Travelocity is an online travel agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007. Travelocity is based in Southlake, Texas, with additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, San Antonio and abroad.

According to Sabre Holdings, Travelocity is the sixth-largest travel agency in the United States and the second-largest online travel agency. In addition to its primary US consumer site, Travelocity operates a full-service business agency, Travelocity Business, and comparable websites in Canada, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom. Sister sites include lastminute.com in Europe and Zuji in Asia. Other brands include World Choice Travel, a travel affiliate marketing program, IgoUgo, an online travel community and travel-planning resource, and AllHotels, an online hotel reservation site.

American Airlines began offering customer access to its electronic reservation system, SABRE, in 1978 to travel agencies, and in the mid-80s on the CompuServe Information Service to consumers under the "EAASY SABRE" brand name. This service was extended to America Online in the 1990s.

Travelocity was created in 1996 as a subsidiary of Sabre Holdings, itself a subsidiary of American Airlines, and was run by long-time Sabre I.T. executive Terrell B. "Terry" Jones. As one of the pioneers of web-based disintermediation, Travelocity.com was the first website that allowed consumers themselves not only to access Sabre's fare and schedule information, but also to reserve, book, and purchase tickets without the help of a travel agent or broker. In addition to airfares, the site also permits consumers to book hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and packaged vacations.

Travelocity gained momentum after AOL's travel portal became associated with the brand in 1999. In 2000, Sabre negotiated a merger of Travelocity with another early web travel company, Preview Travel. The resulting company was independently quoted on the NASDAQ exchange, with Sabre continuing to own around 70 percent of the combined company's outstanding stock. In 2002, with Travelocity's fortunes suffering from competition including Expedia and Orbitz, Sabre consummated a tender offer for the remainder of the outstanding shares in Travelocity and remerged the business into Sabre as a subsidiary. Jones left the company shortly afterward.

Also in March 2002, Travelocity acquired last minute travel specialist Site59.com. Site59’s CEO and founder, Michelle Peluso joined Travelocity with the acquisition as senior vice president, product strategy and distribution. Peluso became Travelocity’s COO in April 2003 and was then named president and chief executive officer of Travelocity in December 2003.

In 2004, Travelocity introduced "The Roaming Gnome." Voiced by Harry Enfield, the Gnome has been a staple in Travelocity's advertising ever since. The original campaign was invented by Lisa Shimotakahara and Philip Marchington of McKinney & Silver, an advertising agency in Durham, North Carolina. The tagline, "You'll never roam alone", was written by John Guynn, a copywriter at the same agency.

In 2005, Travelocity acquired lastminute.com to take in excess of 30 more brands under its banner in the UK.

Under Peluso’s leadership, Travelocity has developed and launched a merchant hotel business, dynamic packaging functionality, and a private-label (ASP) distribution network, the Travelocity Partner Network. Many members of Peluso’s former management team at Site59 held senior management positions at Travelocity; namely, Jeffrey Glueck (Chief Marketing Officer), Tracey Weber (President, North America), Josh Hartmann (Chief Technology Officer) and Jonathan Perkel (Senior Vice President and General Counsel). On January 8, 2009 the company announced that its CEO, Michelle Peluso would tender her resignation in order to get married and focus on bringing up a family, and that she is being replaced by long-time Sabre Sr. Executive, Hugh Jones.

Travelocity Business is a full-service corporate travel agency that allows companies to plan, buy and manage their travel through its online and offline capabilities. Travelocity Business is owned by Sabre Holdings and is the business arm of the online leisure travel agency Travelocity.

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Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. is an Internet travel company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through its primary web site Orbitz.com, Orbitz Worldwide enables travelers to research, plan and book a broad range of travel products, facilitating 1.5 million flight searches and one million hotel searches every day. Orbitz Worldwide is a publicly-traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange following its initial public offering (IPO) in July 2007. Orbitz Worldwide’s largest investor is Travelport, one of the world’s largest networks of travel brands, content and service offerings.

Originally established through a partnership of major airlines, and subsequently owned by various entities, Orbitz.com – the flagship brand of Orbitz Worldwide – has been in operation since 2001.

