CONTENTS

1 . LAND OF THE RISING SUN ...............................................2

2. HISTORY OF JAPANESE RAILWAYS ...................................3

3. PRESENT RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE .............................3

4. FUTURE PLANS FOR JAPAN'S HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS ......4

5. TRAINS OF JAPAN ...........................................................5

5A. SHINKANSEN ............................................................5

6. RAILWAY TRACK AND COMPONENTS ..............................8

6A. SUPER STRUCTURE ....................................................8

6B. SUBSTRUCTURE ......................................................10

7. REFERENCES ..................................................................12

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1. LAND OF THE RISING SUN
Japan, an island country, is amongst the most developed countries in Asia. It's
a sovereign nation located in the great Pacific ocean lying apart to the eastern coast
of Asian continent. It's an archipelago (Chain of islands) consisting of 6852 islands,
among which Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku constitutes the major share of
land area by more than 97%. Tokyo, the capital city with 9.2milliion people residing
in it, is one of the biggest metropolitan cities in world. It's a country of rugged
landscape surrounded by sea that supports a population with an ancient and revered
culture. With a population of 127 million, it ranks 10th among the most populous
countries,( almost 45% of the population of United states) but only contributes to a
very limited land area, ( about
the size of state Montana)
resulting in a very high
population density. The
topography of the nation plays
a huge role in where people
live in the country. . If you
observe the topographic map
of Japan provided in Fig.1 , we
could realize that the major
portion of the available land
area is covered with mountains
which might not be the most
suitable and adaptable space
for civilization or urbanisation
(about 70% of land area is
mountains). This leads to even

more high population density as Fig. 1 Topography of Japan

much of the population has to
be crammed in even smaller spaces mostly located along the coast. Yet another
physical topographical feature, the people of Japan have to contend with is a plume
of rising active volcano, contributing to almost 10% of worlds active volcanoes. It's
because of the specific location of the land area, which is along one of the major
tectonic plate fault lines, usually referred to as the "Pacific Ring of Fire". This is also
the reason why the region is renowned for its unusual number of natural disasters
including earthquakes and tsunamis. Although, it's a beautiful natural landscape
were people and nature live in a very delicate balance.

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2. HISTORY OF JAPANESE RAILWAYS
The first ever train, a steam locomotive, the "Iron Duke" was introduced to
Japan in 1868 in the Oura district of Nagasaki. Since then the Japanese people were
obsessed with train and rail infrastructure. The first railway was established between
Tokyo and Yokohama in 1872. In concern with the Russo-Japanese war during 1904-
05, the military took initiative in expanding the rail network throughout the country
to avoid delays in troop movements with the help of nationalizing the major rail
companies. The continuation of private railways was also initiated providing local rail
transport, which is still very active in the country. During the world war II , the rail
network was fully under control of the military leading to a second wave of
nationalization. Although war resulted in severe destruction of rail infrastructure and
assets.

In 1949 the Japanese railways which was under the Japanese government
directly operated by the transport ministry, was reorganized as the Japanese
National Railways (JR), a state operated public organization. Soon after that, in
simultaneous with the rapid economic growth and development of the nation, the
rail industry has advanced to a world class standard. The privatization of JR later in
1987 lead to many improvements and innovations due to the peer competition
among the private companies. Since then, the railway became the most important
mode of transport in comparison to roadways, airways and waterways - especially
for passenger commutation , which is something unique in the world.

3. PRESENT RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE

Japan's railway plays a major role in its society; it's convenient, safe and very
economical. With almost 10% of total population of country living in its capital city
Tokyo, it features the most miraculous and extensive infrastructural developments in
the nation. Tokyo's rail network is renowned for its punctual and safe operational
standards running in perfect schedule, almost to the seconds. One key factor which
aids in its triumph is undoubtedly the technology. The train control system, rail
industry staff and people are contributing for its success story. The central Tokyo
alone has around 62 different train lines transporting an excess of 25million people a
day, and with the most remarkable punctuality. There is 55 companies operating
services in the area cantered on Tokyo and features 632 stations only within its
boundary. The most frequently running trains, the 'Locals' run as frequent as once in
every 5 minutes. The other services like the commuter express and the limited
express (to travel beyond city limits) uses the same tracks as that of Locals, even
though they are running in different speeds and different combinations of stations

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due to the huge number of trains and limited space. This makes the whole system
more complex from other countries which usually have different tracks for them. The
Osaka region similarly demonstrate a complex series of rail network. Japan is home
to 46 of the world's 50 busiest stations. Computers play an essential role in keeping
trains running according to time table using systems like automatic train control or
ATCs. Its originally developed for the "Shinkansen" bullet train services.

