I haven’t looked it up but I would bet you it’s due to fatigue limits. They probably use aluminum a lot which always fatigues no matter how light the stress (a bit like me tbh…) so anything made from aluminum gets retired after a set time period.
The same is true for jets. Each flight expands and contracts the airframe since it’s a pressure vessel, and the wings can deflect a large amount too.
8 years doesn’t sound like a healthy life span for a train. What’s the flaw?
The actual train is >30 years old, it was only painted like that 8 years ago. (Probably repainted a couple of times too lol)
I haven’t looked it up but I would bet you it’s due to fatigue limits. They probably use aluminum a lot which always fatigues no matter how light the stress (a bit like me tbh…) so anything made from aluminum gets retired after a set time period.
The same is true for jets. Each flight expands and contracts the airframe since it’s a pressure vessel, and the wings can deflect a large amount too.
It has spent 8 years in the Hello Kitty wrap, but entered service in 1996.
The 500 series Shinkansen trains were built in the 90ies so it would be more like 30 years.
500 series is absolutely the best looking, in my humble not-really-train-person opinion.