New 360-kph bullet train ready for trial operations

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Reiko

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SENDAI -- The prototype of the next-generation bullet train designed to travel at 360 kilometers per hour (224-mph) has been brought to Sendai for trial operations, East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) said.

Six "FASTECH 360Z" carriages were transported to Sendai on freighters from train factories in Kobe and other areas. They were transferred to trailers at the Port of Sendai and brought to a bullet train depot in Sendai.

FASTECH 360Z will begin trial operations on the Tohoku, Yamagata and Akita Shinkansen lines in April.

FASTECH 360Z carriages are smaller than FASTECH 360S, another version of the prototype that is used for test runs exclusively on the Tohoku Shinkansen.

Since the Akita and Yamagata Shinkansen lines were built simply by widening the gauge from a narrow one to a standard one, only smaller bullet trains can run on these lines.

FASTECH 360Z will run at a maximum speed of 360 kilometers per hour on the full-scale Tohoku Shinkansen Line but will be forced to slow down to 130 kilometers per hour on the Yamagata and Akita Shinkansen lines, which are popularly called "mini Shinkansen."

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Cool!! why doesn't the US make these things too?
 
Cool!! why doesn't the US make these things too?
Click to expand...

I've heard news long time ago about the 360 kph high speed trains on the other forum...anyway why US doesn't have decent high speed train networks is because US is a big country and we depend on airplanes to fly from city to city.

Japan is about the size of California and they have no problem covering the small amounts of land they have.
 
Whoa... 360 MPH!? Damn!

I've often caught myself racing a nearby train. In this case, VROOM! I'm gonna lose! Hehehe!
 
Yes, it IS cool! :)
I don't see the USA doing this on any significant scale anytime soon, though, because of the costs and politics involved. It is almost prohibitively expensive, you know, and of course the state senators would fight tooth-and-nail over whose districts get the links from their cities to their airports, etc.
I found a link that might give us a feel of this subject...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1587865/posts

But we can dream, though, can't we?
 
VamPyroX said:
Whoa... 360 MPH!? Damn!

I've often caught myself racing a nearby train. In this case, VROOM! I'm gonna lose! Hehehe!
Click to expand...

It's 360 KPH not MPH. It's actually 224 MPH.
 
Dang, that ride has GOT to be smooth as silk!
 
That is a very fast ride. I wonder about what will happen if Japan has a serious winter snowstorm? Will the train still run or will they suspend operations until further notice due to the weather?
 
The U.S. has an large, old railroad system. In order to get better train service, we would have to upgrade the railroads to newer and safer railroad tracks. It's nearly impossible because none of your politicians will want to spend money on that. Basically, they want to spend money on the War and Medicare and SSI.
 
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