Japan envisages connecting Sapporo into its high speed network by 2035, which will mean that it will have taken 70 years to build its national network, connecting all its principal islands by Shinkansen. The final link could have been completed sooner, but for the mountainous terrain through which the line will have to be built. The busiest high speed line of all is the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, which now carries 155m passengers. A year, says JR Central. Following a line speed increase on the original alignment having been raised to 285kph from March this year, the fastest Tokyo-Osaka timings for the 514.4km route were cut to 2hr 22mins. Back at launch in 1964, maximum speed was 210kph, today it is 320kph on the Tohuku Shinkansen.. - NH
- We read it in: Railway Gazette International, July 2015, page 34
