Editing Shinkansen (section)

=== Initial success ===
[[File:JNR 19641001 Table1.png|thumb|upright=1.2|1964 JNR Passenger Timetable, Table 1, showing shinkansen service on the New Tokaido Line]]

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen began service on 1 October 1964, in time for the [[1964 Summer Olympics|first Tokyo Olympics]].<ref>Fukada, Takahiro, "[http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081209i1.html Shinkansen about more than speed]", ''[[The Japan Times]]'', 9 December 2008, p. 3.</ref> The conventional Limited Express service took six hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka, but the Shinkansen made the trip in just four hours, shortened to three hours and ten minutes by 1965. It enabled day trips between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, significantly changed the style of business and life of the Japanese people, and increased new traffic demand. The service was an immediate success, reaching the 100&nbsp;million passenger mark in less than three years on 13 July 1967, and one billion passengers in 1976. Sixteen-car trains were introduced for [[Expo '70]] in Osaka. With an average of 23,000 passengers per hour in each direction in 1992, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen was the world's busiest high-speed rail line.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Okada |first=Hiroshi |date=October 1994 |title=Features and Economic and Social Effects of The Shinkansen |url=https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr03/pdf/f09_oka.pdf |journal=Japan Transport and Railway Review |volume=3 |pages=9–16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420121953/https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr03/pdf/f09_oka.pdf |archive-date=20 April 2022}}</ref> As of 2014, the train's 50th anniversary, daily passenger traffic rose to 391,000 which, spread over its 18-hour schedule, represented an average of just under 22,000 passengers per hour.<ref>{{cite news |date=20 September 2014 |title=Half century on the shinkansen |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/09/20/editorials/half-century-shinkansen/#.WsU4yNPwbOQ |newspaper=The Japan Times}}</ref>

The first Shinkansen trains, the [[0 Series Shinkansen|0 series]], ran at speeds of up to {{convert|210|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}}, later increased to {{convert|220|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}}. The last of these trains, with their classic bullet-nosed appearance, were retired on 30 November 2008. A driving car from one of the 0 series trains was donated by JR West to the [[National Railway Museum]] in [[York]], [[United Kingdom]] in 2001.<ref name="railwaygazette20010801">{{cite web |date=1 August 2001 |title=Shinkansen comes to York |url=http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/shinkansen-comes-to-york.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514234858/https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/shinkansen-comes-to-york/29664.article |archive-date=14 May 2021 |access-date=14 September 2014 |work=Railway Gazette}}</ref>