# Euro-Shinkansen idea



## NeueAmtrakCalifornia (Dec 18, 2019)

In 2015, Hitachi acquired Ansaldo-Breda (and with it their designs). Among those designs is the Frecciarossa 1000, an Italian adaptation of Bombardier's Zefiro platform. Being that Hitachi also manufactures the Shinkansen trains, it could be possible for Hitachi to build a Shinkansen adapted for European rails (perhaps working in tandem with Bombardier and having this design incorporate features from both the Shinkansen and the Zefiro).


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## ScouseAndy (Jan 1, 2020)

NeueAmtrakCalifornia said:


> In 2015, Hitachi acquired Ansaldo-Breda (and with it their designs). Among those designs is the Frecciarossa 1000, an Italian adaptation of Bombardier's Zefiro platform. Being that Hitachi also manufactures the Shinkansen trains, it could be possible for Hitachi to build a Shinkansen adapted for European rails (perhaps working in tandem with Bombardier and having this design incorporate features from both the Shinkansen and the Zefiro).



Not a Shinkansen but many UK operatives are either already using or awaiting delivery of trains based on Hitachi A-trains. This are being marketed in the UK as Japanese Bullet trains but those in the know will quickly point out that Japanese A trains are not Shinkansen. 

I think the loading gauge differences between Japan and much of Europe would prevent Shinkansen designs being used (certainly here in the UK at any case) but others may pull me up on that


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## NeueAmtrakCalifornia (Jan 1, 2020)

ScouseAndy said:


> I think the loading gauge differences between Japan and much of Europe would prevent Shinkansen designs being used (certainly here in the UK at any case) but others may pull me up on that



The E6 Shinkansen's width and height are 2.945 m and 3.65 m respectively. For comparison, the ICE 3's width and height are is 2.950 m and 3.89 m respectively. This means there exists a Shinkansen design that can fit within European loading gauges (probably the biggest change will have to be platform height since European platform heights are much lower - at 550 mm and 760 mm compared to 1250 mm for the Shinkansen (1100 mm for the minis))


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