Japan is once again at the forefront of global rail transport with a high-speed project that promises to transform the way people travel between large cities, using magnetic levitation technology and an investment of historic scale. At stake is the future SCMaglev bullet train, designed to connect Tokyo to the center of the country in times never before recorded.

Since the first Shinkansen came into operation in 1964, Japan has built an international reputation based on the reliability, safety and constant innovation of its high-speed trains. Over several decades, the Japanese railway system has stood out for its strict punctuality and a safety record without fatalities in operational accidents.

This accumulated experience now serves as the basis for the Chuo Shinkansen, which goes beyond the traditional rail train model, relying on a profoundly different technology, developed and tested over many years.

The rolling stock planned for commercial service is the L0 Series, which has already made history by reaching 603 km/h during tests on the Yamanashi experimental track, establishing an absolute world record for railway speed, according to the same official source.

An underground work of enormous technical complexity

Environmental issues continue to hamper the calendar

The biggest obstacle to the progress of the project is in Shizuoka prefecture, where concerns persist regarding the impact of the tunnels on water resources, particularly the flow of the Oi River.

Local authorities have demanded additional guarantees that the work will not affect ecosystems or the water supply to the population, which has delayed the start of work on this section and prevented the definition of a firm schedule for the inauguration, according to the source previously mentioned.

When can commercial service start?

In its most recent financial documents, the year 2035 appears only as a technical reference for internal calculations, not as an official inauguration date. As a curiosity, the route was designed to resist earthquakes of great magnitude, a fundamental requirement in one of the countries with the greatest seismic activity in the world.

An investment that continues to increase

As for the extension to Osaka, there is still no final cost review, but the overall values ​​are expected to far exceed initial projections, confirming the Chuo Shinkansen as one of the most expensive infrastructures ever built in Japan, according to . Another curiosity is that the project is mainly financed by the railway operator itself, without directly depending on the State’s annual budget.

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