Press Releases（Archive）
New Tohoku Shinkansen Train Name Decided
—New High–Speed Shinkansen Train (E5 Series) to Begin Commercial Operation March 2011–
East Japan Railway Company
May 11, 2010
The new high–speed Shinkansen train (E5 Series), with a top speed of 300 km/h, begins commercial operation in March 2011 between Tokyo and Shin–Aomori on the Tohoku Shinkansen line.
In preparation for this occasion, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) accepted ideas for a new train name from March 2 to 31, 2010. After judging the entries, JR East has made its decision as below.
JR East has additionally decided on the number of E5 Series trains to operate and a symbol mark for the train. These are also revealed below.
1. |
Decision on name of E5 Series trains to be operated at top speed of 300 km/h |
||||
| 1) | Name | ||||
| "Hayabusa" | (7th place in voting, with 3,129 entries) | ||||
| <Reference> | 1st place in voting: Hatsukari | ||||
| 2nd place: Hatsune | |||||
| 3rd place: Michinoku | |||||
| 2) | Reason for selection | ||||
| The name Hayabusa (literally, "peregrine falcon") expresses a sense of speed and the public will find it easy to remember | |||||
| 3) | Overview of entries received | ||||
| (1) | Total entries: 150,372 | ||||
| (2) | Number of types of entries received: 4,396 | ||||
| * | Names sounding the same (whether they were written in hiragana, katakana or kanji) were treated as a single name, and names whose major phrase included an article were treated as the same name as the name without the article | ||||
| (3) | Announcement of winners | ||||
| Instead of announcing the winners, JR East will mail them prizes (planned for late June). | |||||
2. |
Start of commercial operation of E5 Series Shinkansen "Hayabusa" |
||||
| Beginning in March 2011, JR East will use three E5 Series trains on the Tohoku Shinkansen line.
This will include two trains running between Tokyo and Shin–Aomori and one between Tokyo and Sendai at top speed of 300 km/h. The run between Tokyo and Shin–Aomori is estimated to take 3 hours and 10 minutes. |
|||||
|
|||||
3. |
E5 Series train symbol mark |
||||
|
|||||
The hayabusa (peregrine falcon) sets the motif for the E5 Series and expresses the train’s futuristic and speedy image. |
|||||
