The track for the examination Odawara KAMOMIYA.SHINKANSEN

In 1962, JNR built a track for examination of the Shinkansen near Ayase-shi, Kanagawa. The base of the vehicles was built in Odawara KAMOMIYA. The track for examination was installed here for the following reason.

For the DANGAN-TRAIN plan, JNR had already purchased the lot here. Since there was a situation of various tracks, such as an iron bridge and a tunnel, experimental data collection was easy for JNR.
Near KAMOMIYA, since the main Tokaido line was adjoined, JNR were able to easily carry vehicles and materials. It is near to the technical research center of the railroad of Tokyo.
However, there was one big oversight. This is a warm place and it hardly snows here. There is only one place of heavy snowfall in the course of the Tokaido Shinkansen which is near the border between Shiga and Gifu Prefectures. It is called Sekigahara and is a famous, old battlefield in the history of Japan. It is a heavy snowfall area and although the distance was short, failure of Tokaido Shinkansen occurred frequently here. This was an unexpected failure.

The gravel under a track rebounds on the ice which has fallen from the body of the Shinkansen. It flies and bounds and destroys the apparatus under the body. However, if it is watered by a sprinkler, the ground supporting a track will become soft. The Tokaido Shinkansen operates slowly during the winter.

you may think that you are a joke

I think that it is an accident showing the problem which Japanese society has, although this is a guess. We Japanese consider automatically that a railroad is exact and natural. Even the young Japanese are educated in this accuracy. Therefore, people make a complaint if a train is overdue by just several minutes. A foreigner will be heard jesting about the following. If a train is several minutes behind, a conductor will announce an apology to the passengers in the car. Information is already displayed on the guidance display board of the station.
If a train is behind enough, a station employee will receive a complaint from a passenger. It will be reported on the television news if a train is 30 minutes behind, and the station is already heavily congested and gets confused.
A passenger will become irritated and get angry. If a train is 1 hour behind, it will be reported to a national newspaper. It is top news.
Generally, the news with the images of many passengers' faces of anger are shown. This is a fact although you may think that it is a joke. Present Japan is faced with an aging society. Japan may be unable to maintain such a delicate and precise society. As for the railroad of Japan, this accuracy is maintained by many railroad workers' efforts. However, a railroad of Japan is the structure of scarce equipment of a margin from the outset.

9:19 a.m. on April 25, 2005.FUKUCHIYAMA Line

The accuracy of the railroads of Japan is Japanese culture.
In fact, this is not only a good thing. For example, the houses in Japan are small and narrow and the cities are overcrowded. The price of land is also very expensive. That is, there is no margin for the equipment of a station or a track. If the time of one train is overdue, it will fall into wild confusion.
Therefore, operation of the railroads of Japan need to operate correctly.
This is what Japanese society can say generally. Japanese society is a very nervous society. It is too delicate. A symbolic accident was a derailment rollover accident of a train on the Fukuchiyama Line in Hyogo Prefecture in 2005. It was a tragic accident at 9:19 a.m. on April 25, 2005. The local train of the Fukuchiyama Line was derailed with the curve between Tsukaguchi Station and Amagasaki Station. Two cars at the head of the train crashed into an apartment building at the side of the track. The train which caused this accident was exceeding the speed limit. When a train is delayed, Japanese railroad companies receive many complaints from the passengers. The delayed driver received severe instruction from the railroad company. Therefore, the driver of the train, which was behind, was cornered mentally. However, the driver passed away, and 107 people were killed in this big accident.

Do you execute a driver in Japan?

Foreign countries only include delays of 15 minutes or more in their delay statistics. That is, operation of the scheduled time in Japan is a delay of less than 1 minute in statistics, whereas operation of the foreign scheduled time is a delay of less than 15 minutes in statistics. For example, statistics of the inter city in Britain in 1997 are provided by the British parliament. The operating efficiency of the scheduled time was 88.2%. However, the delays of less than 10 minutes are not included in the statistics at all. This is an important point. Statistics of the sleeping cars of Scotland have included delays of 30 minutes or more. Which means that one of eight sleeper trains in Scotland will be late by 30 minutes or more.
A group of inspectors of the railroads of Germany famous for exact operation made a joke about trains in Japan. They said, "If a train is behind, do you execute the driver in Japan?" I am proud of the correctness in operation of Japanese trains. However, in fact, it is not necessarily a desirable thing. A foreigner will think how such a thing is possible. If you want to know Japanese culture and society, you should investigate a railroad of Japan. A railroad of Japan is just a miniature of Japanese society. A railroad of Japan is not simply exact. It has the tense social situation which must be operated strictly.

little delay of a Japanese train.

It is surprising that there are little delays of Japanese trains. Foreigners who visit Japan are surprised the most as they think that it is an exaggeration until it they actually see it. Also, foreigners are generally surprised if if they go to Shinjuku Station and Tokyo Station in the morning rush hour. It is crazy. I cannot believe this. Therefore, Shinjuku Station and Tokyo Station are the foreigner's sightseeing spots in the mornings. It is the cultural scenery of Japan purer than Kyoto. I introduce these statistics. The question is reasonable. There are a number of statistics for 1999. The largest Japanese railroad company is JR East Japan. This manages the railroads of Tokyo, which is the capital, and also manages the TOHOKU, JOETI, and NAGANO Shinkansen. The average delay of one of all these Shinkansen is 0.3 minute. The average of the delay of the railroads of the other trains is 1 minute. 97% of all trains of the Shinkansen are driven at the scheduled time. 87% of other railroads are operated at the scheduled time. When you see statistics here, please fully consider the following point. The operation of the scheduled time of Japan is less than 1 minute delay. By statistics of Japan, all the delays of 1 minute or more are recorded as a delay.

The strong of Shinkansen is not in speed.

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.

It is 0.3 or less minute.

The number of users of the Tokaido Shinkansen as per the data in March, 2007, is 398,000 persons per day. This is the total number of users per day.
In 2007, there were 145 million users of Tokaido Shinkansen in one year.
The number of the trains per day was about 300. The Shinkansen is in operation from 6 o'clock in the morning to 11 o'clock at night. The freight trains do not run at all.
People from most foreign countries are surprised at this. However, there is some more surprising data. It is the average delay of the Shinkansen.
The average delay is 0.3 of a minute per train. There are only three homes of the Shinkansen at the terminal Tokyo Station. There are six tracks. The 300 Tokaido Shinkansen trains are correctly operated with equipment of the tracks like this every day. Furthermore, although this is a very important thing, statistics of delays of a Japanese train are very strict. All delays of 1 minute or more are included in the statistics. In foreign statistics, only the delays of 15 minutes or more are included. Japan is a country with many typhoon, snow and earthquakes which are all included in statistics. However, it is still 0.3 or less of a minute.