Word: shinkansen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...issue: "People will be able to drink hot coffee when we start commercial service." But that day may be a long time coming, because the maglev is as costly as it is speedy. Japan Rail (JR) Central, the ex-public company that operates the country's main shinkansen artery, has already spent nearly $2 billion developing the maglev. Building an operational line that would cover the 342 miles between Tokyo and Osaka -Japan's most heavily traveled rail route - would cost an estimated $70 billion. That price tag may be prohibitive for a country whose public debt is over...
...travel time between Tokyo and Osaka to around one hour actually makes it faster than going by plane. But air travel makes up only a fraction of the short-haul market precisely because bullet trains are more convenient and almost as fast. (And they're getting faster - the express shinkansen does Tokyo-Osaka in two and a half hours, while this week a French train running on rails almost matched the maglev speed record...
...beneath Tokyo like a bowl of noodles to the suburban commuter trains packed to bursting every morning and evening, the country runs on rails. In 2005, Japanese traveled 243 billion miles by railroad - nearly 1,900 miles per person. And 49 billion of those miles were covered by the shinkansen, the super-fast bullet trains that make intercity travel as simple as a subway hop. If all you've ever known is the slow torture of Amtrak, you won't believe trains that reach 170 mph, depart for major cities at least six times an hour, and measure punctuality...