This week, we have an exciting news about shinkansen (a.k.a High Speed Train in English) with a new technology to strengthen its ride and provide more comfortable for passengers.
JR East just announced on 3 October 2018 that its newly developed train will get a code name "ALFA-X", with a real pre-production of 10 cars (car no 1 and car no 10 as a propulsion carriages) and the first train will get a number E-956 as its production series.
The ALFA-X code is an abbreviation from the words
"Advanced Labs for Frontline Activity in rail eXperimentation"
The design of this train will be different for both propulsion carriages, car no 1 (counted as the Tokyo side) will get a new length of 16 meters for its nose to reduce the effects of pressure wave especially when the train is ruuning through the tunnels while car no 10 (counted as the Aomori side) will get a longer nose at the total length of 22 meters for the same purpose as car no 1.
The current shinkansen E-5 series has a length of its nose only 15 meters long.
For the design of the train's structure, a label of "ALFA-X" will be displayed at the side of each cars with a base of green color which contrast to the silver metallic color of the train's body. The meaning and concept behind this color, according to the news, is to express the feelling of nature for the riders who is traveling on board.
ALFA-X label
New label for this series.
Propulsion carriage (car 10)
A 22 meters long to reduce the pressure wave.
Propulsion carriage (car 1)
Currently, the whole train is being built in Japan and JR East is expected to test its running capabilities at the maximum speed of 400 Kilometers/hours to evaluate its efficiency while the real production train might be reduced its speed limit to only 360 kilometers/hour for safety reason.
The initial plan for running test is expected to commit around next year during spring (April 2019) on Tohoku Shinkansen Line from Shin-Aomori Station to Tokyo Station. However, the exact date is still open and not finalized yet.
When this new series of shinkansen has come into the realm of Japan's high speed train industry, it will definitely changed the current of running train and its ability to withstand the pressure wave could be adapt to use and apply to other shinkansen that runs regularly in different regions of Japan.
Original source and pictures are taken from trafficnews.jp (Japanese)
