Japan is Designing an Invisible Train Which is Going to Roll Out in 2018

By: | April 19th, 2016

Japan is not only the land of the rising sun but also of the world’s fastest developing technologies.

Japan has progressed a lot in the field of railways as well. Last year, a Japanese bullet train broke the world speed record clocking a blazing 603 km per hour (374 miles per hour).

Now Japan is building a train that will be virtually invisible to onlookers.

Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, famous for making buildings that blend into the environment, is designing a nearly invisible train which is set to be on Japanese tracks by 2018. Sejima recently received a Pritzker Prize – the Nobel Prize of architecture.

This invisible train will cover over 178 kms (111 miles) throughout the country. Basically, semi-reflective and semi-transparent materials are used for the invisible commuter train to give the illusion of invisibility and blend into the surrounding scenery as it moves.

Sajma said, “The limited express travels in a variety of different sceneries, from the mountains of Chichibu to the middle of Tokyo, and I thought it would be good if the train could gently co-exist with this variety of scenery.”

Seibu Railway Co. commissioned Sejima to redesign the exterior and interior of its Red Arrow express commuter train for the company’s 100-year anniversary celebrations.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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