14 DAY TRIAL // East Japan Railway Co. unveiled the latest prototype of the next-generation bullet train, code-named "Fastech 360Z". The train is expected to run at around 360 km/h during a normal journey.
"We will start test runs at the weekend for about two years before we put it into commercial operations," company spokesman Makoto Yasuhara said.
Japan's fast train, Shinkansen or "New Trunk Line", was first introduced in the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olimpics for displaying the country's fast technological rebirth after the Second World War. Fastech 360Z is the latest in line and the twin version of Fastech 360S, which has already been tested for 10 months.
The train will be tested in the mountain areas of northern Japan both on regular tracks and on tracks specially built for bullet trains. The Shinkansen network is located on Japan's main island, Honshu, and has been built in collaboration with the government.
Although the Japanese train is the fastest in the world at ordinary cruises, it does not hold the record speed for wheeled trains. The record belongs to France's TGV (Train Grande Vitesse): 515 kph. However, the TGV ordinary runs at 300 km/h. According to Yasuhara, they don't plan to challenge that record. "The Fastech can run safely at more than 400 kilometers per hour but we do not have plans to test in the 500-kilometer range," he said.
The fastest train in the world is the magnetically levitated train, which is also built by a Japanese firm, Central Japan Railway Co. Its test train, JR-Maglev MLX01, has reached 581 kph in December 2003 in Yamanashi west of Tokyo. However, there currently exists only one Maglev line in the entire world, in China between Shanghai's airport and financial district. The line has only 30 km, but the train goes at 430 km/h, i.e. it reaches destination in less than 5 minutes. Such a train would go from the East Cost of the US to the West Cost in around 11 hours.