Other Orbitz Worldwide online travel companies include: CheapTickets, and the Away Network in the Americas; ebookers in Europe; and HotelClub and RatestoGo, based in Asia Pacific with operations globally. Orbitz Worldwide also owns and operates a corporate travel company. Orbitz was the airline industry's response to the rise of online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity, as well as a solution to the continued increase in Global Distribution System (GDS) fees. Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and United Airlines, subsequently joined by American Airlines, invested a combined $145 million to start the project in November 1999. It was code-named T2 — some claimed, meaning "Travelocity Terminator" – but adopted the brand name Orbitz when it commenced corporate operations as DUNC, LLC (the initials of its first four founding airlines) in February 2000. The company began Beta testing early the next year, and Orbitz.com officially launched in June 2001.

Even before the site began operating, the company faced intense antitrust scrutiny – because five of the six oligopolist "major" airlines were collaborating on the project. Collectively, they controlled 80 percent of the US air travel market. Several consumer organizations, as well as Orbitz's primary competitors at the time (Expedia, Sabre, Travelocity, Galileo) spent significant amounts of money lobbying the United States Department of Transportation to block the project from the outset, and some 23 state attorneys general also voiced concerns due to the complaints of local competitors. When the DOT permitted the company to move ahead in April 2001, the competitive lobbying effort was switched to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Among the concerns raised were these:

• above all, the so-called Most Favored Nation provision, by which the airlines agreed not to cut deals with competing sites under more favorable terms than with Orbitz
• the airlines' agreement to release certain discount fares only to Orbitz or other entities at Orbitz low distribution cost, at the expense of its online and offline competitors
• that Computer Reservation System fee discounts extended to partner airlines would undermine competitors and damage the fledgling online travel industry
• that the airlines would coordinate efforts secretly to reduce discounts
• Orbitz was breaking out the service fee from the ticket price, not making the total price clear

The Interactive Travel Services Association (ITSA), an organization of Internet travel agencies and GDSes - all Orbitz competitors - issued a report in December 2001 arguing that Orbitz was stifling its members.

Partly in response to consumer advocate complaints, Orbitz announced in May 2002 it would make its fares available to customers via its call center for those consumers that did not have computer or internet access.

In July 2003, the Department of Justice ruled that Orbitz was not a cartel and did not pose a threat to competition. Orbitz's rapid growth had not impeded its online competitors' businesses which had continued to grow apace, and no evidence was found of price fixing. Additionally, changes in the marketplace had eroded both the advantages of the Most Favored Nation clause and the webfares that Orbitz had due to its low supplier cost.

In August 2003, Orbitz filed to do an initial public offering (IPO). Businessweek, commenting on the proposed IPO, noted that Orbitz lost $5.3 million in the first half of 2003 on revenue of $107 million; that airlines would control the board of directors of Orbitz even after the IPO; and that much of Orbitz's business model was structured to benefit the airlines at the cost of (future) shareholders. In November, Orbitz filed paperwork to sell shares at between $22 and $24 each. The company went public on December 18, 2003 at a price per share of $26. After the IPO, the airlines held 70% of the outstanding stock and over 90% of the voting power. Because Orbitz had such a strong brand and consumer acceptance, most shareholders saw the carrier ownership as very positive for its long term sustainability.

On September 29, 2004, Orbitz was acquired for $1.25 billion by New York City-based Cendant Corporation. Cendant paid $27.50 per share.

Given Cendant's spate of acquisitions in Europe, there has been some speculation about Orbitz being exported to Europe as a brand or the continued use of acquired Cendant brands like ebookers and Octopus Travel. Currently, there is a large project underway to migrate all Cendant brands onto a common technology platform, with ebookers being migrated to the new platform first, followed by CheapTickets.

In June 2006, The Blackstone Group, entered into a definitive agreement with Cendant Corp to acquire Travelport, its travel distribution services business for about $4.3B in cash, a significant reduction in value to the original acquisition prices of the individual companies. At the time, Travelport included the Orbitz travel reservation website used by consumers, the Galileo computer reservations system used by airlines and thousands of travel agents, Gulliver’s Travels and Associates wholesale travel business, and numerous other travel related software brands and solutions.

