Birth of the Shinkansen
Birth of the Shinkansen

Author: Tetsuo Shimomae

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-05-30

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9811665389

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This book discusses the Shinkansen, the world's first high-speed railway, which was born in Japan in 1964 and how it has developed up to the present day. In the 1950s, some European railways were trying to increase the commercial operating speed up to 160 km/h, and it was considered difficult to raise it to 200 km/h. Japanese engineers with excellent engineering ability post World War ll moved from the military to the railways to overcome the technological challenges realizing the high-speed railways using new approaches. The book discusses the technological barriers in speeding up the railway at that time and how these engineers overcame them in non-computer days. In the five decades since the Shinkansen began operating, there have been significant developments enabling high-speed, safe, and frequent train operation with high punctuality while conserving the environment. The book also describes today’s highly evolved Shinkansen. The Shinkansen, which runs 440,000 km a day, has carried 13.3 billion people without a single fatality in 56 years. The book overviews factors that contributed to the Shinkansen’s high safety record. This book is an excellent guide for those interested in the history of the world’s first high-speed railway.

The Transportation Experience
The Transportation Experience

Author: William L. Garrison

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014-02-07

Total Pages: 634

ISBN-13: 0199395837

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The Transportation Experience explores the historical evolution of transportation modes and technologies. The book traces how systems are innovated, planned and adapted, deployed and expanded, and reach maturity, where they may either be maintained in a polished obsolesce often propped up by subsidies, be displaced by competitors, or be reorganized and renewed. An array of examples supports the idea that modern policies are built from past experiences. William Garrison and David Levinson assert that the planning (and control) of nonlinear, unstable processes is today's central transportation problem, and that this is universal and true of all modes. Modes are similar, in that they all have a triad structure of network, vehicles, and operations; but this framework counters conventional wisdom. Most think of each mode as having a unique history and status, and each is regarded as the private playground of experts and agencies holding unique knowledge, operating in isolated silos. However, this book argues that while modes have an appearance of uniqueness, the same patterns repeat: systems policies, structures, and behaviors are a generic design on varying modal cloth. In the end, the illusion of uniqueness proves to be myopic. While it is true that knowledge has accumulated from past experiences, the heavy hand of these experiences places boundaries on current knowledge; especially on the ways professionals define problems and think about processes. The Transportation Experience provides perspective for the collections of models and techniques that are the essence of transportation science, and also expands the boundaries of current knowledge of the field.

Shinkansen
Shinkansen

Author: Christopher Hood

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-04-18

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1134360886

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The image of the shinkansen – or ‘bullet train’ – passing Mount Fuji is one of the most renowned images of modern Japan. Yet, despite its international reputation for speed and punctuality, little is understood about what makes it work so well and what its impact is. This is a comprehensive account of the history of the shinkansen, from its planning during the Pacific War, to its launch in 1964 and subsequent development. It goes on to analyze the reasons behind the bullet train’s success, and demonstrates how it went from being simply a high-speed rail network to attaining the status of iconic national symbol. It considers the shinkansen’s relationship with national and regional politics and economic development, its financial viability, the environmental challenges it must cope with, and the ways in which it reflects and influences important aspects of Japanese society. It concludes by considering whether the bullet train can be successful in other countries developing high-speed railways. Overall, this book provides a thorough examination of the phenomenon of the shinkansen, and its relationship with Japanese society.

Transport Revolutions
Transport Revolutions

Author: Richard Gilbert

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-05-16

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1136550917

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Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil sets out the challenges to our growing dependence on transport fuelled by low-priced oil. These challenges include an early peak in world oil production and profound climate change resulting in part from oil use. It proposes responses to ensure effective, secure movement of people and goods in ways that make the best use of renewable sources of energy while minimizing environmental impacts. Transport Revolutions synthesizes engineering, economics, environment, organization, policy and technology, and draws extensively on current data to present important conclusions. The authors argue that land transport in the first half of the 21st century will feature at least two revolutions. One will involve the use of electric drives rather than internal combustion engines. Another will involve powering many of these drives directly from the electric grid - as trains and trolley buses are powered today - rather than from on-board fuel. They go on to discuss marine transport, whose future is less clear, and aviation, which could see the most dramatic breaks from current practice. With its expert analysis of the politics and business of transport, Transport Revolutions is essential reading for professionals and students in transport, energy, town planning and public policy.

