Shinkansen Shinkansen The , meaning "new trunkline," but colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, in order to aid economic growth and development. Beyond long-distance travel, some sections around the largest metropolitan areas are used as a commuter rail network. It is operated by five Japan Railways Group companies. Starting with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen () in 1964, the network has expanded to currently consist of of lines with maximum speeds of , of Mini-Shinkansen lines with a maximum
300 Series Shinkansen and were completely withdrawn from Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen services by the start of the revised timetable on 17 March 2012. The front-end styling of these units consisted of a 'curved wedge', replacing the aircraft-style nose-cones of previous Shinkansen trains. The furthest forward point was the very bottom of the pilot. They were painted brilliant white with a medium-thick blue stripe beneath the windows. They were only formed as sixteen-car sets and had no restaurant cars, though they did originally feature two refreshment counters (later removed). Technically, they are notable for being the first Shinkansen sets to employ three-phase AC