Travelport announced in May 2007 that it had filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell a portion of Orbitz Worldwide in an initial public offering (IPO). Travelport said it planned to use a portion of the proceeds to pay down its debt. Trading began on July 20, 2007, and the IPO transaction closed on July 25, 2007. Travelport continues to own approximately 48 percent of Orbitz Worldwide following the IPO. As a result, Orbitz Worldwide remains an affiliate of Travelport. Orbitz Worldwide is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol OWW. The Orbitz IPO has been regarded by some as one of the worst of 2007.

Orbitz runs on a Red Hat Linux, Sun Solaris based platform and was an early adopter of Sun's Jini platform in a clustered Java environment. Both JBoss and Oracle WebLogic Server are used as application servers within their environment along with various other proprietary and open source software. Orbitz licenses ITA Software's Lisp-powered QPX software to power their site. Orbitz and ebookers are developing a common technology platform, which would enable the same platform to service multiple travel brands in multiple languages in different markets and currencies as well.

Southwest Airlines filed a lawsuit against Orbitz for trademark infringement and false advertising in May 2001. Southwest, which had opposed the project from the outset, claimed Orbitz misrepresented its prices and used its trademarks without permission. In July, it withdrew its fares from Airline Tariff Publishing Company, the entity that distributes fare information to Orbitz and others, and dropped its case against Orbitz. Southwest went on to remove themselves from every other online outlet except their own, southwest.com.

In June 2008, however, Orbitz For Business became one of the first Online Travel Agents to offer Southwest flights on the Orbitz For Business website.

In July 2009 CNET revealed that Orbitz, along with other popular consumer websites Buy.com and Fandango, have been routinely giving post-transaction marketers access to their customers' credit cards. The Senate Commerce Committee investigating these companies has described their services as a "scam". The scam works by charging a monthly fee (many users report a $12 charge from Reservation Rewards or Webloyalty showing up on their credit card statements) that is piggybacked with the Orbitz sale (as it stands, Orbitz Terms of Service agreement currently allows them to share customers' credit card information with third parties for their own uses). In spite of countless complaints and an ongoing U.S. Senate Investigation, Orbitz still maintains an affiliation with the controversial marketer.

In 2009, the state of New Jersey filed a lawsuit against the company alleging violation of their Consumer Fraud Act surrounding events with a Bruce Springsteen concert, where tickets were offered for sale on their website which did not actually exist. The court in Milgram v. Orbitz granted summary judgment for Orbitz, finding that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act preempted the state law consumer fraud claims.

In December 2010, American Airlines ceased offering fares through Orbitz following pressure from American to convince Orbitz to use its AA Direct Connect electronic transaction system. AA tries to establish Direct Connect's to have the full control over the distribution of its products and to reduce GDS segment fees. Furthermore, Direct Connects enable AA to sell ancillary services to its customers.

Orbitz has been known to subtly slip "travel insurance" fees onto the very last "final confirmation" page of the purchase flow. Inattentive users who don't notice the newly-added item before pressing the "purchase now" button end up purchasing insurance they may not want. Web searches for "Orbitz travel scam" yield a long history of complaints by people who feel this subtle opt-out purchase is an unethical business practice.

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The CRH380A is an electric bullet train designed by China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR) and manufactured by CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co., Ltd. A continuation of the CRH2-350 program it both replaces foreign technology in the CRH2 with Chinese developments and increases the top speed. The CRH380A is designed to operate at a cruise speed of 350 km/h (217 mph) and a maximum of 380 km/h (236 mph) in commercial service. The original 8-car train-set recorded a top speed of 416.6 km/h (258.9 mph) during a trial run and the longer 16-car train-set holds the world record for the fastest production train at 486.1 km/h (302.0 mph).

