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Bullet trains
While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, new lines in excess of 250 km/hr and existing lines in excess of 200 km/hr are widely considered to be high-speed rail (HSR).
The Union Cabinet has cleared a $14.7 billion Japanese proposal to build its first bullet train line, ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit beginning on Friday. Japan had offered to finance 80 per cent of the cost of the train linking financial capital Mumbai with Ahmedabad, the commercial centre of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, at an interest rate of less than 1 per cent.
While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, new lines in excess of 250 km/hr and existing lines in excess of 200 km/hr are widely considered to be high-speed rail (HSR).
The best-known HSR networks, and most cited as examples for other countries to follow, are the pioneering Japanese Shinkansen or “bullet trains” (nicknamed bullet trains for their appearance and speed), the European national and transnational networks, and recently the Chinese HSR which has dramatically expanded to cover 10,000 km in less than a decade!
The Shinkansen high-speed trains of Japan, nicknamed bullet trains for their appearance and speed, were first such trains that began operations in Japan in 1964. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates a large turning radius in its design.
Japan took the lead in the post Second World War years when mass transportation became a big problem along the densely populated industrial and employment corridor between Tokyo and Osaka where more than 45 million people lived. Japan also had a serious energy problem and looked for ways to minimise petroleum use.
Japanese engineers absorbed a number of ideas and technologies from the pioneering work by France, and launched the electricity-based Shinkansen service, (the English “bullet train” being the literal translation of the original Japanese name “dangan ressha”) the world’s first commercial HSR, just before the 1964 Olympics. The distance of 515km was covered in 3 hours 10 minutes with 2 stops, a top speed of 210 kmph and average speed of 160 kmph.
More importantly, these trains pulled initially 8 then 12 bogies, later also double-decker coaches. Within 3 years, the bullet train was carrying over 30 million passengers on this route each year, making it a truly mass transit facility. The Shinkansen’s parameters of population density along routes, start-to-finish distances, time taken, costs and tariffs have since more or less become the standard the world over.
