Shinkansen bullet trains might begin operating without drivers in Japan by the mid-2030s, according to one of the country’s biggest rail operators, owing in part to the country’s population issue.
East Japan Railway (JR East) will begin introducing trains with many of the driver’s functions automated — but they will remain in the cab — on parts of one line in 2028, the company announced Tuesday.
The following year, the company intends to test driverless trains on a short piece of out-of-service track before deploying them between Tokyo and Niigata on the Joetsu Shinkansen line in the mid-2020s.
“Through realising driverless driving and transforming railway management to an efficient and sustainable system, we will adapt to changes in the social environment such as declining population and reforms in ways of how workers work,” a company statement said.
The fundamental motivation for the initiative, however, “is the need to constantly innovate railway technology, which could in turn help address labor shortages and other issues,” a JR East spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday.
The highest speed of the Shinkansen on the Joetsu route is 275 kilometres (170 miles) per hour, although on other lines it can reach 300 km/h or faster.
Japan, with the world’s second oldest population, is already experiencing manpower shortages in a variety of industries.