Japan’s Super Fast Railway Taking its Sweet Time

Japan’s 500 km/h maglev railway service of 286 km between Tokyo and Nagoya is scheduled to open in 2027. The extremely expensive, USD $52bn line is still going to make the private company building it a profit.

The costs involved are high, as the service has to be as straight as possible and as flat as possible to achieve such high speeds. It will go through mountains and under Tokyo, involving a large number of tunnels in the earthquake prone country.

Central Japan Railway Company, which already runs the country’s Bullet Train service, has been in profit since it was privatised and floated on the stock market in 1997.

The maglev service will eventually link Japan’s second city Osaka with Tokyo by 2045. This will bring the cities within commuting distance of each other. In doing so, Osaka will become a feeder city to Tokyo, which is already the biggest city in the world with a population of 35 million and is also one of the most expensive. In linking the two cities, it is felt that businesses can put offices in Osaka, yet still trade in the country’s capital with ease.