Bullet Trains

Bullet Trains
By Jake

Did you ever want to say something more to your friends than just, "You Shinkansen 500 Series at Kyoto Station, Japan know those cool bullet trains, they're really fast." Well, if you read my report you can say how fast they travel, what they run on, and more!

Did you know there are different kinds of bullet trains in different countries? For example there's the German ICE, the TGV in France, the American Flyer, and last but not least the Shinkansen in Japan. The fastest is the TGV. It can get up to speeds of 322 m.p.h. That's two times faster than most race cars! The slowest is the American Flyer, it can only get up to speeds of 140 m.p.h.

300 (left) and 700 (right) Series Shinkansen at Tokyo Station You may already know that bullet trains are fast, look like bullets, etc. But now for more. Did you know that bullet trains have special tracks that no other train can ride? And did you know a bullet train's plans are almost entirely based on aerodynamics? Wow! While most trains run on coal or diesel fuel, these don't. They run on electricity. That's partly why they have special tracks. They use electricity so they can go much father distances without needing to refuel or stop a lot.

Citations

Books

Balkwill, Richard. The Best Book of Trains. New York: Kingfisher, 1999.

Coiley, John. Train. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1992.

Simon, Seymour. Seymour Simons Book of Trains. Singapore: Harper Collin Publishers, 1997.

Images

Copyrighted clip art images from "Microsoft Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us&cag=1> (October-March, 2004-2005). Clip art only available to licensed users for non-commercial purposes.

Permission to use photographs of bullet trains granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>.