700 Series to Retire from Tokaido Shinkansen Bullet Train Line by 2020

Nagoya, April 11 (Jiji Press)--Central Japan Railway Co. <9022>, or JR Tokai, plans to decommission the 700 series of bullet trains from its Tokaido Shinkansen Line by March 2020, informed sources have said. The railway operator will complete the replacement of the 700 series with the N700A series by that time. The 700 series, nicknamed "kamonohashi," or platypus, with the nose of its front car resembling the shape of the animal's bill, will disappear from the Shinkansen line, which links Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka, western Japan, after 21 years of service. Codeveloped by JR Tokai and West Japan Railway Co. <9021>, or JR West, the 700 series went into service in March 1999. The decommissioning of the 700 series, with a maximum operating speed of 270 kilometers per hour, comes as JR Tokai plans to set the top operating speed for all trains on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line at 285 kph from spring 2020, the sources said. JR West is expected to continue using the 700 series on its Sanyo Shinkansen Line, which links Shin-Osaka and Hakata Station in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka, in 2020 and later. END