Railroads: Green light for the bullets: Advances in vehicles, communications, and signals keep plans for the Shinkansen line on schedule

The Japanese National Railways (JNR) operates as many as 28 000 trains a day on its 21 161-km system. The world's fastest service is offered by JNR on the Shinkansen — literally, the “new trunk line.” Popularly called bullet trains, the Shinkansen cars were first introduced in 1964, when the new line was opened between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. This was followed by the opening of a section between Shin-Osaka and Okayama in 1972, and an extension to Hakata in 1975 — providing an artery of 1177 km for high-speed travel between Tokyo and Hakata. Traveling time between the two cities is less than seven hours.