Recent railway happenings in China in past few months

In recent months, there are several new train services that had commenced operations in China. They include high speed train lines, as well as tramways and subway lines. Also, there are several innovations made to the technology of railways.

JR East unveiled new Shinkansen train for the Tohoku Shinkansen to operate by 2030

5 March 2025

Today, JR East just revealed that it started working on the development of the next-generation model  Shinkansen bullet train, the E10 Series. The new train will be used for the Tohoku Shinkansen and will be replacing the current E2 Series and E5 Series EMUs. This plan will be part of the "Transformation 2027" program corporate vision aimed at leveraging IT and data for maximum optimization for railway operations. The first trainsets are slated to complete by autumn 2027, which will be followed by testing and mass production before the planned 2030 entry to service.

Disney-themed Shinkansen trainset debuted on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line

21 February 2025

Continuing from the success of JR East's Disney Magical Journey Shinkansen, JR Central launched its "Wonderful Dreams Shinkansen" special train for a limited period from 21 February 2025 to mid-September 2025. This debut is done as part of commemorating the opening last June of Tokyo DisneySea’s “Fantasy Springs” area, as well as to promote Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) as a tourist destination. 

This is the third time a Disney-themed Shinkansen is launched, as well as the first time a themed Shinkansen was launched, after the other two Disney-themed Shinkansen trainsets was launched earlier by JR East on their Tohoku Shinkansen. To know more, click on this link.

Revival of an idea of a hyper loop maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou

Today, I came across an article from Baidu published in the last few years saying that a hyper loop maglev is under planning between Shanghai and Hangzhou. If completed, it would take only 15 minutes to travel between the two cities at around 1000km/h, as compared to 45 minutes on the current high speed rail at around 350km/h or 2-3.5 hours via regular trains. The line will be slated for completion in 2035.

The ultra-modern Malaysian KTMB railways that Japanese people don't know about as reported in Toyo Keizai Shimbun

By Motomi Sakai, Toyo Keizei Shimbun, 27 May 2023

EDIT: WEF December 2025, the Electric Train Service (ETS) will be extended to JB Sentral, located in the heart of Johor Bahru City Centre. Currently, it takes 11 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore by train, with transfers required at JB Sentral then to Gemas. With the ETS extension to JB Sentral and then the RTS link to Singapore's Woodlands North, one can expect to take around 5 hours to travel to KL Sentral from Singapore. Provided if the border procedures and waiting or transfer times are short enough.

To read up more on this, please click on the link for my commentary article here.

New railway news coming up in 2025! Opening of new services across the world!

Happy New Year to y'all, time flies very fast and now is already 2025. This year, there will be a few train services across the world that will commerce operations. In this blog post, there will be a few remarkable new trains that had commenced/will commerce operations that I would like to share.

JR East celebrates 110th anniversary of Tokyo Station, the gateway to the capital

On 20th December this year, the Tokyo Station turned 110. To mark the anniversary, JR East ran a special Nagomi train between the gateway of Tokyo with Ito in Shizuoka Prefecture the following day, using a E655 series trainset. The E655 series is a 5-car special luxury charter trainset that can also double as an Imperial train by inserting a specialized bullet-proof Imperial carriage called E655-1.

References:

https://bateman.monologue.jp/en/articles/JR/jre655.html

New prototype of bullet trains unveiled in Beijing today

Today, two new Fuxing bullet train prototypes, the CR450AF and CR450BF, debuted in Beijing. At a planned operating speed of 400km/h, it will be faster than the current Fuxing CR400AF and CR400BF trainsets, which operates at only 350km/h. According to CRRC, the manufacturer, the CR450 series reached a test speed of 450km/h while setting new international benchmarks on various KPIs such as operational speed, energy consumption, interior noise, and braking distance.

Magical Dream Shinkansen and Magical Journey Shinkansen

UPDATE 20 AUG 2025: As of today, both trains are no longer in operation. Also, JR Central had started operating Japan's 3rd Disney-themed Shinkansen using the N700A Series on the Hikari/Kodama services on the Tokaido Shinkansen. The train, entitled "Wonderful Dreams Shinkansen", will operate from 21 February 2025 to mid-September 2025.

On December 22nd, 2023, in partnership with Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR), JR East commenced operations on a special train called "Magical Dream Shinkansen", which utilizes 10-car set J69 of the EMU JR East E2-J (E2-1000) series. Its exterior is decorated with Mickey and Minnie mouses, as well as their friends. In addition, these characters are wearing special costumes to celebrate TDR's 40th anniversary. Unlike the name suggests, the train does not run directly to Tokyo Disney Resort. Instead, it runs between Sendai and Tokyo stations, where commuters are required to change to the Keiyo Line to get to Maihama, the nearest station next to TDR. This train operated until 31st March 2024.

Several railway companies in Japan decorated their trainsets with the OSAKA KANSAI WORLD EXPO 2025 theme liveries

UPDATE 24 AUG 25: The Osaka Kansai World Expo had started on 13th April and it's ticket sales exceeded the breaking even point with 18.09 million on 11th Aug tickets despite sluggish ticket sales before the opening and during the first few weeks. Source from the Japan Times and NHK. Also, beforehand, on 14th July, an air show was held as the Exposition hit its 10 millionth visitor mark.

Time flies, as the year 2024 will come to an end in less than 2 weeks time. As 2025 is nearing, I would like to share something important about an event that will in Japan, which is the World Expo. The World Expo will be hosted in Osaka on a new reclaimed island called Yumeshima, with pavilions showcasing exhibitions from 60+ different countries, as well as some major Japanese companies like Bandai and Mitsubishi. The theme of the Expo 2025 will be "Designing Future Society for Our Lives" 

As part of the celebrations that Osaka Japan get to host the World Expo for the third time, the first being Expo 1970, several railway companies are preparing for the event by decorating some of their trains with the EXPO 2025 wrapping to promote the event and build excitement and awareness among its population. The Expo 2025 will take place for 6 months from opening on 13 April 2025 to closing on 13 October 2025.