The famous 'Shinkansen' rail network system utilizes high speed bullet trains
running through the country connecting all major cities. Currently there are 9
Shinkansen rail networks established in the country, operated by 5 private
companies under the 'Japan railway group or (JR)' each specific to its demographics,
topography and other factors of the region of service. Series 500 , n700, 800, e5, e3,
e6 are examples of these which run at an average speed of 210kmph with almost
320kmph for the fastest e6 series.

4. FUTURE PLANS FOR JAPAN'S HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS

This is the future -The Maglev trains. Japan's spending a staggering $85 billion
dollars over the next 3 decades to interconnect the island's three largest cities:
Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto. That's over 500km which you would be able to cover in
just above an hour, racing to up to 600kmph in the country side. Essentially, the
Maglev technologies uses powerful magnetic charges to move rail cars that float
several inches above a concrete guide way rather than riding on steel wheels. This
frictionless system enable us for a smoother rides even at significantly higher speeds
than in conventional high speed rail. All though the Chinese city of Shanghai features
a short stretch of maglev train running since 2004, Japan's project would be the
world's first intercity link getting public approval. The project is called "Chuo
Shinkansen" which was under research and development carried out by even more
astonishing partnership between the Japan Airways and Japan Railways.

This project will greatly aid in alleviate the overcrowding on Japan's existing
rail system and make it feasible for commuters into Tokyo to live further outside the
city than they can now. It will reduce travel time and can bring in a huge change to
the lifestyle and standards of the people of Japan. Although, the project is only
expected to be delivered in after 8 more years, as it involves digging a lot of tunnels
through the rugged mountains of Japan. Its reckoned to have almost 86% of its track
underground.

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5. TRAINS OF JAPAN
Most of the population of Japan is crammed into some of the largest cities on
the planet. Getting around the country is a challenge. The space for road transport
infrastructure is very limited and constrained, and if we are thinking about moving all
the travellers by air, 3 jumbo jets would had to take off every 5 minutes. So the
Japanese chose trains for mass transport. They transformed the humble train into an
iconic and sophisticated engineering marvel Japan's railway demonstrates many
different types of train specifically designed with various capacities, speed and
stability depending upon its usage and topography of service. The major trains under
service in Japan are the Shinkansen, Tokkyu, Kyuko, Kaisoku and Futsu.

The Shinkansen is the most well-known bullet trains used, which can go upto
300+kmph. Tokkyu is the next fastest train, or usually referred to as the 'Limited
Express' trains, which as the name suggests, only stops at the largest, most often-
used stations. Then comes the Kyuko or the 'Express trains'. These express trains,
even though its fairly fast, is not as fast as limited express and goes only to specific
stations. Kaisoku or as they call it the 'Rapid trains' can be considered as semi-
express and stops at more stations than an Express train. The 'Futsu', or the 'Local
trains are the most frequent ones and stops at every station on its way and is
obviously the slowest. Its recommended for short distance travel. In case if your
destination station can only be reached by a 'Local tran', you can also cut down your
train time by riding an express train to the farthest possible before your destination
and then hop on into a Futsu 'Local 'train. There are also some other special trains
specific to region of service say like the semi special express or 'Juntokkyu'. In this
session we will look onto the characteristics of the advanced train series used in
Japan, the Shinkansen.

5A. SHINKANSEN
The famous 'Shinkansen' bullet trains are equipped with many interesting
physical as well as mechanical improvisations and technologies to cope up with its
high speed and better safety. Even from the basics, the shape of the wheels of these
high speed trains are different. As we know, train wheels are manufactured with a
conicity to help it with easy manoeuvring around corners and curves. But when it
comes to high speed travel, this could be of a problem. When the speed approaches
a critical value, due to this conicity, the train wheels tempts to move sideways
creating oscillatory effects. This phenomenon is referred to as the 'Hunting
oscillations' (Fig. 2). With very high speed, this oscillations could build up to enough
amplitude to make the train wheels jump out of the rails and derail. For solving this

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problem, the angle of conicity of high speed bullet trains are substantially reduced
(usually less than half the normal value) and manufactured with precise accuracy
with the optimal value. Although, reduction of conicity alone may not be adequate
enough to diminish the effects of the oscillations. Hence the engineers had installed
a mechanism used even in medieval clocks, the coiled spring. This coiled spring could
absorb both the horizontal as well as the transverse shocks received on it effectively
and thus aids in diminishing the hunting oscillation substantially.

Fig. 2 Hunting oscillations in train wheels

Another challenging aspect to be dealt with is the huge power requirement
for the bullet trains. This power is usually delivered in the form of electricity and is
transmitted from electric lines running above the tracks, just like normal electric
trains with a help of a pantograph device. But, the magnitude of power to be dealt
with is nowhere close to normal trains. To carry this much amount of current, the
normal electric lines may need to be thickened to, say tripled or even x4times. This is
not practical for long distance. Hence an alternative solution has been brought up. By
keeping the same power, we can increase the voltage. Normal electric trains uses
electric lines at around 1500-3000 V. This value is increased to a whooping 25000 V
for Bullet trains. But with such a gigantic voltage, any small break or short circuit
could potentially create devastating results. To avoid the break in circuit, the
connection between electric lines and the train through the pantograph device had
to be made flawless and perfect. Hence these trains are equipped with advanced
pantograph devices which pushes up the electric lines to avoid loss of contact,
different from normal electric trains.

One of the ultimate challenge for such a high speed train would be converting
the power into motion or kinetic energy. For gathering such a top speed in the range
of 300+kmph in a very short time, needs a right balance of power and frictional grip
or traction. Irrespective of how powerful your engine is, without enough traction,
you are not going anywhere. The easiest method to increase the traction will be

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increase the weight of the vehicle. As the frictional force is proportional to the
normal reaction force, (which is equal to the weight of body unless in an inclined
plane) it would essentially results in better traction. But with more weight, the power
required to move the object would also be high. But for a train designed for high
speed , the last thing you want to do would be adding more weight onto it. The
engineers working on the system came up with a better solution for this too.
Powering individual wheels! yes, with more wheels driven, the traction would be
enhanced. What they actually did was flipping the traditional practice used with
train. In conventional trains use locomotives, meaning heavy powerhouses pulling or
pushing the other carriages along. But the bullet train engineers of Shinkansen
changed this principle of working , powering the wheels of individual carriages
except that at the front and back. So, out of 16 carriages a Shinkansen has, 14
intermediate carriages have its own motor driving system. Each carriage has 8 of
such wheels, totalling 112 powered wheels. Yes, this bullet train is 112 wheel drive,
which is why its accelerates to high speed in no time at all.

Another problem would be cornering at this high speed. Usual trains make use
of super elevation or banking to overcome this challenge. But with high speed train
service like ours, the super elevation required will be too steep that the train may fall
if it passes the stretch in a lower speed. Passenger discomfort for steep banking
would be another issue. This is where the advanced technologies implemented in
Shinkansen shows off. What it essentially does could be similar to what we observe
when a cyclist manoeuvre a tight curve. He leans inside to the curve shifting the
centre of gravity of the whole system to keep in line with the reaction offered from
the ground. A similar system is incorporated within every carriages of the
Shinkansen. Computer controlled air bags are installed under these carriages which
enable the entire bullet train lean. As it approaches a corner, each carriage tilts
independently in accordance with the position of carriage on the curve at the right
time and by the right amount.

Yet another major challenges to be faced by the Japan due to its specific
position as explained before is the seismic activities. This could also be of enough
potential to actually derail the train. This is where the earthquake warning system
plays a vital role. In the event of an earthquake, it has been identified that there is a
generation of 2 types of waves. The primary waves or the P waves and the secondary
waves or S waves. Usually the primary waves are of small amplitude and travels
much faster than the S waves. But S waves are having huge amplitude which cause
all the destruction. So the idea is to identify and detect the faster P waves before the
S waves aproaches and use it as a warning of seismic activity. But to detect small

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amplitudes of P waves, a relatively sensitive seismic measuring devices are required.
The Shinkansen uses the electromagnetic powered sophisticated seismic response
devices which could potentially identify the P waves of very low amplitude and thus
giving us enough warning , and the train automatically slow down and stops. The
earthquake that hit Japan recently in March 2011 destroyed many of the
infrastructural assets of Japan, but crucially a single bullet train was effected because
the earthquake warning system automatically brought them to a halt.

