| By
one method of comparing speeds, the Model 500 is actually faster than the TGV.
JR has applied to Britain's Guinness Book of Records
for acknowledgement as the world's fastest train in terms of average speed between
two stations, having averaged 261.8 kph between Hiroshima and Kokura. According
to the 1997 Guinness, the record holder is a TGV that travelled at an average
speed of 253 kph between Paris and another station. The
new train operates twice a day between Shin-Osaka and Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture,
stopping at Okayama, Hiroshima and Kokura. It connects
Shin-Osaka and Hakata in two hours and 17 minutes, clipping 15 minutes off the
travel time of a conventional Nozomi. The first shinkansen
route between Shin-Osaka and Hakata in 1975 took three hours and 44 minutes at
a speed of 210 kph. Meanwhile, East Japan Railways
have recently launched a mini-bullet-train service linking Tokyo and Akita in
northeastern Japan. The trains, called Komachi, are
smaller than bullet trains, enabling them to run on conventional tracks. They
run 13 times a day, connecting Tokyo and Akita in 3 hours and 49 minutes, clipping
48 minutes off the previous time for the same route. This
service is thought to be significant, as it will promote relations between the
Tokyo area and northeastern Japan. | 
