Heralding the Age of High-Speed Rail Transport Network Expands East and West High-Tech Operation Systems Supporting Exacting Operation Assuring Safety and Comfort

Supporting Exacting Operation

Along with this ever-advancing technological innovation, what has supported the safe, exact operation of Japan's Shinkansen is the high level of morale among employees working in different sections, according to Yoshihira Fukushima, who manages the Transport Section of East Japan Railway Company's Transport and Rolling Stock Department: "Making these trains run on time leads to increased confidence among our passengers. Since we started our Shinkansen service, the average delay per train run has been 19 seconds. The purpose of the Shinkansen is to provide as many passengers as possible with a safe, smooth ride. That 19-second average delay is the result of day-to-day implementation of a timetable that is packed to the upper limit of 15 trains per hour in order to maximize the number of passengers we can serve." To run 15 trains per hour, trains have to run four minutes apart—that's four minutes apart with only a 19-second average delay. Measures of punctuality for rail transport vary from country to country, making straight comparisons impossible; but it is safe to say that the Shinkansen ranks among the most precisely operated train systems in the world. And just as Fukushima says, this level of punctuality inspires customer confidence and it shows in the results: almost 20 years after the JNR, the forerunner of today's East Japan Railway Company, inaugurated service on the Tohoku Shinkansen in 1982, 110,000 Shinkansen trains now carry 90 million passengers annually. Mention of timetables may conjure images of gridded diagrams with stations on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis, and diagonal lines showing at a glance where trains overtake each other and where inbound and outbound trains pass by one another. Until computers were introduced, employees from all different routes would gather overnight with paper, pencils, rulers, and calculators, to construct the timetable. Specialists, allowing for the particular attributes of each train, would draw the diagonal lines to complete the diagram. As Fukushima explains, "Both in the early days and now, the fundamental goal in composing the timetable is still the same: to make it reflect the needs of our passengers. That is actually quite a challenge. Nowadays, we leave the detailed calculations and the task of generating the tables to computers; but it's people who still have to make the final decisions. We pull together data on all the variables—not only passenger volume but car capabilities as well—and then go through and decide departure and arrival times and the balance of through trains and trains that will stop at each station. The truth is, even with the help of computers, we still need specialists to go through and work out the timetables." For example, schedulers work to minimize trip times for long journeys. Where commuter demand is high, they run more double-decker trains so people can sit and relax during their ride. Where an eight-car train might normally have been used, they might link two trains together to double seating capacity during the same timetable slot. Trains comprised of the newest E4-series cars can carry 1,634 people, among the highest passenger capacity in the world. But it seems that user needs are unlimited. For example, during the ski-season rush, special trains have to be added to the weekend schedule. There is also the challenge of synchronizing connections with local train lines. Creating the timetables for the Shinkansen is a difficult task that demands consideration of many factors.

The Technologies in Bogie Trucks The world's first commercial electric railway debuted on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, in 1881. Fourteen years later, in 1895, Japan's first electric train service was launched in Kyoto. The history of electric railway systems in Japan extends over 100 years, and for 80 of those years, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. has been developing and manufacturing train-car components. The most critical assembly designed into Shinkansen cars are their bogie trucks, also called trucks. Bogie Trucks house a host of mission-critical components, including the motors and transmissions, brakes, air springs to reduce vibration and assure ride quality, axles, and wheels. "The need to make everything lighter was present right from the start," begins Shigeo Sugawara, a specialist general manager at Sumitomo Metal Industries' Kansai Steel Division. "But because bogie trucks are so safety-critical, there is no way to compromise on strength." First, most current Shinkansen trains have "bolsterless bogie trucks." A bolster is normally used to connect the bogie to the carriage, performing a function much like a girder does in building construction. But the special air springs Sumitomo Metal Industries developed made it possible to build cars without bolsters. "Compared to the substantial weight of steel bolsters," says Sugawara, "these special air springs—which are made of rubber—make a significant contribution to reducing bogie trucks weight." This innovation makes the Shinkansen faster while markedly improving the quality of the ride. Stopping a high-speed train is no easy task, but Shinkansen bogie trucks are equipped with forged steel brake discs. The cast iron used in conventional brake discs. With the development and employment of these wear-resistant, heat-resistant, forged steel brake discs, light weight was achieved while strength was preserved. Before bogie trucks are delivered to train-car manufacturers, they are inspected for performance stability during tests at rotation speeds simulating the demands of 500 km/h train travel. "Today's Shinkansen has untapped potential," Sugawara continues. "As a manufacturer of bogie trucks, we're confident that we have the capacity to boost speed further. That's because over the years, we've developed all the components to a point where they are highly reliable, and we've developed the expertise to combine them to bring out the total potential of the bogie trucks." This may simply be the optimistic confidence of an engineer, but Sugawara has a dream: He'd like a chance to run a Shinkansen train on the long, straight rails laid over the stable bedrock of France. Now that would definitely make for a memorable ride. The E2-series'bogie trucks, manufactured by Sumitomo Metal Industries. Numerous steps were taken, from computer-based simulations through performance evaluations using testers, to perfect a bogie capable of meeting a wide range of development criteria.