Notes

The original Tokaido Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, three of Japan’s largest cities, is one of the world’s busiest high-speed rail lines. In the one-year period it carries around 160 million passengers. At peak times, the line carries up to 16 trains per hour in each direction with 16 cars each with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains. With each car measuring 25 m in length, the longest trains are 400 m end to end. Stations are similarly long to accommodate these trains.