increases in transportation capacity such as constructing new lines, increasing the number of tracks, increasing the length of trains, and increasing the number of trains, thus taking steps to ease congestion. In addition, in view of the supply of new land for housing and the reduction of school and work commuting hours, etc., effective measures will lie in constructing new lines and increasing the number of tracks, and in view of this point as well there is a strong demand for improvements to urban railways. Moreover, as well as these measures for increasing transportation capacity, we will seek the understanding and cooperation of companies and society with regard to promoting off-peak commuting through the flextime system and staggered commuting, in order to standardize transportation demand that is concentrated in peak time bands.
(Note)
Rated speed: length of a train running section divided by the running time (the time traveled between stations added to stopping time at stations on the way).
8 Promotion of Technology Development in Railways
(1) Development of Superconductivity Magnetic Levitation Railway
The superconductivity magnetic levitation type railway, which National Railways commenced to develop in 1962, is highly evaluated as a future inter-city bulk transportation organ. The railway which has a superhigh speed and low pollution
features is currently developed by Railway Technical Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "JR SOKEN").
At the Miyazaki Test Line (single-track, over-head construction with a distance of 7 kin), the test vehicle achieved a record of 517 km/h in 1979, and a manned testing vehicle achieved 411 Km/h in 1995; thereby, the results of the tests were excellent.
In addition, since fiscal 1990 we have been promoting the construction of a new test line in Yamanashi Prefecture, and plan to set a target of practical application by the end of fiscal 1999, after High-speed continuous running tests etc.
(2)Normal-ConductivIty Magnetic Levitation Type Railway
The technology and other aspects of the HSST normal-conductivity magnetic levitation type railway (under development by Japan Airlines since 1974) has been transferred to HSST Development Co., Ltd., and since May 1991 various tests aimed at practical application have been conducted by Chubu HSST Development Co., Ltd. on a test line (total length 1.5km) in Aichi Prefecture. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport has also conducted studies in connection with safety, reliability, and other factors, and has reached the conclusion that there is no technical problem with practical application of a system travelling at top speeds of around 100 kph.
(3)Increase of the Speed of Railways
An increase in speed of railways is an important subject which has been pointed out during the Transport Technology Council-Railway Sectional Meeting; therefore, technological developments have been actively promoted.
As for Shinkansen, since new-typed cars have been developed, high-speed operation tests with these cars have been conducted. The speeds of the tests were, 345 km/h (September 1991) by JR East Japan, 325 km/h (February 1991) by JR Central Japan and 275 km/h (February 1990) by JR West Japan.
Furthermore, the JR and other companies have been conducting- running tests using next-generation high-speed test vehicles with the aim of operational running at the maximum speed in the 300kph range on Shinkansen lines, and have been developing vehicles with the aim of operational running at the maximum speed of around l6Okph on existing lines.
