Japan is set to reopen to mass tourism starting next month, with visa waivers reintroduced and no daily limit on visitors entering the nation.
Following the announcement, some Brits may want to visit Japan from October 11 - which until now has maintained tight Covid travel restrictions for more than two years. While there are hundreds of sights to see, one consistently popular tourist attraction is the bullet train.
The legendary rail system is arguably the most famous modern train line in the world thanks to its lightning speed and its smart design. The bullet train has been receiving attention recently as it is featured heavily in the Brad Pitt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson gangster comedy of the same name.
Japan rail also happens to be celebrating 150 years since it first started its network, reports the Mirror. Just over 90 years after starting out, the first bullet train was launched to help speed up travel to and from Tokyo ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.
For those who are planning a holiday to try out the superfast train or for those who are simply interested in its incredible feats, here are seven facts you may not know about the bullet train.
Bullet trains are the safest way to travel in the world
Aside from walking, taking one of the high-speed trains in Japan is the safest way to get around.
More than 10 billion passengers have ridden on Japan’s high-speed rails alone, and none of them have ever died in a crash.
Tunnel booms can cause mayhem
Bullet trains displace a large amount of air when they whoosh along the tracks, which can cause a loud boom when they enter inter tunnels.
Such force disturbing pockets of air is enough to damage passing freight trains and people standing nearby, which is why bullet trains are required to slow down when entering certain tunnels.
Bullet trains are the fastest in the world
While China currently has the fastest operating high-speed rail network with a service that regularly hits 268mph with passengers onboard, Japan is coming for the record.
A manned magnetic-levitation train run by the Central Japan Rail Company hit speeds of 374 miles an hour.
By 2027 such trains will be running on the Chuo Shinkansen line, which will link Tokyo and Nagoya in just 40 minutes.
Eighty percent of the 177 mile track will be underground, tunnelling under the city sprawl and mountain-scapes.
Members of the public are allowed to whizz along the test-track to nowhere
Such complicated technology requires a lot of development, which was done on two different tracks when the focus of bullet train development in Japan was on rails.
Now that the future of high-speed rail travel is floating above the ground thanks to electro-magnets, a 26.6 mile long maglev test line has had to be built in Yamanashi.
Members of the public are occasionally allowed to ride on the test trains, although they tend to just go round in a circle.
The average delay is just 12 seconds
Everyone knows that Japan’s train companies pride themselves on punctuality.
This is true to such an extent that trains departing the platform 24 seconds earlier than scheduled have made national headlines before.
According to the 2020 annual report released by Japan Railways, the average delay time for the Tokaido Shinkansen (rail network) in 2019 was just 12 seconds.
The trains can keep going in an earthquake
Due to the high chance of a strong earthquake hitting the train network's power source, Japanese bullet trains have back-up batteries.
A new lithium-ion battery developed in 2019 provides an independent power source which allows the train to move slowly and steadily towards a safe tunnel if the main source is down.
They are very environmentally friendly
While bullet trains are not as fast as planes quite yet, they are much better for the environment.
Although these statistics do not take into account the emissions released during construction, high speed Japanese trains consume 12.5 percent of the energy a plane requires, and produce about 92 percent less carbon emissions per seat.
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