Panel starts talks on benefits of maglev line

September 23, 2017

TOKYO- A newly created Japanese transport ministry panel on Friday launched discussions on how the country should maximize the effects from a magnetic levitation ultrahigh-speed train line that will link Tokyo and the western city of Osaka via Nagoya, central Japan.

"The panel was set up because nobody knows what will happen" after the opening of the maglev train line, said National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies Prof. Hitoshi Ieda, who chairs the 14-member panel.

Central Japan Railway Co.or JR Tokai, is scheduled to open the Tokyo-Nagoya part of the maglev line in 2027. The launch of the Nagoya-Osaka section is expected to be moved up by up to eight years from the initially planned 2045.

The fastest train on the line will enable passengers to travel between Tokyo and Osaka in only one hour.

Members of the panel will first discuss changes in business environments and lifestyles that could be brought about by the maglev train services and then consider what needs to be done manly in areas along the line. Jiji Press