Train of the Week

So this week, the world speed record has been refreshed again by the Japanese Shinkansen Series L0 (a maglev train) for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. The 7-car L0 achieved 590 km/h (367 mph) last week, on 16 April, and a whopping (not that 590 wasn't fast enough but pffft, it was only in the 500s) 603 km/h (375 mph) on this Tuesday, 21 April. Wow. " JR Central SCMaglev L0 Series Shinkansen 201408081002 " by Hisagi - Own work . Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I thought I'd mention something I read about in the news this week. Yes, the 7000 Series rolling stock has commenced revenue service on the Metro system in Washington, DC and this time, it's a Kawasaki (they seem to have been making good progress in selling commuter stuff to the northeast these years, hopefully high speed trains to follow soon). This 7000 Series is the first Washington Metro rolling stock to look drastically different from everything that precedes it. Sometimes change is good. Although I'm not so sure about the styling at first glance. I can see some family resemblance from the new Metro North and New Haven commuter EMUs from Kawasaki though. Also unlike anything before the 7000 Series, the EMU's car body is constructed of stainless steel and not aluminum. " Metro 7000-Series railcar debut 3 " by Ben Schumin - Flickr : Metro 7000-Series railcar debut . Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons . " Metro 7000-Series railc...

So there is going to be a new train on the busy Yamanote Line again, and it will be called the Seires E235 . Some of the railfans out there probably have already heard of this important artery of Tokyo, the World's largest metropolis. It was only 2002 that this loop line saw a complete refreshment of rolling stock to the Series E231-500 , but with train frequencies at 2.5-4 minutes for 21 hours a day, they sure get used a lot. " Yamanote Line E235 Ikebukuro 20150326 " by DAJF - Own work . Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons . To put a perspective on the importance of this new commuter EMU, here are some numbers one ought to have a look at. The New York City Subway carries 5.08 million passengers per day on 26 lines serving 468 stations, and the London Underground carries 3.36 million passengers per day on 12 lines serving 275 stations. The Yamanote Line E235 however,  once in full deployment starting in the fall of 2015, will be responsible for trans...

Yeah... I got carried away by other stuff this week and forgot to update this blog on time. Anyway, I guess I'll do the easy thing and make it a show and tell again. Below is a very high level film made by the NHK about the Japanese high speed trains linked from YouTube. The narrator sounds like a Brit so it must be legit.