Bullet Train Cleaning Crews Have 7 Minutes To Prepare Trains

Above, TESSEI shinkansen cleaning crew waits to begin work on a just-arrived train. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

An interesting article was posted in Rocket News 24 on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen (bullet train) cleaning crews. When the trains pull into Tokyo Station, the cleaning crews have seven (7) minutes to get the cars cleaned and ready for the next departure.

According to the article:

Japan’s shinkansen, or bullet train in the West, was the world’s first high-speed train running at 200km per hour, and today the Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the world’s most used high-speed rail line. Impressively, even with over 120,000 trains running on the line each year, the average delay time is a mere 36 seconds! 

Part of the reason the bullet train system can run as smoothly as it does is thanks to the ‘hospitality group’ working behind the scenes of the sleek, futuristic facades of these famous trains. These cleaning crews are charged with covering every inch of a train’s interior when it arrives at its final stop and preparing it for the next wave of customers–and they have just seven minutes to do it. 

JR East’s rail service company is known as TESSEI, and it is responsible for the cleaning of the bullet trains when they have come to a stop at Tokyo Station.

Above, a cleaning crew member waits for the signal to begin work. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in 2010, I watched as a TESSEI cleaning crew lined up along side of a shinkansen in Tokyo Station and began cleaning once the go-ahead signal was given. The word TESSEI is on their baseball cap's bill.

To read the story, go here.