Railway Systematization and Electric & Electronic Technology
Director

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.