How This Train Changed The World

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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.
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Channel: Mustard
Views: 8,632,898
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: Shinkansen, Bullet Train, High-speed Rail, HSR, Fastest Trains in the World, Japan National Railways, JNR, Japanese Bullet Trains, Fast Trains, World’s First High-speed Railway, Tokaido Shinkansen, Tōkaidō, Why Japanese Trains Are The Best, Rail Transport, Railway History, French TGV, Railway network engineering, Transporation, Shinji Sogō, Hideo Shima, Modern Railways, Standard Gauge Tracks, Continuously welded rail, Automatic Train Control, Doctor Yellow trains, Mustard, japan
Id: T3LLgzO_PrI
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)
Published: Fri Nov 23 2018
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