6. RAILWAY TRACK AND COMPONENTS

6A. SUPER STRUCTURE
The first railway lines used in Japan were made of wrought iron - double
headed rails which are vertically symmetrical. Although, they were replaced with
asymmetrical flat bottom rails made of steel for greater toughness and durability in
the late 19th centuries. They weighed around 29.8 kg/m and was manufactured in
7.3m long lengths. Later on these properties of the rail was improvised and changed
so as to support more loads on train and to substantially increase the top speed of
train. Today, the Japanese rail network utilizes a 50 or 60kg/m rails . The 50 kg rails
are used in more common amongst different train services running in normal speed
like the Local trains, Limited express, Rapid trains etc. The 60kg/m rails are used
specifically for the high speed train services, which is the Shinkansen bullet train
tracks and have largest cross sectional area of rail. The rails manufactured currently
in Japanese factories comes in standard size of 25m, but in most regions, these are
welded continuously (CWR - Continuous Welded Rails) to enhance the passenger
comfort and to substantially diminish the noise pollution and vibration. Although,
when rails are welded throughout larger lengths, the thermal expansion would
induce huge compression loads into the rails which could create buckling or curving
of straight tracks. This lateral displacement is prevented using reinforced fastenings,
ballast and sleepers. These continuous welded rails have a lot of advantages over
these minor drawbacks. It greatly reduces the sound pollution on train movement as
there's not gaps in between the rails. Apparently it's been identified that the CWR
needs lower maintenance than normal rail tracks as there is only less abrasion
without gaps between the rails. There are many procedures carried out throughout
the world for welding rails. Flash butt welding, Thermit welding, Gas pressure and
enclosed arc method is most common among them. Japan is more adaptive in using
the later two methods over the flash butt and Thermit welding procedures even
though its been observed more common in many other nations.

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 Timber sleepers were traditionally used in the early stages of railway history
for binding the rails together. The hardwood timber sleepers are very lightweight
and easy serviceable, but on the down side its more sensitive to abrasion and
deterioration. This is when concrete sleepers where introduced in Japan just like
every other countries on the world in the early 20th century. They offered fairly long
service period without much maintenance work to be carried out and also
demonstrated very good track stability record. This gathered so much attention and
concrete sleepers where used for almost every rail networks throughout Japan as
well as all over the world. But later on, by the introduction of huge number of train
services with higher speeds, Japan recognized that the concrete sleepers may not be
durable enough for its requirements. This is when the country put onto much
research on this field and developed a unique synthetic sleepers which are made of
fibres of glass and hard polyurethane material which are astonishingly resistive to
abrasion. These are very lightweight and easy to handle, just like the wooden
sleepers but with incredible durability and service life. These are used extensively
implemented in Japan railway infrastructure in recent years especially in sections and
junctions where the maintenance and replacement of the sleepers would be tedious.
Yet another ongoing research improvisation in sleepers are the 'Ladder sleepers'
consisting of prestressed concrete members which are held in position with lateral
steel tubes giving the impression and look of a ladder. These rails would be resting
on concrete members thereby distributing the weight through the length of the rail
and thus avoiding the requirement of ballast repair.

Rail fastenings are very important in keeping the rail in place. In early times,
when it was timber sleepers, the fastening methods were relatively simple and easy
using different spikes like dog spikes or railroad spikes. But with currently used
concrete sleepers, this is no longer utilized, instead double elastic fastenings where
the rails are kept in space using spring and rubber pads provided in between the
sleeper and the rail. These rubber pads are critical in absorbing the vibration which in
turns protect the sleepers not getting damaged quickly. With high speed trains, this
is found to be very effective in controlling and damping the vibration and impact
caused due to the train movement. Leaf springs are the most commonly used rail
fastening methodology used throughout the Japan with regards to its easy
installation, adjustability, maintenance and relatively low cost. Direct fastened tracks
where the track bed is solid (usually concrete instead of crushed stones) is
introduced more into the infrastructure due to its easy maintenance and stability
against differential settlement of individual rail tracks.

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 Standard gauge (1435mm) is obviously the most commonly seen rail gauge
adapted all over the world, but for some reason, the Japan is unique in this regards
also. Even though the country adapts many different gauges for different trains
depending on the type and load carrying capacity, the most popularly seen is the
Cape gauge, which is around 1067mm. More than 83% of the total rail length of
Japan's railway is utilizing this gauge length. In Japan, its usually referred to as the
'Kyoki' which means narrow passage or track. The exact reason why the country got
adopted to the narrow gauge system is still a mystery, but the most likely cause
would be due to cost concerns in the early stages of development in the early 19
centuries. Although, Japan's high speed lines , the Shinkansen are all built to
Standard gauge so as the high speed trains could have more stability. There are some
other tracks in Japan using the 1372mm gauge and 762mm narrow gauge for train
service.

