The Japanese are the natural successors to George Stephenson. I know that a lot has happened in the world of railways since The Rocket first operated in 1831, but in the modern era there just isn't another country that puts so much emphasis and invests as heavily on its railroads. Today Japan Railways opened a new bullet train station at Shinagawa in Tokyo and it was headline news. Literally. The government is in trouble, the yen is getting stronger and an important new truck emissions law came into effect in the Tokyo region today, but NHK (the national broadcaster) led with the new station. It took six and a half years and 95 billion yen (about US$850 million) to build the place, and it will accomodate 70,000 passengers per day. Like the trains themselves, you can guarantee the station will run efficiently, but at that cost it better had!
Posted by Joe at October 1, 2003 08:38 PMLet's not forget the new anti-smoking ordinance in Shinagawa-ku. Now *that's* progress!
Anyone happen to know the temperature in hell?
Posted by: DJ at October 2, 2003 11:45 AMIt has taken a long time for the bullet train to go from 6-9 in non-smoking carriages to either 10-5 or 11-4. They got there in the end though and I thank Japan Railways almost everytime I get on a 'shink'.
The temperature in hell is decreasing because that's where we get our global warming from! ;+)
Posted by: Joe at October 2, 2003 12:01 PM