the Japanese government. The narrow (1,067 mm) gauge was chosen. Cheaper to construct, it was selected because much of Japan's topography is rugged and steep, and in those days there was no need for a high-capacity transportation system. The narrow gauge became the standard for Japan, and remains so to this day. But as the network expanded, it became evident that the narrow tracks restricted carrying capacity and limited speed. This led to
vigorous calls in the 1910s to reconstruct the track as broad gauge, but with the country facing financial difficulties the priority continued to be on developing new lines, and reconstruction did not occur.


During the first half of the 1940s, against a backdrop of growing military requirements, plans were drawn up for a "Bullet Train" that would travel at a maximum speed of 200 km/h on broad gauge track from Tokyo to Shimonoseki. The plans actually led to some action. Some land was acquired and a few tunnels were drilled, but then construction was suspended as war conditions became more severe.

After World War II, as economies grew rapidly in many parts of the world, motor vehicles and aircraft became so common that trains were seen as outdated. But that was not the case in mid-1950s Japan, where the most important trunk line, the Tokaido Line, had reached full capacity. The "Bullet Train Plan" promoted before the war formed the basis for new proposals, this time for the Tokaido Shinkansen, a train that would link Tokyo with Osaka in three hours, travelling more than 200 km/h.

The foundation for this concept was already in place: long-distance trains powered by a distributed traction system, AC electrification, advances in computerized train control, and rolling stock that even used aircraft technologies developed since before the war. Planners saw that by combining all of these existing developments they could create a new, high-speed railway system.

Technological progress (Tokaido Shinkansen) 1964


The new system, to be called "Shinkansen," would be quite different from the narrow gauge, double-track Tokaido Line. It would be constructed as a completely separate system for high speed, on standard-gauge track. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in 1959. Construction proceeded at a pace so rapid that the first trains began carrying passengers about five years later. That was on October 1, 1964, just in time for the Tokyo Olympics' opening ceremony. The date marked an important milestone in Japanese history.


The Tokaido Shinkansen initially had a maximum speed of 210 km/h, permitting travel between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka in 3 hours 10 minutes. 
(For about the first year the provisional schedule allowed for 4 hours.) 


Each trainset had 12 cars. "Hikari" trains offered faster services with fewer station
stops, while "Kodama" stopped at all stations. The World's Fair came to Osaka in 1970, and this led to an increase in train length from 12 to 16 cars the same year. During the Fair, the new railway system amply demonstrated its ability to handle the many visitors, and proved its value to the Japanese people and the world at large. The advent of Shinkansen opened up new horizons for the future of rail travel, and its success has greatly influenced the development of high-speed railways in other countries.

Advances in rolling stock and maximum speed

The next step was to extend the line further west. When the Sanyo Shinkansen opened, passengers could travel beyond Shin-Osaka, and the two high-speed lines, Tokaido and Sanyo, formed a single unit as far as the schedule was concerned. The same remains true today.
The world's first high-speed trains with double-decker cars began running in 1986. Series 100 trains had some private compartments and upgraded seats for extra comfort and convenience. 

Maximum speed was raised to 220 km/h when the series was launched, reducing travel time between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka to 2 hours 56 minutes, down from 3 hours 10 minutes.




Speed became a matter of even greater interest around the time JNR was
broken up and privatized. Expectations for faster speeds were spurred by
advances in rolling stock technologies, noise and vibration countermeasures,
and high-speed rail in Europe. JR Central, which assumed management of
the Tokaido Shinkansen, pushed ahead with the development of more
advanced high-speed rolling stock. 

One result was the 1992 debut of the Series 300, capable of a maximum speed of 270 km/h. The new trains, named "Nozomi", cut travel time between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka to 2 hours 30 minutes. 

Today, "Nozomi" plays an important role in the schedule, and many "Nozomi" trains offer through services to the Sanyo Shinkansen Line. New, more advanced types of rolling stock have often been brought on line.

Today, the Series N700 (introduced in 2007) and the N700A (an upgraded
version of the N700) are the main workhorses on the line, supplemented by
previous-generation Series 700. All trainsets have 16 cars, three of them
being "Green Cars" for first-class travel, the rest ordinary cars. One trainset
seats 1,323 passengers.

Beginning in 2015, maximum speed on Tokaido Shinkansen track was raised
to 285 km/h. This cut Tokyo/Shin-Osaka travel time to as little as 2 hours 22
minutes. Up to 15 trains run per hour, and daily ridership is about 430,000.