Roman's in 27 B.C. used railroads that were special grooves in a stone path that they made for carts and wagons with special wheels to travel long distances. Also the Europeans during the 1500s used railroads for mining gold, silver, iron, etc. The first trains in the 1800s made life much better for the people of that time. In 1804 Richard Trevithick invented steam powered trains. To get steam trains had to be fed almost constantly coal. In the 1850s people all around the world used steam powered trains. In the 1900s steam powered trains were forgotten and electric trains took over. Now were are still using electric trains today even though technology has greatly advanced. Even today bullet trains aren't used in many places.

The first bullet train was run in October of 1964 the same year as the earthquake in Alaska. The train ran at the speed of 200 kilometers per hour. In 1972 the second generation of bullet trains began between Osaka and Okayama, then in three years it was extended to Hakata. The first trains in Northern Japan began to run in 1982. These trains had tracks to Tokyo, Morioka, Joetsu, Niigata, Fukushima, Yamagata, Akita, Takasaki, and Nagano.