CRH380A is one of the four Chinese train series which have been designed for the new standard operating speed of 380 km/h (236 mph) on newly constructed Chinese high-speed main lines. The other three are CRH380B, CRH380C and CRH380D. The CRH380B has been developed by China North Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry (Group) Corporation (CNR) in cooperation with Siemens, and it is manufactured by Tangshan Railway Vehicle and Changchun Railway Vehicle. The CRH380C is based on the CRH380B. It incorporates a redesigned nose and electrical equipment from Hitachi. The CRH380D is Bombardier's Zefiro 380, which is a special design for China Railway, to be produced at Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd, a joint venture by Bombadier and CSR Sifang.

The development started in early 2008, during the research procedure of CRH2-300 (later CRH2C), the CSR conducted more than 1000 technical tests covering 17 specific areas such as dynamic performance, pantograph-catenary current collection, aerodynamics, and traction performance. CSR discovered the technology to increase the maximum speed. These research findings were fed into the design for the new-generation high-speed train.

The original project was named "CRH2-350". On February 26, 2008,the Chinese Ministry of Science and Ministry of Railway signed the Agreement on Joint and Independent Innovations of China High-speed Trains, CRH2-350 is one of the most important projects of this plan, the purpose is to develop Chinese designed new-generation High Speed train with continuous operating speed to be 350 km/h (217 mph), and maximum operating speed up to 380 km/h (236 mph). The new generations of rolling stock are expected to be used on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. the project officially launched in 2009, and was included in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan"'s National technology support program for key technology and equipment development of China' s high speed train.

The design work includes four categories: schematic, technical, construction, and experimentation/verification. based on the analysis of large amounts of data and experience from the operation of the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed rail. the MOR completed a series of initial system and optimized subsystem design, then provided CSR sifang with primary data and design. CSR presented more than 20 types of designs. After further comparison, calculation, optimization, simulation and testwork, on April 12, 2010, the final design was published on the Official conference held by Sifang.The train model was exhibited in May at the China Railway Pavilion in the Shanghai World Expo Park (IRJ July p5).

On September 2009, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) for china had ordered 100 16-car and 40 eight-car new-generation high-speed trains from CSR Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock, the contract worth 45 billion RMB (US$ 6.64 billion).

According to CSR, the overall design of CRH380A reflects ten major goals.

• Low-resistance, streamlined head. The nose of the train has a resistance coefficient of less than 0.13, aerodynamic resistance was reduced by 6.1%, aerodynamic noise by 7%, aerodynamic lift by 51.7% and the lateral force acting on the head by 6.1%.
• Vibration mode system matching. The CRH380A uses a lightweight aluminum alloy body whose total weight is no more than 9 t (8.9 LT; 9.9 ST), less than 17% of the entire vehicle; CSR has comprehensively improved the body structure, adopting a large number of new vibration damping materials. It also designed the bogie to match the performance of the body and optimized the train body's natural frequencies, which helps reduce structural vibrations at high speeds and improves ride comfort.
• Highly pressurized tight body. The pressure change rate inside the train is less than 200 Pa (0.029 psi)/s, with the maximum pressure change inside the train remaining below 800 Pa (0.12 psi) compared with the standard value of 1,000 Pa (0.15 psi). This ensures good ride quality at high speed.
• Safe and reliable high-speed bogies. The train is equipped with SWMB-400/SWTB-400 bolster-less bogies. These are a redesign of the SWMB-350/SWTB-350 bogies used by CRH2C; their critical instability speed is 550 km/h (342 mph). The new train's derail coefficient is 0.34 at a speed of 386 km/h (240 mph) while the maximun derail coefficient of the CRH2A is 0.73.
• Advanced noise control technology. By reducing sources of noise and adopting new sound absorbing and insulating materials, CSR has been able to control noise inside the train. The noise level is at 67dB - 69dB when running at 350 km/h (217 mph), which is similar to the CRH2A running at 250 km/h (155 mph).
• High-performance traction system, with YQ-365 motors manufactured by CSR Zhuzhou Electric Co., Ltd and CI11 Traction converters by Zhuzhou times electric co.,Ltd. The CRH380A has a new power unit configuration to maximize traction power. This allows the train to accelerate to 380 km/h (236 mph) in 7 minutes.
• Regenerative braking with a maximum energy feedback rate of 95%. With each stop nearly 800 kWh of electric power can be fed back to the electric grid.

