noun
mini-shinkansen
Refers to a concept or category of smaller-scale shinkansen lines, often involving upgrading existing conventional lines to shinkansen standards with narrower loading gauge.
山形新幹線はミニ新幹線の一つです。
The Yamagata Shinkansen is one of the mini-shinkansen lines.
Compound of ミニ (mini) and 新幹線 (shinkansen), literally 'mini bullet train'.