In fact, the wonderful strong point of the Shinkansen is not its speed.
Now, Britain, the U.S., and Vietnam are considering a plan for a new rapid transit railway. The governor of California, in the U.S., test-rode the Shinkansen the other day and commented on how quick and quiet it was.
However, this is looking at only the surface. A level of maintenance of the tracks or vehicles is required otherwise damage could easily be caused to the Shinkansen. These are maintained every day, after the Shinkansen starts business. The failure of it decreases remarkably. It appears in the height of safety. It turns out that this is expensive difficult technology. That is, a rapid transit railway should be estimated by the collective strength. In order to only gather a high speed with a test temporarily, the rapid transit railway would not exist.
Since the first operation of the Tokaido Shinkansen, about 40 years have passed and a passenger's death accident has not occurred at all. This is true for other Shinkansen also. The Shinkansen runs safely and correctly today, and also at high speed.
Japanese people can use a train instead of a clock. Reliability is important for a means of transportation with public responsibility. The chief engineer HIDEO SHIMA left the following message. I do not use new technology for the Shinkansen. I use only the technology which has a track record in the Shinkansen. However, I will use improvable technology for the Shinkansen in the future.
Takeshi. Interesting. I hadn't thought about how much maintenance would be required. The first thing that came to mind was that .. IF .. we acquired a high-speed train the maintenance needs to be a main focus even before the route is surveyed.
ReplyDeleteOne thing. The title of this post is "The Strong of Shinkanses is not in speed". In English the word Strong would change to Strength here where Strength is "the quality or state of being strong" .. so it would be .. "The Strength of Shinkansen is not in speed"