The original Shinkansen closely skirted the pacific coast?

[bluejeans]

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The first Shinkansen skirted the Pacific coast through the huge industrial corridor that links the capital with Osaka. This is a nearly unbroken stretch of urbanisation: it has few parallels on the planet.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/30/-sp-shinkansen-bullet-train-tokyo-rail-japan-50-years

 

I was under the impression that it ran on the Tokaido line, which definitely does not skirt the coast once it gets to Nagoya.

[kvp]

2 minutes ago, bluejeans said:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/30/-sp-shinkansen-bullet-train-tokyo-rail-japan-50-years

I was under the impression that it ran on the Tokaido line, which definitely does not skirt the coast once it gets to Nagoya.

There are multiple mistakes in the article. It was not called a shinkansen (new main line), it's called the Tōkaidō Main Line (東海道本線 Tōkaidō-honsen). Also this route has been adjusted a few times over the years, one of the main changes were the Tanna tunnel which removed a very mountainous part. Afaik the old part of the route became the Gotemba line. As far as skirting the coast, looking at a map with the Tokaido mainline and the Tokaido new main line, imho the old one was a close enough match to the coastline compared to the newer one to say it in the article.

 

ps: The original Tokai road (Tōkai dō) that both routes somewhat follow was even more quirky, faithfully following the levels of the landscape. But the path is similar and it also ran inland towards Kyoto. There were other fully inland roads, that didn't follow the coastline at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JP_-Gokaido.png

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, kvp said:

There are multiple mistakes in the article. It was not called a shinkansen (new main line),

 

Yes it was, the article is talking about the the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, not the Tōkaidō Main Line (東海道本線 Tōkaidō-honsen), though originally the Shinkansen was commonly referred to as "Yume no chō-tokkyuu" (夢の超特急,  dream super express).

 

Both Shinkansen and old main line do largely skirt the coast until past Toyohashi (note that's not the same as "hugging" the coast). The two sides of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen are commonly referred to as 山側 (mountain side) and 海側 (sea side) due to the different scenic orientation (see e.g. here).

 

Anyway the article says "The first Shinkansen skirted the Pacific coast through the huge industrial corridor that links the capital with Osaka" (not "closely skirted"), so while it's not true for the entire route, I'd say it's a not unreasonable description for a general newspaper article.

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by railsquid

[kvp]

21 minutes ago, railsquid said:

Yes it was, the article is talking about the the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, not the Tōkaidō Main Line (東海道本線 Tōkaidō-honsen), though originally the Shinkansen was commonly referred to as "Yume no chō-tokkyuu" (夢の超特急,  dream super express).

I'm pretty sure that all pre 1964 Tokyo-Osaka express trains (also called shinkansen in the article) were not called shinkansen at all. :-)

 

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The first Shinkansen skirted the Pacific coast through the huge industrial corridor that links the capital with Osaka. This is a nearly unbroken stretch of urbanisation: it has few parallels on the planet. By the early 1950s the conventional train that ran on this route was crammed. Taking a hint from the private Odakyu Electric Railway, which launched a train that could reach speeds of 145km/hr, Japan National Railways (JNR) decided to develop an even faster train, and in April 1959 construction of the Tokaido Shinkansen commenced with an initial budget of ¥200bn (£1.1bn), though the eventual cost would be double that.

This is the part that i think is a mistake. The first 'shinkansen' was actually just the Tokaido mainline.

[railsquid]

9 minutes ago, kvp said:

I'm pretty sure that all pre 1964 Tokyo-Osaka express trains (also called shinkansen in the article) were not called shinkansen at all. 🙂

 

 

I think you're misunderstanding something somewhere, as the article does not refer to pre 1964 Tokyo-Osaka express trains as Shinkansens anywhere.
 

 

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The first Shinkansen skirted the Pacific coast through the huge industrial corridor that links the capital with Osaka. This is a nearly unbroken stretch of urbanisation: it has few parallels on the planet. By the early 1950s the conventional train that ran on this route was crammed. Taking a hint from the private Odakyu Electric Railway, which launched a train that could reach speeds of 145km/hr, Japan National Railways (JNR) decided to develop an even faster train, and in April 1959 construction of the Tokaido Shinkansen commenced with an initial budget of ¥200bn (£1.1bn), though the eventual cost would be double that.

 

This is the part that i think is a mistake. The first 'shinkansen' was actually just the Tokaido mainline.

 

No, "The first Shinkansen" here clearly refers to the Tokaido Shinkansen (i.e. the first Shikansen route to open in Japan).

 

FWIW the only egregious mistake I see in the article is this:
 

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A large portion of the Shinetsu Honsen closed down; local residents who relied on it had to use cars or buses.

 

 

[gavino200]

Dumb question here. But where did the term "Bullet Train" come from. Was that just a western media term? 

[Socimi]

3 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

Dumb question here. But where did the term "Bullet Train" come from. Was that just a western media term? 

 

The shinkansen actually originated from a pre-war concept called "Dangan Ressha" (bullet-speed train) of running steam trains at 160Km/h on specially designed 1067mm lines.

 

The "blame" for the "bullet train" phrase introduction in western media can be attributed to Brithish Pathè, who relased a little less than a minute long "episode" in 1964, wich is called "This train's a bullet!".

 

 

[Davo Dentetsu]

On 7/24/2018 at 11:37 PM, Socimi said:

 

The shinkansen actually originated from a pre-war concept called "Dangan Ressha" (bullet-speed train) of running steam trains at 160Km/h on specially designed 1067mm lines.

 

The "blame" for the "bullet train" phrase introduction in western media can be attributed to Brithish Pathè, who relased a little less than a minute long "episode" in 1964, wich is called "This train's a bullet!".

Maybe so, but brand recognition is funny like that.  Nothing makes me think of a bullet train more than a 0 series.  Joe Public knew exactly what you meant when you use that in regular conversation, people who know nothing at all about trains could probably point to one and go "Oh, a bullet train!"  Doesn't really matter at the end of the day, it's almost free advertising to work on.

[bill937ca]

Shinkansen means new trunk line in Japanese. This was the working name for the original line of 1964 during construction.  When the line opened JNR tried to change the name, but the press and public kept using Shinkansen and the name stuck.

Edited July 29, 2018 by bill937ca