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[tunnie]

Just got back from Japan, used the bullet train to get from Tokyo to Kyoto. To set the scene, we arrived at Tokyo's Bullet Train station at just before 7PM on a Sunday evening, after going to Sumo Wrestling.

I asked for 3 tickets to Kyoto (all seats are reserved unless you want smoking cars) i was told:

Terribly sorry, the 7:00PM train is full, could you possibly wait for the 7:10? That has a few seats spare but no Window seats

I asked when the one after that was, as we would like Window seats, 7:20 was the the reply, I asked to book them, but she was confused that we wanted that train, it seamed odd to her we were willing to wait 20 minutes!

Turns out there are 6 trains per hour on a Sunday!!

We got the standard 700 Type going out:



You have to stand at the specific section your carriage stops at, as the trains stop for just a few seconds...





There are displays above each door



They are 15 coaches long as standard....



What i found odd, for 15 coaches, and 190mph top speed, it only has 2 pantographs?



On the way back we got their newer type N700, which has same top end but accelerates faster, and tilts for corners so it can maintain 180 mph cruise speed.

The acceleration is something else, type N which is kinder to the environment, gets to 180mph in just 3 minutes. Using iPhones GPS (ok not the most reliable) but both of us recorded us reaching 100mph within 60 seconds of leaving the station!

We had to slow to 140 due to monsoon type rain, but after that cleared i felt being pushed back into the seat as he put his food down again to get back to cruise speed, corning was interesting too!

Newer type N...



All seats face direction of travel, and automatically rotate when direction is reversed, but if your travelling as a group you can switch seats yourself which is nice....



All the trains were super clean, bathrooms spotless, leg room was business class on jets, even i could fully stretch out, and seats could recline too.

At cruise speed was very quite and stable, really shows how rubbish our railways are!

Slightly older type N300:



This was the airport express, this was a bit of a slug, only did 100mph...



Leg room was as ample as bullet trains:



These ones had colour screens which showed GPS position of the train on the route, and occasionally showed cab view 





Even the 'old' 700 series which are less than 10 years old are being replaced with N700's - Makes you wonder why we still run heavy diesels from the 70's which take an age to get up to speed, diesel is like steam, Electric is the way forward!

[Martin_1962]

You can get a a lot of power through a pantograph!

Pur railways are not htat bad, I think we are 3rd or 4th in hte high speed world - trains do do 186mph in the UK

[tunnie]

You can get a a lot of power through a pantograph!

Pur railways are not htat bad, I think we are 3rd or 4th in hte high speed world - trains do do 186mph in the UK

But only on one line, and half rolling stock has been removed, wrest of it is crap

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Fantastic pictures Tunnie of another railway world!

Now if this country had properly invested in our railway system which had been at one stage the most advanced in the world..................................!!!!!!!!!!!

But of course we had an anti-railway establishment, with a very short sited outlook, and a penny pinching view point when decisions needed to be made!!!

It makes me so angry; so much lost opportunity

But Tunnie you have seen the best Japan has to offer, and no wonder we are now buying train sets built by Hitachi

[Dishevelled Den]

Splendid photographs - very enjoyable viewing 8-)

[cem_devecioglu]

wow.. excellent pictures Tunnie..

and the reason she was surpised is for Japanese people 20 minutes is a long time

but imo explains their working standards and they are really different :-/

and I'm afraid their industry levels will go sky high with this kind of work..

[alfie]

I want to go on one of those,Please!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I want to go on one of those,Please!

The Eurostar is the closest to it Alfie, from St.Pancras to Europe at 186 mph

[jonnycool]

Excellent and very interesting post Tunnie, our raiway system is light years behind this

[redelitev6]

  Don't know what all the fuss is about-looks just like the east coast mainline! ( or maybe not? ) :-/

[Dishevelled Den]

Fantastic pictures Tunnie of another railway world!

Now if this country had properly invested in our railway system which had been at one stage the most advanced in the world..................................!!!!!!!!!!!

But of course we had an anti-railway establishment, with a very short sited outlook, and a penny pinching view point when decisions needed to be made!!!

It makes me so angry; so much lost opportunity

But Tunnie you have seen the best Japan has to offer, and no wonder we are now buying train sets built by Hitachi

so much lost opportunity

That about says it all Lizzie.

with a very short sighted outlook

Agreed, any government reluctant to invest in the transport infrastructure by disregarding its importance inevitably presides over a chaotic, disjointed and inefficient transport policy.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Fantastic pictures Tunnie of another railway world!

Now if this country had properly invested in our railway system which had been at one stage the most advanced in the world..................................!!!!!!!!!!!

But of course we had an anti-railway establishment, with a very short sited outlook, and a penny pinching view point when decisions needed to be made!!!

It makes me so angry; so much lost opportunity

But Tunnie you have seen the best Japan has to offer, and no wonder we are now buying train sets built by Hitachi

so much lost opportunity

That about says it all Lizzie.

with a very short sighted outlook

Agreed, any government reluctant to invest in the transport infrastructure by disregarding its importance inevitably presides over a chaotic, disjointed and inefficient transport policy.

Yep, and that certainly is what we have now Zulu:'(

[Martin_1962]

Their non SHinkansen lines are pretty slow, they are narrow gauge as well.

Don't run the UK trains down too much were are still near the top for speed and still hold a few speed records (OK one was set in 1938)

[feeutfo]

Good pics tunnie.

Bot oh my it's an ugly bugger ain't it