Central Japan Railway Co., parent of Japan’s largest bullet-train maker, said experience in lightweight rail cars may give it an advantage in bidding for US contracts.

“Japanese bullet trains are lighter and more fuel-efficient as they operate on dedicated tracks,” Chairman Yoshiyuki Kasai said in Tokyo. “European high-speed trains are strong, but they’re heavy.”

JR Central, as the company is also known, is targeting Florida, Texas and a Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas link for its 330 kph (205 miles per hour) trains, Kasai said in a March 15 interview. US President Barack Obama gave plans for high-speed rail links a boost in January by announcing $8 billion in grants for 13 projects across the country.

JR Central, also operator of the world’s busiest high-speed train route, is competing against trainmakers including France’s Alstom SA, Germany’s Siemens AG and China’s China South  Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp. for US orders.

The companies want to sell trains, tracks and operating equipment under an initiative that US.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has called “an absolute game-changer for American transportation.” The high-speed corridors include New York- Buffalo, New York; Los Angeles-San Francisco; and Chicago- Detroit.

JR Central runs Japan’s busiest high-speed line connecting Tokyo and Osaka, which accounts for almost half of nationwide bullet-train passenger numbers. Last fiscal year, 308 million passengers rode on bullet trains in Japan, which hasn’t had a fatal accident on high-speed trains since services started in 1964.

A Japanese N700-I high speed train weighs 365 tons, compared with 423 tons for a French TGV and 465 tons for a German ICE train, according to figures compiled by JR Central. (Bloomberg)