In 1964 Japan unveils the Shinkansen
Bullet Train, and it has the Japanese glued to their televisions. As news
helicopters filming the train struggle to keep up, cheers erupt in living rooms
across the nation. The Shinkansen is a powerful symbol of Japan's post-war
recovery. But it's also groundbreaking. Because at the dawn of the Jet Age, when
air travel and cars seem destined to replace everything else, the lowly train
is about to make a comeback. In the 19th century, the locomotive and
steamship replaced the horse and sailing ship as the primary movers of humanity.
In the 20th century, it seemed almost certain that the automobile and aircraft
were going to do the same. Make earlier forms of transport largely irrelevant.
Trains in particular were seen as obsolete. A slow and inconvenient way for
people to travel. No match for the unfettered freedom of the personal
automobile. In the 1950's, the Americans were pouring billions into building
Interstate highways and rail lines were shutting down. In Europe, railways were
stagnating. Many countries were still operating steam locomotives. And it was
in this context that Japan was blasting through mountains, drilling 67 miles of
new tunnel, and constructing over 3,000 new bridges. All to build a railway. But
this wasn't going to be just any railway. This was one of the most ambitious rail
projects of the century. The Japanese were calling it the Shinkansen, and the
trains on this new line would run at speeds unmatched anywhere in the world.
Nearly twice as fast as any existing train in Japan. And the new line would be
dedicated only to high-speed trains, which meant they'd be able to travel at
incredible speeds between Japan's two biggest cities; Tokyo to Osaka. And to
make such high speeds possible, the new line would be built using a wider gauge
of rail. And it would be laid out with gentle curves, which meant tunneling
through and bridging over much of Japan's difficult terrain. But for all
its ambition, many dismissed the Shinkansen as ridiculous. A senior railway
executive described the project in 1964 as the 'height of madness.' The wider gauge
of rail, which was necessary for such high speeds, made the Shinkansen incompatible with the rest of Japan's rail network. Many questioned the value
of a fast train, if it would be stuck running on a single line, and whether the effort
involved in getting trains to reliably go this fast, was really worth it. But the
criticisms weren't just technical. This was one enormously expensive project.
And to make matters worse, over five years of construction, the Shinkansen's
budget had spiraled out of control. Nearly doubling over the original
estimate. And because of that, two visionaries leading the project, the President of
Japanese National Railways and his Chief Engineer, both resigned before the
project even finished. The media were calling it Japan's Great Wall of China. A
massive but ultimately misguided effort, when other countries were looking
towards jets and automobiles as the future. But the critics would soon fall
silent. When the first Shinkansen line opened in
the fall of 1964, the world took note. Because it made cars on expressways look
like they were standing still, and once profitable inter-city air routes were
now being threatened by a train. In just the first three years of service,
the Shinkansen carried over 100 million passengers. Demand skyrocketed. The
new line not only better connected Japan's two largest cities, it seemingly
pulled them closer together. A Tokyo executive could now attend a meeting in
Osaka more than 320 miles away, and still make
it home in time for dinner. A combination of speed and frequent
service made the world's first high-speed railway enormously
profitable. It turns out that the Shinkansen was anything but ridiculous. Because the
project's visionaries weren't taking a gamble on some radical new technology.
Instead, they adapted the very best proven technologies and brilliantly
integrated them into one seamless system. A Shinkansen train's
streamlined shape and smooth outer surfaces minimized air resistance and
noise at high speeds. There was no locomotive, not in the
traditional sense. Instead motive-power was distributed with axles each driven
by separate electric traction motors. The setup offered superior acceleration, and
a train could operate even with multiple failed motors. It also meant more evenly
distributed weight on tracks, which reduced wear. At 130 miles per hour, the
new Shinkansen trains had the highest service speed in the world. And yet speed
had never been the real motivation. This wasn't some vanity project.
the Shinkansen had always been about moving a large volume of passengers, so
engineers designed the new line to withstand the stress of running 60
high-speed trains in each direction every day. A number that would only
increase through the years to hundreds today. To withstand the stresses, rail
ties were made of pre-stressed concrete and rails, each normally 82 feet long,
were welded into nearly 5,000 foot long continuous sections to reduce vibration
and noise. Rail crossings were eliminated. Cars were routed either above or below
the line to ensure safe and reliable service. Moving at over 190 feet per
second, a Shinkansen conductor would have struggled to react in time to
conventional wayside signals. The solution was Automatic Train Control, a
system that sent signal information directly on board to the conductor,
regulating speed based on a train's position. The entire line was monitored
by a centralized traffic control center in Tokyo, critical to the safe operation
of a high volume of trains. And in one of the most earthquake-prone countries in
the world, seismometers were installed along the line. The system
would cut power at the first sign of earthquake, automatically activating a
train's emergency brakes. And to keep the track in tip-top shape, special
diagnostic trains nicknamed the 'Yellow Doctor' regularly assessed the state of the
track and overhead lines using sophisticated on-board monitoring
equipment. The enormous success of the first Shinkansen line spurred its
extension westward, and over the course of the next half century, new lines would
be built to reach nearly every corner of the nation. The opening of the world's
first high-speed railway in 1964 had a profound impact on Japan. But it also
changed the way the world saw railways. In no small part, the success of the
Japanese helped inspire other countries to develop their own high-speed networks
like France's TGV, which began service in the early 1980's. Over the past 50 years
speeds on shangkun's and lines have continued to increase, made possible by
new track technologies and successive generations of trains. Shinkansen trains
on newer lines now regularly hit 198 miles per hour. While Shinkansen trains
are no longer the fastest in the world, focusing on speed alone misses the point.
No other rail system in the world can match the Shinkansen for it's incredible
efficiency, safety and punctuality. Today, the Shinkansen moves over 1 million
people every single day. During peak periods, one departs Tokyo every three
minutes. And since 1964, the Shinkansen has maintained a pristine safety
record, moving over 10 billion people without a single passenger casualty. It's
punctuality is the envy of the world, with average delays measured in just
seconds. And for the visionaries who forged ahead with getting the first
Shinkansen line built, over half a century ago, they were ultimately
vindicated for creating the world's most renowned high-speed rail network, and for
introducing modern high-speed rail to the world. Japan's Bullet Trains run on their own
dedicated tracks. But if a Bullet Train traveling at 137 miles per hour were to
approach a much slower train, one struggling just to maintain 54 miles per
hour, and it takes 7.5 seconds for the bullet train to overtake the slower
train, well then you should be able to figure out what the length of the bullet
train is (in feet). The first viewer to post the correct answer in the comments
gets a free t-shirt from the Mustard store. It's one thing to know basic math
concepts and another to have an intuitive ability to solve actual
problems, like this one. Brilliant.org helps you master foundational math
and science concepts by teaching you to become a better learner, an intuitive
thinker, and a problem solver. If you have no idea where to even begin solving our
train problem, check out Brilliant's algebra courses,
which cover the whole range from introductory to advanced. In Algebra 1
there's a whole section called 'Algebra in Motion' where you'll learn how to
solve problems involving measurements of distance, speed, and time. Brilliant is fun
and it keeps you engaged you'll learn through doing, which is way better than
just listening to a lecture and jotting down notes. Go to brilliant.org/mustard
mustard and sign up to get started. And also the first 200 will get 20% off
their annual premium subscription for a fun and engaging experience.
