Japanese Shinkansen pictures

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The blue stripe on the side of the train is just for decoration. If you see the digital display on the side of the train, you can kinda see the background to be yellow (not very clear in the photo due to the color rendering being off, but pretty clear in real life).

It also has the display that says のぞみ which is no-zo-mi in Hiragana characters. My Hiragana reading skill is decent - have no clue with Kanji though.. :)

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The bullet train runs on dedicated tracks. No sharing with any other train. Even the platforms are dedicated to the bullet trains. The tracks are banked for high speed operation. Usually, the tracks are laid out to be as straight as possible with lots of tunnels, since curves tend to slow trains down. Compare that with most US railroad operations where tracks are owned by freight operators and passenger trains always have to yield right of way to freight traffic. That's no way to run a passenger railroad line.

The other key to Japanese train system is the multi-modal interconnectedness of their transportation system. Airports tend to have train stations at a lower level. You can also change easily from a long distance train to a local train to a subway system almost seamlessly as they are usually co-located with tunnels or passageways connecting them. It is a most civilized way to travel. I am so jealous every time I visit Japan.

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Case in point - a couple of days ago, I decided to visit Miyajima island that has some Shinto shrines and is designated a UNESCO world heritage site. I just walked into the train station at Shin-Osaka and took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. I had 7 minutes to catch a local train from the time my shinkansen arrived at Hiroshima station to when a local train departed to Miyajimaguchi which is the location closest to Miyajima island on the main island of Honshu. 7 minutes is plenty of time to switch from one platform to another when train arrives EXACTLY at 10:31 when the timetable says it should arrive at 10:31.

My local train took me to Miyajimaguchi in about 20 minutes and then I walked over to the ferry terminal (5 minute walk) and was on Miyajima island in another 10-15 minutes after that. Piece of cake....

The key is having a well thought out transportation model and the political and societal will to put the infrastructure into place.

[Turbo3000]

Case in point - a couple of days ago, I decided to visit Miyajima island that has some Shinto shrines and is designated a UNESCO world heritage site. I just walked into the train station at Shin-Osaka and took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. I had 7 minutes to catch a local train from the time my shinkansen arrived at Hiroshima station to when a local train departed to Miyajimaguchi which is the location closest to Miyajima island on the main island of Honshu. 7 minutes is plenty of time to switch from one platform to another when train arrives EXACTLY at 10:31 when the timetable says it should arrive at 10:31.

My local train took me to Miyajimaguchi in about 20 minutes and then I walked over to the ferry terminal (5 minute walk) and was on Miyajima island in another 10-15 minutes after that. Piece of cake....

The key is having a well thought out transportation model and the political and societal will to put the infrastructure into place.

Sounds wonderful.

Our train system is the pits.

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there is word that a maglev may be installed here in georgia for transit from chattanooga to atlanta.. who knows could happen but i doubt it, but it has been in our local papers often.