Tōkaidō Line – London Rail

The New Tōkaidō Line/Tōkaidō Shinkansen

This is an introductory list of posts covering the comprehensive history of the world’s first Shinkansen or high speed railway – the line from Tokyo to Osaka.

The high speed New Tōkaidō line in fact began construction in the 1930s but WWII and other factors delayed the work.

It was during the late 1950s that the project regained credence and full authorisation was given to complete the Shinkansen in time for the World’s Fair of 1964 being held in Tokyo.

The first page – The Tōkaidō Shinkansen – was published on 22nd January 2020. That was meant to be the one and only post. However it soon prompted the question whether there were any in-depth articles on the Shinkansen on English speaking websites. There were barely any – apart from Christopher Hood’s and even that, comprehensive as it was, didn’t cover some of the areas London Rail was wanting to know more about. Hence a lot of in-depth research was undertaken and the series soon developed and expanded considerably.

These are the only other substantial series on London Rail besides the more recent ‘Railways and Canal Tunnels’ series (which has run to five posts so far) and the much older ‘85 Years of the tube beyond Finsbury Park‘ – which was an anniversary series comprehensively detailing the history, development and construction of the Piccadilly Line from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. That ran from September to December 2017 with a total of sixteen posts! Unfortunately those are not available at the moment – apart from two 2024 compositions derived from the Cockfosters and Southgate stations posts.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen

While we in the UK battle wits over whether a new high speed railway should be built or not, I thought it would be a good idea to do a feature on the world’s first ever high speed railway – the New Tōkaidō Line. It was originally planned in 1940 albeit with lower speeds. Although […]

The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #1

Writing a comprehensive history upon the origins of Japan’s Shinkansen is a large project indeed – and few in the English world have sought to undertake such a task with the exception of Dr. Christopher Hood who is an expert on Japan and has penned a notable history of the Shinanksen. I’ve only read t…

The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #2

This is the second part of the planning/construction of the Shinaksen. Its straight in to the history! The construction of the Shinkansen would require enormous investment, some thought it would be as much as 200 billion yen. A significant proportion of the funds would have to be raised from banking institutes. In 1959…

The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #3

The third instalment in this comprehensive series on the origins of the Shinkasen! We begin with the notion the new line would be affectionately named Yume no Chōtokkyū – or the ‘Super Dream Express.’ The older (eg 1930s era) and considerably more popular name which many use – ‘Bullet trai…

The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #4

The fourth instalment in this comprehensive series on the origins of the Shinkasen! This covers a series of photographs of the line’s construction between Tokyo and Osaka, with the former and latter stations well represented, as seen during 1963. There’s also some detail about the construction of the New Ta…

The Tokyo to Osaka Line: A history #5

The year is now 1964 and the New Tokaido Line is ready to be opened! The 515.4 kilometres (320miles) between Tokyo and Osaka was opened to critical acclaim in October 1964 and instantly became a world wide hit. High speed trains were the future! In the line’s early days the services were limited to a […]

The Tokyo to Osaka Line #6

Following the publication of the five parts of the The Tokyo to Osaka Line covering the classic railway route and the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, follow ups were drafted. Largely completed with technical stuff and other gems on the New Tōkaidō Line, as well as its drivers and engineers etc. In other words other aspects of the …

The Tokyo to Osaka Line #7

Following the publication of the five parts of the The Tokyo to Osaka Line covering the classic railway route and the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the sixth, seventh and eighth parts were drawn up covering other aspects of the New Tōkaidō Line. In other words mostly stuff that’s little known to the English speaking world!…

The Tokyo to Osaka Line #8

Following the publication of the five parts of the The Tokyo to Osaka Line covering the classic railway route and the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, three further parts were drawn up covering other aspects of the New Tōkaidō Line. In other words mostly stuff that’s little known to the English speaking world! Due to numerous…