Japan's $83bn bullet train at risk as governor defends waterway

TOKYO -- A bullet-train operator and a locality on the central Pacific Coast are sparring over the environmental impact of a planned ultrafast magnetic-levitation rail, threatening the targeted 2027 start of a service connecting Tokyo and Nagoya.

At the groundbreaking ceremony held Friday for Kanagawa station on the 286 km line, Central Japan Railway President Shin Kaneko struck an upbeat tone, stressing that the project is on track. Yet the dispute with Shizuoka Prefecture has held up construction on a roughly 9 km stretch through the area for two years.