Japan: A Documentary History: Vol 2: The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present
Japan: A Documentary History: Vol 2: The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present

Author: David J. Lu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-04

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1317467094

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An updated edition of David Lu's acclaimed "Sources of Japanese History", this two volume book presents in a student-friendly format original Japanese documents from Japan's mythological beginnings through 1995. Covering the full spectrum of political, economic, diplomatic as well as cultural and intellectual history, this classroom resource offers insight not only into the past but also into Japan's contemporary civilisation. This volume covers from the late 18th century up to 1995. Three major criteria used in the document selection were that: the selection avoids duplication with other collections - 75% of the documents presented here are newly translated; a document accurately reflects the spirit of the times and the life-styles of the people; and emphasis is on the development of social, economic and political institutions.

Japan: A Documentary History
Japan: A Documentary History

Author: David J. Lu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-14

Total Pages: 642

ISBN-13: 1317467140

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An updated edition of David Lu's acclaimed "Sources of Japanese History", this book presents in a student-friendly format original Japanese documents from Japan's mythological beginnings through 1995. Covering the full spectrum of political, economic, diplomatic as well as cultural and intellectual history, this classroom resource offers insight not only into the past but also into Japan's contemporary civilisation. Three major criteria used in the document selection were that: the selection avoids duplication with other collections - 75% of the documents presented here are newly translated; a document accurately reflects the spirit of the times and the life-styles of the people; and emphasis is on the development of social, economic and political institutions.

Minicars, Maglevs, and Mopeds
Minicars, Maglevs, and Mopeds

Author: Selima Sultana

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2016-04-18

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 1440834954

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This book provides a fascinating look at the amazing diversity of forms of travel and transport around the world today in the context of cultures, politics, economics, and environment of a place. Across the timeline of human history, transportation has played a role in the migration of people and information, nation-building, economic development, environmental alteration, access to and the use of resources, and even the fall of civilizations. This single-volume reference presents more than 150 entries that describe the most up-to-date surface transport technologies and routes in use on every continent, including a broad range of road vehicles, railroads, person-powered vehicles, and even animals used for transportation. The book melds transportation geography with culture, politics, economics, and environment of place in its coverage of vehicles, transportation technologies, and some of the most famous streets, rail systems, and highways from around the world. The entries are written by transport geography scholars to be accessible to general readers without technical backgrounds. Each entry incorporates cross references that allow readers to easily find related entries, making the book ideal for conducting specific research or completing school projects.

On the Fast Track
On the Fast Track

Author: Jacob Meunier

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13:

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For much of the postwar era, French society had a contradictory view of passenger trains, scorning them as quaint anachronisms on the one hand, yet also fearing their economic and social impact. All this changed with the introduction of the famed Train á Grande Vitesse (TGV) between Paris and Lyon in the early 1980s. In vivid detail, Meunier describes the political, economic, and social factors that both helped and hindered the development of the world's fastest, most technologically advanced train. The present-day enthusiasm in France for high-speed rail travel dates only to the successful launch of the now-famous TGV in 1981. Until now, most published accounts of French high-speed rail have been of a technical nature and have ignored or minimized the historical, political, economic, and social context. Historians have been left with detailed descriptions of locomotives and experimental test runs, but there has been scant information cercerning why the machines were built and why the tests were carried out in the first place. This book is the first full-length treatment of high-speed rail travel and the bibliography is one of the most complete on the subject.