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End of the line for Japan's only all-double-decker 'Max' E4 series bullet train
- jbm 5y agoThis is so sad. I used to take that bullet train back and forth to go skiing at Gala Yuzawa. My kids loved it. Unfortunately, the lack of any real cargo space meant people who were carrying their own equipment had to improvise (a lot). The lack of any service in car was probably a pain for JR too. I'll always have my Transformers representation (https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:MidnightExpressProto.jpg https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:MidnightExpressProto.jpg). Goodbye Max Toki
- suction 5y agoYou're taking kids to Japan?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- junon 5y agoSome people even live in Japan.
- labster 5y agoNo one lives there any more — it’s too crowded.
- GordonS 5y agoSerious question: why would you be surprised about that?
- suction 5y agoJapan isn't really safe for kids and women. And by that I don't mean mugging or robbing or violence, but sexual harassment like touching, flashing, etc.
- jbm 5y agoThey also have Japanese ancestry, why wouldn't I? Frankly I agree with what (I think you are) saying; it isn't the greatest tourism spot if you are a family. Tokyo is allergic to children.
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 5y agoThe article doesn’t mention the reason. Does anybody know more?
- johncoltrane 5y agoThey simply reached their end of life and are progressively replaced with newer models.
- wayoutthere 5y agoYou can forgive an American not understanding this as most of our public transit vehicles are older than us because they never replace them.
- johncoltrane 5y agoThere are still very old trains in circulation on all sorts of lines in Japan, but I heard that 20-25 years is the baseline life expectancy for rolling stock. It is very good for business and for trainspotters.
- Tijdreiziger 5y agoWow, that's way shorter than here in the Netherlands. AFAIK, rolling stock over here is revised after ~20 years, after which it goes back in service for another ~20 years before being retired.
- kps 5y agoCanada has cars over 70 years old in regular service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Via_Rail_rolling_stock#Stainless_steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Via_Rail_rolling_stock...
- sandworm101 5y agoCanada's passenger rail system is not exactly a market leader. It is ossified, as it seems are most of its customers. And given the distances and terrain between major Canadian cities, trains will just never win out against air travel.
- kunagi7 5y agoThanks for all this years Max E4! This train was quite a jump on Shinkansens with double-decker cars. Sadly there are slower than more recent series, just limited to 240km/h compared to the 260km/h of the E7 series or the 320km/h of the E5 series. Also, the article contains some nice photos: https://mainichi.jp/english/graphs/20210930/hpe/00m/0bu/001000g/2 https://mainichi.jp/english/graphs/20210930/hpe/00m/0bu/0010...
- SapporoChris 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E4_Series_Shinkansen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E4_Series_Shinkansen Has a nice details and good interior photos. Even the exterior photos without much reference, the train appears massive!
- mym1990 5y agoThe lines on the photo of the E5 next to the E4 are magnificent, beautiful engineering and design.
- jacquesm 5y agoThat E5 looks amazing.