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
N700 Series Shinkansen N700 Series Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train with tilting capability developed jointly by JR Central and JR-West for use on the Tokaido and San'yō Shinkansen lines since 2007, and also operated by JR Kyushu on the Kyushu Shinkansen line. N700 series trains have a maximum speed of , and tilting of up to one degree allows the trains to maintain even on radius curves that previously had a maximum speed of . Another feature of the N700 is that it accelerates quicker than other shinkansen trains, with a maximum acceleration rate of 2.6 km/h/s. This enables it