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Hiroshima is a busy city equipped with a good infrastructure. A dense network of rail and road ways crisscrosses the city to make it easy to travel across conveniently. The metro rails, or Hiroshima Rapid Transit System No.1 is a prized possession of Hiroshima as they connect different parts of the city in an awesome speed. The metro rail, or Astram, as they are called in Hiroshima, had first begun its journey in 1994 when the city hosted the Asian Games. The railway has got its name by joining 'asu' or the Japanese word for tomorrow, and the English word tram. Operated by the Hiroshima Rapid Railway Company, the metro rail runs for a stretch of more than eighteen kilometers, covering the major areas of the city. A major portion of the rail tracks run above the ground and only a little distance in downtown Hiroshima is constructed underground. Astram has twenty one stations dotted across the city, of which only two stations fall underground. The trains are specially built with a ring of rubber tyres running around them. With automatically sliding doors and high-speed trains, the metro in Hiroshima is a fine specimen of Japan's success in technology.
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