The prototype vehicle was rolled off on April, 2010, the eight-car train was being tested on the China Academy of Railway Sciences experimental loop line (Beijing loop line) startes from April 26, 2010. and started trial runs on the Zhengzhou - Xi'an high-speed line on June 7, 2010.

The initial standard CRH380A trainsets was delivered on August 2010, The first test on conventional rail, based on a daily-service mode, was conducted on September 28, 2010.

The test was held on the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway (also known as the Huhang high-speed railway, "Hu" stands for "Shanghai", "Hang" stands for Hangzhou; Hangzhou is the capital city of Zhejiang Province). The trainset with series number CRH380A-6001 reached the maximum speed of 416.6 km/h (258.9 mph).

The first set of CRH380AL, series number CRH380A-6041L, rolled off line by October 2010. On November 8, 2010, the 16-car train was sent to Beijing loop line for test. On November 20, 2010, the train was sent to Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway for trial run. On November 26, 2010, the first 380 km/h (236 mph) test run at the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway was launched at Zaozhuang - Bengbu section. The trainset with series number CRH380A-6041L reached the maximum speed of 486.1 km/h (302.0 mph) on December 3, 2010. During the test, It traveled 220 km (137 mi) in 34 minutes, at average speed of 388 km/h (241 mph).

CRH380A entered into daily service immediately after the test. Since September 30, 2010, it has been serving the Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway occasionally.

On October 26, 2010, CRH380A entered regular service at the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway and Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway. The maximum operational speed reaches 355 km/h (221 mph), and this is always restricted by the software of the computerized control system. The travel time between Shanghai and Hangzhou reduced from 1 hour 18 minutes to 45 minutes. and travel time between Nanjing and Hangzhou reduced from 3 hour 19 minutes to 2 hour 48 minutes.

CRH380A started daily service at the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway as of December 3, 2010.

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The Shinkansen, also known as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by four Japan Railways Group companies. Starting with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen in 1964, the network has expanded to currently consist of 2,387.7 km (1,483.6 mi) of lines with maximum speeds of 240–300 km/h (149–186 mph), 283.5 km (176.2 mi) of Mini-shinkansen with a maximum speed of 130 km/h (81 mph) and 10.3 km (6.4 mi) of spur lines with Shinkansen services. The network presently links most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, with construction of a link to the northern island of Hokkaido underway and plans to increase speeds on the Tōhoku Shinkansen up to 320 km/h (199 mph). Test runs have reached 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record 581 km/h (361 mph) for maglev trainsets in 2003.

The popular English name bullet train is a literal translation of the Japanese term dangan ressha, a nickname given to the project while it was initially being discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck because of the original 0 Series Shinkansen's resemblance to a bullet and its high speed.

The Shinkansen name was first formally used in 1940 for a proposed standard gauge passenger and freight line between Tokyo and Shimonoseki that would have used steam and electric locomotives with a top speed of 200 km/h (120 mph). Over the next three years, the Ministry of Railways drew up more ambitious plans to extend the line to Beijing (through a tunnel to Korea) and even Singapore, and build connections to the Trans-Siberian Railway and other trunk lines in Asia. These plans were abandoned in 1943 as Japan's position in World War II worsened. However, some construction did commence on the line; several tunnels on the present-day Shinkansen date to the war-era project.

Following the end of World War II, high-speed rail was forgotten for several years while traffic of passengers and freight steadily increased on the conventional Tōkaidō Main Line along with the reconstruction of Japanese industry and economy. By the mid-1950s the Tōkaidō Line was operating at full capacity, and the Ministry of Railways decided to revisit the Shinkansen project. In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its 3000 series SE "Romancecar" train, setting a world speed record of 145 km/h (90 mph) for a narrow gauge train. This train gave designers the confidence that they could safely build an even faster standard gauge train. Thus the first Shinkansen, the 0 series, was built on the success of the Romancecar.

In 1950s, it was widely believed that railways would soon be outdated and replaced by air travel and highways as in America and many countries in Europe. However, Shinji Sogo, President of Japan National Railways, insisted strongly on the possibility of high-speed rail, and the Shinkansen project was implemented.

