Shinkansen

The Nihongo|'Shinkansen|新幹線||ɕiŋkaꜜɰ̃seɴ, new main line|lead=yes, colloquially known in English as the bullet train', is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond long-distance travel, some sections around the largest metropolitan areas are used as a commuter rail network. It is owned by the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency and operated by five Japan Railways Group companies. Over the Shinkansen's 50-plus-year history, carrying over 10 billion passengers, there has not been a single passenger fatality or injury on board due to derailments or collisions. Starting with the Tokaido Shinkansen () in 1964, the network has expanded to currently consist of of lines with maximum speeds of , of Mini-Shinkansen lines with a maximum speed of , and of spur lines with Shinkansen services. The network presently links most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, and Hakodate on northern island of Hokkaido, with an extension to Sapporo under construction and scheduled to commence in March 2031. The maximum operating speed is (on a section of the Tōhoku Shinkansen). Test runs have reached for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record for SCMaglev trains in April 2015. 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 preceding March 2017, it carried 159 million passengers, and since its opening more than five decades ago, it has transported more than 6.4 billion total passengers. At peak times, the line carries up to 16 trains per hour in each direction with 16 cars each (1,323-seat capacity and occasionally additional standing passengers) with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains.