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The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres (320 mi), takes 2 hours 21 minutes on the fastest Nozomi service, with the fastest service between Tokyo Station and Hakata taking 4 hours 46 minutes. [1] The trains stop at fewer stations than the Hikari and Kodama trains.
The predecessor for the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines was originally conceived at the end of the 1930s as a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) standard gauge dangan ressha (bullet train) between Tokyo and Shimonoseki, which would have taken nine hours to cover the nearly 1,000-kilometer (620 mi) distance between the two cities.
Intercity passenger traffic between Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka largely transferred to the Tōkaidō Shinkansen after it was completed in 1964. Since then, the Tokaido Main Line has been used as a commuter and freight line, serving a very small number of long-distance passenger trains (mainly overnight and sleeper services).
Kodama (こだま, "Echo") is one of the three train services running on the Tōkaidō and San'yō Shinkansen lines. Stopping at every station, the Kodama is the slowest Shinkansen service for trips between major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka.
The name "Ginga" was first carried from the start of the 15 September 1949 timetable revision by the overnight sleeper train departing from Tokyo at 20:30 to Osaka (arriving at 07:54) and the opposite working from Osaka (21:00) to Tokyo (07:30). Other overnight trains between Tokyo and Osaka were named Myōjō and Ryūsei.
It reduced the journey time to around 3 hours for trains from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori, a distance of 674 km (419 mi). Extensive trials using the Fastech 360 test trains have shown that operation at 360 km/h (224 mph) is not feasible because of problems of noise pollution (particularly tunnel boom ), overhead wire wear, and braking distances.
A seven-car train set a land speed record for rail vehicles of 603 km/h (375 mph) on 21 April 2015. [5] The trains run at a maximum speed of 500 km/h (311 mph), [6] offering journey times of 40 minutes between Tokyo (Shinagawa Station) and Nagoya, and 1 hour 7 minutes between Tokyo and Osaka. [7]
The first Shinkansen line opened between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964, and trains can now make the journey in 2 hours and 25 minutes. [8] Additional Shinkansen lines connect Tokyo to Aomori, Niigata, Kanazawa, and Hakodate and Osaka to Fukuoka and Kagoshima, with new lines under construction to Tsuruga and Sapporo.