Why Study the Shinkansen?
The shinkansen is the world’s leading high-speed inter-city train service. The key points about it, which will be looked at in more detail below, are its excellent safety record, its high speed and its punctuality. The shinkansen, as a result, has enjoyed extremely good press in Britain and other countries and, although mistakes are often made in the popular media when reporting or showing the shinkansen, they tend to be positive ones [1]. It is important to understand that the shinkansen is not perfect. There is room for improvement still, and the Japanese railway companies and related research institutes are constantly looking to make further improvements. In fact, I would even suggest that there may be some improvements that could be made by learning from British railways and trains (for example, in relation to reserving seats, luggage space on trains, and the designation of smoking areas). It is also important to be aware that the shinkansen sits at the very top of the hierarchy of
