New 200 MPH E5 bullet train goes into service in Japan

The new 200 MPH E5 bullet train goes into service in Japan today.

Test runs of the E5 Shinkansen bullet train begin in July 2009 ahead of its debut. The 10-car train will be initially operated at a top speed of 300 kph, and will be raised to 320 kph by the end of March 2013. The company plans to produce 59 of the E5 trains by the end of fiscal 2015.

The E5 runs the same distributed electric motor layout as used in all Bullet trains to date, where each carriage has between three and four 300kw traction motors giving the train up to 10 Megawatts of total traction power. This allows a Bullet train to accelerate from standstill to 300km in less than two minutes.

The video above is of the first "in service" run of an E5 set seen running through Oyama on Sendai to Tokyo service "Hayabusa 2"