Government approval came in December 1958, and construction of the first segment of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in April 1959. The cost of constructing the Shinkansen was at first estimated at nearly 200 billion yen, which was raised in the form of a government loan, railway bonds and a low-interest loan of US$80 million from the World Bank. Initial cost estimates, however, had been deliberately understated and the actual figures were nearly double at about 400 billion yen. As the budget shortfall became clear in 1963, Sogo resigned to take responsibility.

Shinkansen literally means new trunk line, referring to the tracks, but the name is widely used inside and outside Japan to refer to the trains as well as the system as a whole. The name Superexpress, initially used for Hikari trains, was retired in 1972 but is still used in English-language announcements and signage.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the world's busiest high-speed rail line. Carrying 151 million passengers a year (March 2008), it has transported more passengers (over 4 billion, network over 6 billion) than any other high speed line in the world. Between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, up to thirteen trains per hour with sixteen cars each (1,323 seats capacity) run in each direction with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains. Though largely a long-distance transport system, the Shinkansen also serves commuters who travel to work in metropolitan areas from outlying cities.

Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high speed travel. Because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds. Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high speed lines than countries where the existing standard gauge or broad gauge rail system had more upgrade potential.

Among the key people credited with the construction of the first Shinkansen are – Hideo Shima, the Chief Engineer, and Shinji Sogo, the first President of Japan National Railways (JNR) who managed to persuade politicians to back the plan. Other significant people responsible for its technical development were – Tadanao Miki, Tadashi Matsudaira, and Hajime Kawanabe based at the Railway Technology Research Institute (RTRI), part of JNR. They were responsible for much of the technical development of the first line - the Tokaido Shinkansen. All three had worked on aircraft design during World War II.

To enable high-speed operation, Shinkansen uses advanced technologies compared with conventional rail, and it achieved not only high speed but also a high standard of safety and comfort. Its success has influenced other railways in the world and the importance and advantage of high-speed rail has consequently been revalued.

Shinkansen routes are completely separate from conventional rail lines (except Mini-shinkansen which goes through to conventional lines). Consequently, Shinkansen is not affected by slower local or freight trains and has the capacity to operate many high-speed trains punctually. The lines have been built without road crossings at grade.Tracks are strictly off-limits with penalties against trespassing strictly regulated by law. It uses tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles rather than around them, with a minimum curve radius of 4,000 meters (2,500 meters on the oldest Tōkaidō Shinkansen).

The Shinkansen uses 1,435 mm standard gauge in contrast to the 1,067 mm narrow gauge of older lines. Continuous welded rail and Swingnose crossing are employed, eliminating gaps at turnouts and crossings. Long rails are used, joined by expansion joints to minimize gauge fluctuation due to thermal elongation and shrinkage.

A combination of ballasted and slab track are used, with slab track exclusively employed on concrete bed sections such as viaducts and tunnels. Slab track is significantly more cost-effective in tunnel sections, since the lower track height reduces the cross-sectional area of the tunnel, thereby reducing construction costs by up to 30%

The Shinkansen employs an ATC (Automatic Train Control) system, eliminating the need for trackside signals. It uses a comprehensive system of Automatic Train Protection. Centralized traffic control manages all train operations, and all tasks relating to train movement, track, station and schedule are networked and computerized.

Shinkansen uses a 25,000 V AC overhead power supply (20,000 V AC on Mini-shinkansen lines), to overcome the limitations of the 1,500 V Direct current used on the existing electrified narrow-gauge system. Power is distributed along the axles of the train to reduce the heavy axle loads under single power cars.

Shinkansen trains are electric multiple unit style, offering high acceleration and deceleration, and reduced damage to the track because of lighter vehicles. The coaches are air-sealed to ensure stable air pressure when entering tunnels at high speed.

The Shinkansen is very reliable thanks to several factors, including its near-total separation from slower traffic. In 2003, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average arrival time was within six seconds of the scheduled time. This includes all natural and human accidents and errors and was calculated over roughly 160,000 Shinkansen trips completed. The previous record, from 1997, was 18 seconds.

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