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Many westerners having never been to Japan and experienced the Shinkansen first hand
have a somewhat slanted view of the technology: they get fascinated by the high speeds
(“seduced by technological wonder”) and think these trains are super-special
and that there are not very many of them.
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Here's a Super Express on the Tokaido
Shinkansen that connects Tokyo with Osaka. When service started in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics,
the 550 kilometre journey took four hours, thirty minutes, for an average speed of
120 kilometres per hour. Since then, train speeds and track systems have
steadily improved such that Tokyo to Osaka today takes just two hours, thirty minutes,
for an average speed of 220 kilometres per hour.
As I have written in another context, the miracle of the Shinkansen is not the high speeds
(although that is pretty amazing in its own way). The real
miracle of the Shinkansen is the schedules. On the Tokaido
line there are 150 of these “Super Express” trains every day
in both directions. To put that in perspective, a
240 kilometre per hour train leaves Tokyo for Osaka (and vice versa)
every eight minutes on average. At certain times, trains are clustered, with arrival and
departure times only three or four minutes apart. Last time a punctuality survey was made,
average deviation from published schedule was just six seconds.
On one of our recent trips in Japan, we took the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo.
We booked our trip on the Nozomi (Dream),
versus the (slightly) slower Hikari
(Flash).
While waiting on the platform I made casual observations of the immediate schedule.
On the up line to Tokyo, there was a Shinkansen departure at
12:43pm, 12:46pm, 12:49pm, 13:00pm, 13:06pm (our train), 13:09pm, 13:15pm, and 13:35pm. Now
that's a train service.
Of the sixteen carriages seating ninety passengers apiece on our train, fourteen of the carriages
were reserved seating only . . .
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