700 Series as Hikari Railstar at Shin_Osaka Station
The 700 Series Shinkansentrainsets for Japan's Shinkansen dedicated high-speed rail lines were built between 1997 and 2003, entering service in 1999. The design goal was to produce a train almost as fast as the 500 Series Shinkansen but at a substantially lower cost. This goal was met, and 67 trains have been built and are in service. Top speed is 285 km/h (177 mph); given that speeds higher than that are only permitted on a few stretches of line, the journey time is actually little longer than for a 500 series.
Unlike the 500 series the 700 series is not a thing of beauty, with a fat, bulbous 'duck-bill' nose. 16 car units are painted white with a blue band beneath the windows, while 8 car units used for the Sanyo ShinkansenHikari Rail Star services have a darker livery (grey with black window areas and a yellow stripe beneath the windows) which also acts to visually deemphasize the units' nose area, resulting in a more streamlined impression.
The line was originally built in the 1970s to transport SanyoShinkansen trains from the Hakata terminal to a large train depot in Kasuga.
Shinkansen 0 Series at Fukuyama Station, April 2002 The 0 SeriesShinkansen were the first trainsets built to run on Japans new high speed rail network, and are therefore still the image of the Shinkansen in the minds of most non-Japanese because of all the publicity they received...
Although the line uses Shinkansen equipment, it is not considered a part of the Shinkansen network.
Feeds |
Contact