16-car W Sets
First announced by JR West in September 1994, the first set was delivered for testing in 1995, entering passenger service in March 1997. The entire fleet of nine sets was delivered by 1998. It was the first shinkansen train in Japan to operate at a maximum speed of 300 km/h (190 mph) in regular passenger service. Besides the premium Nozomi services, 16-car trains were also used on Hikari Rail Star services during the busy holiday periods.
With the steady increase in the number of N700 Series Shinkansen since 2007, the 500 series were gradually retired from the Nozomi services. The last 500 series Nozomi run took place on 28 February 2010.
Read more about this topic: 500 Series Shinkansen
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