Japan Rail Trivia - Part 2

  • Published on : 26/06/2016
  • by : Japan Experience

The amazing Japanese rail system

What is the Japan's longest railway bridge ? What is the longest train station name in Japan? Learn some fascinating trivia about the amazing Japan Railways!

  • Japan's longest train bridge is also the world's longest

Currently, Japan's train system has two world records. One is the world's longest train bridge, the Seto Ohashi Bridge. This bridge is actually a long string of connected bridges across the water when going from Okayama Prefecture on Honshu to Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku Island.

The bridge was opened in April 1988 and is a total of 9,368 meters long. There's even a space on this bridge for shinkansen tracks, whenever the time comes.

(By the way, the other world record is the world's longest train tunnel, the Seikan Tunnel, which connects Aomori with Hokkaido.)

Seto Ohashi

Seto Ohashi

©itou365, pixabay

  • Japan's shortest train tunnel

Japan is an extremely mountainous country, and many of its train tracks and roads include tunnels that cut through mountains of all sizes. The shortest tunnel is the Tarusawa Tunnel, at 7.2 meters long.

This tunnel is part of the journey between Iwashima and Kawarayu Onsen Stations in Gunma Prefecture.

This route runs along a valley with a beautiful view, but a new dam in the works is causing some controversial changes. When the dam is finished, new tracks will be laid, and the tunnel will be submerged in the dam.

Tarusawa

Tarusawa

©By Rsa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15754761

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