Abstract
In the near future, all the second-phase Shinkansen projects will be completed. On the other hand, additional construction of new Shinkansen lines may face severe reality in terms of cost. Single-track Shinkansen system has been proposed as a method of low-cost construction in a related research of this paper. The new system can reduce the total length of track by about 40 % as compared with the entire double-track line. It can also ensure service level of two trains per hour per direction with scheduled speed of almost 150 km/h. However, details on construction cost of single-track Shinkansen system have not been investigated yet. Therefore, in this research, it has been investigated how much construction cost is different for each type of infrastructure between the single-track sections and the double-track sections based on the construction contractual records of the conventional lines. An assumption was made that ratios of construction costs between single-track sections and double-track sections on the conventional lines are the same for the bullet train infrastructures. And unit costs of infrastructure for Shinkansen with single-track have been estimated for each of the roadbed section, bridge section, and tunnel section. As a result of trial calculation, in case of using existing stations instead of building brand-new stations and building single-track high-speed line between stations, the full standard double-track line costs 7.59 billion yen per kilometer, while it was found that the single-track Shinkansen system expends only 4.83 billion yen per kilometer. That is, the cost could be reduced by 36.3% compared with the double-track Shinkansen system.
