Japanese Railway Service Company Holds Test Of Autonomous Shinkansen Bullet Train

Illustration of the E7 Series Shinkansen. (Wikimedia Commons/雑用部)

JAKARTA - The Japanese rail service company East Japan Railway Co. invited the media to observe a test run of the autonomously operated shinkansen bullet train in Niigata Prefecture last Wednesday, as it plans to introduce driverless trains in the future.

During tests carried out in the wee hours of the morning, the 12-car bullet train ran without manual intervention, after the driver switched it to automatic mode. The E7 series trains are driven remotely, i.e. from the control center.

It was the first test in Japan of the autonomous operation of a bullet train already available in commercial service.

While the final destination was a driverless train, several drivers and other staff members were on board the train during Wednesday's test to respond to any emergency situations.

After walking about 5 kilometers from Niigata Station and approaching the target top speed of 110 km per hour, the train stops at the Niigata shinkansen train depot. It missed the intended stopping point by 8 centimeters, but this was still within the permissible limit of 50 cm.

Citing Kyodo News Nov. 17, a JR East official said the technique for stopping autonomous trains was 'almost the same' as operation by a driver, adding the company hoped to improve it further.

The train company has been testing the autonomous shinkansen for technical checks since October 29. The company has also been testing getting trains to emergency stops.

It said, however, that it had yet to decide when it would fully introduce the autonomous driving system on the shinkansen bullet train network.

For driverless operation, it is also necessary to monitor the rails and inside the train remotely. Therefore, JR East is also testing the use of a 5G high-speed local communication service to send high-quality video footage from the train to the control center in real-time.

In addition, the operator has carried out similar autonomous driving tests on its trains on the busy Yamanote loop line in Tokyo, as well as the so-called prototype of the new shinkansen train "Alfa-X".

Other major rail companies conducting tests for autonomous driving are West Japan Railway Co., and Kyushu Railway Co., which have conducted tests on the Osaka Loop Line and local service Kashii Line, respectively.

In Japan, an automatic rail operation system has been introduced on some monorail services, which have no tracks or crossings at ground level.