‘Dream’ Bullet Train Reaches Aomori

[marmar]

from the WSJ:



Japan’s bullet trains have been famed for decades. But the ultra-high-speed network doesn’t quite cover the entire country. Yet.

From this Saturday, a new class of “Hayabusa” trains will come into service on the high-speed Tohoku shinkansen route between Tokyo and Aomori, a remote and lightly populated rural prefecture on the northern tip of Japan’s main island.

With its long snout and a vibrant metallic color scheme that could have been inspired by 1980s skiwear, Hayabusa (meaning falcon in Japanese) has been hard to miss around Tokyo in recent months thanks to a vigorous poster campaign from the East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), complete with the grammatically suspect slogan “Made in Dream.”

The new trains will initially run at up to 300 kilometers per hour, the same speed as the older N700 series on the densely populated Tokaido route connecting Tokyo to Osaka, covering the 675 km stretch between the capital and a brand new station just outside Aomori City in three hours and 10 minutes (compared with the current 3 hours and 23 minutes). But from 2012, the training wheels will come off: Hayabusa will become Japan’s fastest train with speeds of up to 320 km/h. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/03/03/dream-bullet-train-reaches-aomori/

[JohnyCanuck]

1. I do have to say, it's an ugly looking cuss.

I imagine the other trains will tease it unmercifully when parked next to it in the station. But at least passengers won't have to look at its snout when riding inside.

[liberal N proud]

2. And I thought the puppy dog nose was kind of cute

:rofl:

[n2doc]

3. I don't care what it looks like

I just wish we had one here going along the east coast. Or anywhere in the US, for that matter.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Yep.

Seattle-San Diego
Boston-Miami
San Francisco-D.C.
Madison-Houston


For starters.

[liberal N proud]

4. We could have had that here

If it weren't for the fucking republicans

[Robb]

6. Looks like the color scheme of a 1992 Yamaha WR200.

:rofl: