¹ Central Japan Railway Company, Annual Report 2019, p.19.

² Central Japan Railway Company, Annual Report 2019, p.19

³ Central Japan Railway Company, Annual Report 2018, p.22.

⁴ Keith Barrow: “JR Central's Shinkansen ‘dual system’ to create Japanese megaregion”, report in “International Railway journal” issue April 2019 pp. 34 - 37. especially p.35.

⁵ The Japanese have exported the Shinkansen technology to Taiwan. But they have also advised the Taiwanese to take over the Japanese service scheme with the three train categories of Nozomi, Hikari and Kodama for their relatively short high speed line between Taipei and Kaoshiung (339 km). The traffic demand in Taiwan is much lower than in the Tokyo/Osaka corridor, with at most only three to six trains per hour and direction. Given such a low number of trains, the relatively frequent overtaking has a much more negative effect than on the Tokaido Shinkansen. Since the inauguration of the high speed line in March 2007 the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation has suffered losses. Passenger traffic estimates have damaged the company's balance sheet. Based on a consultant's survey results and other data, the company expected 240 000 passengers a day in 2008. In 2014 daily passenger traffic came to just over 130 000, far below the initial estimate. In “Angebotsgestaltung auf kurzen Hochgeschwindigkeitsstrecken am Beispiel Taiwan” (Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau July-August 2019, pp. 14 – 21, in German) I explain how a timetable revision could substantially reduce travel time from intermediate stations to the three hub stations of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung resulting in travel time reduction by 12% to 27%. This would boost traffic demand thus providing a basis to improve the company's balance sheet.

⁶ In May 2002, June 2005 and September 2007 JR Central published a brochure it called “The Review” for an international congress on high-speed rail. Every year's brochure contains the same quoted statement.

⁷ Railway Gazette International “Maglev decision” October 2013 p. 15 and “JR Central commits to Superconducting maglev” December 2013 pp. 26 - 29. The magazine did not report on the service program of the first phase Tokyo - Nagoya of the Chuo Shinkansen in either article.

⁸ Sven Andersen: “Questions concerning the CHUO Shinkansen-Project in Japan” ZEVrail Glasers Annalen 132 (2008) 6-7 June-July 2008, pp. 232 - 240 (in German)

⁹ JR Central “Chuo Shinkansen: The Superconducting Maglev transforming 21^st Century Japan; September 2003. Although this brochure was not officially available at JR Central's information at the Eurailspeed congress in Milano 2005, I received a copy from a JR Central engineer after discussing with him the operational problems of SCMaglev technology. The ambiguous pictures on pp. 3 and 5 of the brochure do not clarify where the future Chuo Shinkansen will call at intermediate stations.

¹⁰ Keith Barrow: “JR Central's Shinkansen ‘dual system’ to create Japanese megaregion”, report in “International Railway Journal” April 2019 pp. 34 - 37. especially p. 35.

¹¹ Railway Gazette International reported on an interview with JR Central CEO, Kasai, in October 2004, pp 677 - 680, quoted him as saying: “Looking at the Tokaido and Chuo Shinkansen together, they would effectively double the transport capacity in the Tokyo -Osaka corridor.” In this report on page 679 for the first time the capacity of a MLX trainset is mentioned: “One MLX trainset would have around 1000 seats, so a fleet of 100 trains would be able to carry 100,000 passengers a day in each direction.” (p. 679).

¹² JR Central Annual Report 2019 p. 2.

¹³ “Shinkansen Recovery boosts growth” “Railway Gazette International” October 2004, pp. 686 - 688. JR West manager, Ise, is quoted in this report “The October 2003 timetable change brought a ‘much better structure’ with many more Nozomi through trains from Tokyo to cities along the Sanyo corridor (area A). The introduction of additional Nozomi services and their extension beyond Shin Osaka to Hiroshima or Okayama has allowed JR West to provide Nozomi services from intermediate stations such as Tokuyama, Shin-Yamaguchi, Fukuyama and Himeji for the first time, 'We had not identified much demand for through services in the past, but ridership on the Nozomi services to Tokyo has already generated a high increase in patronage and revenue”, Ise admits.

¹⁴ The track diagram for Nagoya station was taken from the DATA Book 2012 topic 7 Station and Track Layout on the Tokaido Shinkansen (p. 5) and completed with the proposal of leading the Chuo Shinkansen through this station on the level of the existing Tokaido Shinkansen.

¹⁵ The Chinese Code for Design of High Speed Railway, TB 10621 - 2014, explains under topic 4.1.2.2 on p. 11: “Both passenger trains running without intermediate stopping and those stopping at alternate stations shall be organized between stations with large passenger traffic demand.”

¹⁶ JR Central “The LINEAR technology press”, October 1995

¹⁷ From 2010 until today (2019) the Annual Report and the Central Japan Railway Company Guide (from 2010 to 2013 still the annual DATA Book) report this. From the year 2015 the critical statement was reworded, but only in the Annual Report.

¹⁸ Central Japan Railway Company, Annual Report 2018, page 29.

¹⁹ Torkel Patterson, “Approaching a tipping point for high-speed rail in 2019,”Global Railway Review“, April 2019, pp. 34-37, especially p. 35.