6B. SUBSTRUCTURE
Substructure, of railway infrastructure which is closely related to the
geotechnical system usually comprising the ballast, sub-ballast and the subgrade
layer plays a critical role in determining the stability of rail support. The dynamic
response of the railway track largely depends on this key element. The ballast,
usually showcasing a layer of medium coarse aggregates comprising crushed gravel
like granite and basalt depending on the local availability. It essentially transfers the
loading effectively to the ground beneath. For goods train, the loading on each wheel
axle can be high up to 80 tons. On tamping and cyclic loading from the continuous
movement of trains, ballast helps in maintaining the static as well as the dynamic
stability of sleepers which contributes for the uniform load transfer. It give resiliency
and optimum settlement by acting as a energy absorber. It's also helpful in
preventing freezing and thawing environments and allows fast drainage of water or
similar fluids. Unsuitable cover layer for vegetation growth also ensures safe
manoeuvrability of the train. The sub ballast usually called the 'capping layer'
consists of generally finer aggregates to that of former to reduce stress to a
reasonable depth from ballast layer. The sub grade or the 'formation' includes the
existing soil and rock depending on the local topography of the region. The bearing
capacity of this layer has to be ensured to transmit load to the ground without
differential settlement of the rail tracks. There are several tests carried out before
the construction of railways to identify its capacity. It has to be strong enough to
provide an equal reaction force to train loading applied. The repeated loading can be
of enough potential to gradually build up excessive pore pressure on subgrade which
may leads to shear failure.

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 Fig. 3 Substructure of railways

Conventionally , the railway infrastructure in Japan adopts the usage of

crushed rocks with an average size ranging between 20 to 60mm on ballasts. After
laying the substructure, Ballast tampers which are massive locomotives capable of
creating high frequency vibration and tamping effect, are run through the rails at low
speed. This helps in attaining better compaction on the structure which is very
essential. The Japan also introduced the worlds very firs ballast replacement
machine. The high speed rail network erodes the top layer of rocks relatively very
quickly . As the quality of ballast is vital in distributing and transferring loads to the
sublayers, they change it every single day. Yes, the Japanese are fairly consistent with
safety standards. The ballast replacement machines are run every night to remove
the top layer to replace it with a better quality ballast. Afterwards, the railway
workers clean it by hand to assure maximum standards are maintained.

Due to the severe impact of high speed train operation, ballasted tracks
sometimes causes to be a problem due to the necessity of frequent maintenance.
This is where the Slab tracks came on to the screen. These are reinforced concrete
slab laid and secured to the bed or subgrade using cement asphalt. Its first tested on
a section between Shin-Osaka and Okayam on the Sanyo Shinkansen route. On
further researches and study on the viability and economic merits, it's found be a
better solution in many cases. Its only 1.3 times more the construction cost to that of
a ballast track system which could be eventually balanced out within a span of 9
years due to the lower maintenance cost involved with the slab tracks. Especially
with tunnel rail networks, where there is a constrain on height, it is found to be
highly advantageous. As the topography of Japan constitutes many mountains and
rugged landscape, this method could be highly exploited. The cutting cost of tunnels
could be reduced up to 30% by adapting slab tracks.

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Railway Industry. Japanese Yearbook on Business History, 16, pp.31-61.

MIZUMA, T. and HAYASHIDA, M. (2015). 1C14 Safety and Reliability Balance for
Japanese Railway Design(Safety-Infrastructure). The Proceedings of International
Symposium on Seed-up and Service Technology for Railway and Maglev Systems :
STECH, 2015(0), pp._1C14-1_-_1C14-8_.

Kaewunruen, S. and Remennikov, A. (2010). Dynamic properties of railway track and

its components: recent findings and future research direction. Insight - Non-
Destructive Testing and Condition Monitoring, 52(1), pp.20-22.

KURITA, T. (2011). Development of External-Noise Reduction Technologies for

Shinkansen High-Speed Trains. Journal of Environment and Engineering, 6(4), pp.805-
819.

Fukuda, N. and Watanabe, T. (2001). New Control Method of On-board ATC System
of Shinkansen Trains. IEEJ Transactions on Industry Applications, 121(2), pp.196-203.

Japan railway & transport review. (1994). Tokyo, Japan: East Japan Railway Culture
Foundation.

En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Rail transport in Japan. [online] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Japan.

Railway Technology. (2018). Shinkansen - Railway Technology. [online] Available at:

https://www.railway-technology.com/projects/shinkansen.

HARAGUCHI, M., HINO, S., KON, N. and SATOH, K. (2001). Hokkaido Railway
Construction in the Meiji Era and Railway Engineering Education of Sapporo
Agricultural College. INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING REVIEW, 18, pp.25-32.

Japan railway & transport review. (1994). Tokyo, Japan: East Japan Railway Culture
Foundation.

Kasai, Y. (2000). A History of the Development of Japanese Railway Networks. Japan

and the World Economy, 12(1), pp.89-93.

Evans, A. (2010). Rail safety and rail privatisation in Japan. Accident Analysis &
Prevention, 42(4), pp.1296-1301.

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