Sinkansen class 500 is the most popular Shinkansen. It is originally designed to run western part of the Sinkansen (Sanyo Shinkansen, Shin-Osaka to Hakata) in 1997. The sharp nose and high power motors enabled 300km/h services. Series 500 has technically achieved a great success, but commercially, passengers did not significantly grow. Comparing to the previous series 300, whose maximum speed was 270kmph, it only shortened 10 minutes, which was not a big impact. In addition, the interior was not spacious because of the rounded form. A total of 9 trainsets of 144 cars were manufactured, and used for Nozomi superexpress since 2010. Now they are mainly used for Kodama express, stopping at every station in Sanyo Shinkansen line.
