credits to the photo owner: images.gizmag.com/
World’s Fastest Bullet train: Maglev (shortened word for Magnetic Levitation)
Very recently, Japan made headlines worldwide for breaking world record speed, Seven-car ‘magnetic levitation’ train hits top speed of 603 km/hr less than a week after breaking the 2003 record of 581 km/hr.
But speed is not the only thing that’s amazing about Japan’s trains. Below are some few more interesting (and mostly are surprising) facts about Japan trains and train stations:
Train Station that only opens TWICE a Year:
Photo Credits: wikimedia
Tsushimanomiya Station of the JR Shikoku – Yosan Line opens only at August 4 and 5 every year to give way for the celebration of the summer festival at the Tsushima Shrine.
Most of the world’s busiest stations are in Japan the following are the ones to name a few:
Photo credits: unmissabletokyo.com/
The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Shinjuku as the world’s busiest train station, for being used by more than 3 million per day! Imagine that number of passengers that travel on this station per day?
But wait, the story does not end there. According to a report in 2013, 45 out of the world’s 50 busiest railway stations are all in Japan! The top 5 on the list includes: Yokohama Station (5th), Umeda Station (4th), Ikebukuro Station (3rd), Shibuya Station (2nd), and of course Shinjuku Station (1st).
The world’s longest suspended monorail can be also found in Japan!
Photo Credit: img1.dailyonigiri.com/
The Chiba Urban Monorail is currently the world’s longest suspended monorail. The entire track length of the monorail is 15.2 kilometers and has 18 stations.
Longest and shortest train station names:
Photo Credit: upload.wikimedia.org/
The station with the longest name is the Minami Aso Mizu No Umareru Sato Hakusui Kogen Station in Kumamoto. Despite this long name, the station is a very small provincial transportation hub.
Photo Credit: cdn.mkimg.carview.co.jp/
The station with the shortest name is the Tsu Station in Mie Prefecture which can be written with only one kanji character or one hiragana character. Many other stations can be written with one kanji but only the Tsu Station can be written with just one hiragana character.
10 stations bearing the same exact name:
Photo Credit: homemate-research-streetcar.com/
In Japan, there are 10 stations with the name Shiyakusho-Mae.
Train “Pushers”
Have you heard of Train pushers?
In Japan, During rush hours, railway station attendants called “pushers” or “oshiya” push passengers into the trains. It is unevitable due to large number of commuters who wishes to arrive at their desired locations on time that is they have to endure the pain in squeezing theirselves inside the train.
Also in Japan, if you commit suicide by jumping into an oncoming train, The train company can/will sue your family for the clean up fee, loss of income and negative publicity brought on by your suicide.
If the train is delayed for 5minutes, the train attendant will bow personally to every passenger in the train and will definitely issue a delay certificate for the passengers to show to work or school if they get late. And if it is more than that, The train may even get into the news! Interesting isn’t it?
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