E2 Series Shinkansen
From Free net encyclopedia
The E2 Series Shinkansen are new trains built between 1997 and 2005 for Japan's Joetsu, Tohoku and Nagano Shinkansen high-speed dedicated rail lines. They are formed in 8- or 10-car sets, and the 10-car sets can be coupled to E3 Series Shinkansen Komachi sets using couplers hidden behind sliding nose doors.
Their maximum speed is 275 km/h (170 mph) although large stretches of the lines on which they run have lower speed limits.
An E2-1000 Series train broke the Japanese rail speed record for a production train (i.e. not a dedicated test train) in April 2003 when it reached a speed of 362 km/h during a series of late-night high-speed test runs between Urasa and Niigata on the Joetsu Shinkansen.