Toshiaki SASAKI
Thirty years have passed since the inauguration of Shinkansen in 1964. During these years, operation kilometers have been expanded to 2,000km from 515km with train operation speed raised from 160km/h to 270km/h and with the number of trains operated increased from 30 to 940 per day. The greatest matter for congratulation is that high-speed railways all over the world have come to be increasingly re-appreciated, which led to construction of many new high-speed lines and implementation of 300km/h services. Now, technology development for further speedup is being pushed forward. It is said that the systematized technology contributed largely to the Shinkansen success. Ahead of the construction of Shinkansen system, a lot of technologies had been developed, organically bearing fruit. For example, alternating current electrification technology simplified wayside equipment and enabled large power collection, establishing power conversion technology on rolling stock. This had been realized 10 years earlier than Shinkansen inauguration. It was 7 years earlier than Shinkansen debut that the reliable implementation of long distance operation by electric multiple units (emus) had been verified by a successful commercial operation of emus between Tokyo and Osaka. On the other hand, electronic communications technology was developed taking advantage of coutermeasures taken against electromagnetic interference induced by alternating current electrification. Radio technology of super high frequency (SHF) and high-speed code transmission through SHF had been realized 4 years prior to Shinkansen inauguration. These stable transmission lines made it possible to centrally control a complete network of Shinkansen by CTC. A cab warning device using transistor came into practice together with reliability technology established, which in turn contributed to the high reliability design of Shinkansen's ATC and CTC. In addition, a seat reservation system through electronic machines came 4 years earlier than the Shinkansen inauguration. This was evolved into a seat reservation system using a general purpose computer which began to be used at the same time as the Shinkansen inauguration, supporting the Shinkansen business. Then, online real time control technology led to the automatic regulation of train traffic. Furthermore, Shinkansen has changed the way of railway management. The track is inspected by inspection cars named "Doctor Yellow" at night with its maintenance done utilizing the database. Level crossings have been eliminated along Shinkansen, and even railwaymen are prohibited to trespass in track during commercial operation. A system has been established which detects an earthquake in the early stage of its happening and shuts off power supply to automatically stop the trains. Centralized monitoring and control of the operation are now make possible with minimum personnel. These are what we now tout as restructuring or re-engineering. Shinkansen faces new situations such as environmental problems and hot competition with other transportaion modes including expressways and local airports. We must mobilize all high technologies in our own R&D efforts. I think it an important point of view to coordinate state-of-the-art electrical and electronic technologies including information and telecommunications technologies and systematically apply them to attack the problems encountered.