Japan's Beeching Report?

[Maybach]

Okay, maybe not quite but this is interesting!

From 'nippon.com':

Tokyo, July 25 (Jiji Press)--An expert panel under Japan's transport ministry compiled Monday an outline for a proposal on the operations of train lines running through less populated areas in the country, many of which are currently struggling to stay afloat.

In the proposal, the panel included a plan to begin talks to review the operations of such "local train lines" with less than 1,000 daily passengers per kilometer on average.

Under the new system, the panel proposes that the central government will establish councils to discuss ways to review the operations of train lines that meet the criteria, based on requests from railway operators and municipalities hosting the railway lines in question.

The councils will decide within three years what actions to take.

By involving the central government in discussions between railway operators and local governments, which often have conflicting interests over the operations of local train lines, the panel hopes that the new system will help agreements be reached over rebuilding a sustainable public transportation system.

Japan to Review Operations of Train Lines with Less than 1,000 Users

Tokyo, July 25 (Jiji Press)--An expert panel under Japan's transport ministry compiled Monday an outline for a…

www.nippon.com

 

[yorksrob]

Oh dear. Poor old Japan, has it all to look forward to.

I hope they manage to avoid calamity

 

[yoyothehobo]

I suppose the big problem with a lot of rural lines in Japan is that its not that people are using different modes of transport to get about, its that the rural population is very much declining and people are moving to the cities.

Outside the cities a lot of the rural lines have very low patronage.

 

[Backroom_boy]

A review of lines under '1000 daily passengers per km' sounds quite a high cut off point

 

[LOL The Irony]

I think the best way forwards is to turn them into pseudo tourist or actual tourist lines. Like the Kishigawa Line did.

 

[Acfb]

Would be interesting to have a list of these lines - I would guess the Hida line (from Nagoya to Toyama) is on there for example although it serves tourist places in the interior such as Takayama. It was nice to do a day trip from Kanazawa to Takayama in 2019 even though the service on that line is not frequent. The northern section was certainly quite scenic.

 

[railfan99]

A review of lines under '1000 daily passengers per km' sounds quite a high cut off point

Indeed.

Japan has an overall population problem, not just in rural areas. IIRC, the total population is declining by c.one million per annum and in a few short years, Philippines will overtake Japan.

Japanese median age is also far from young.

 

[hkstudent]

I think the best way forwards is to turn them into pseudo tourist or actual tourist lines. Like the Kishigawa Line did.

Many JR companies have done so, especially for Jr Kyushu with their series of tourist trains trying to tell stories.

I think, as rural population in Japan has declined a lot, rural lines are not really that sustainable.

To be fair, Japan has undergo six major line closure in 70s-90s. It's just about time to roll out another round, with rural depopulation.

 

[cle]

Would be interesting to have a list of these lines - I would guess the Hida line (from Nagoya to Toyama) is on there for example although it serves tourist places in the interior such as Takayama. It was nice to do a day trip from Kanazawa to Takayama in 2019 even though the service on that line is not frequent. The northern section was certainly quite scenic.

I've taken this line, it's a relatively important route for the region, as Takayama doesn't have much else. Similar in parallel to the one which runs from Nagoya up to Matsumoto and Nagano. Quite an important cross-country link even if it passes through a lot of nothing.

This will be aimed more at the 2 car DMUs (and some EMUs) tiny branch lines which are very local.

 

[Shinkansenfan]

JP Rail who used to post on YouTube has several videos that address the points being discussed in this thread. His videos are informative and I wish that he would continue to post new content.

And his videos are presented in a much less grating voice than that shrill presenter Cathy Cat who has made NHK's Japan Railway Journal TV show unwatchable. If they had closed captioning (text) TV I would just mute the sound.

The video discussing JR Hokkaido shows a depressing retrenchment of railway lines in that region--to the point where JP Rail in the video states that JR Hokkaido should just be called JR Sapporo.

 

[yorksrob]

Are the Japanese likely to put up any resistance to this ?

 

[hkstudent]

JP Rail who used to post on YouTube has several videos that address the points being discussed in this thread. His videos are informative and I wish that he would continue to post new content.

And his videos are presented in a much less grating voice than that shrill presenter Cathy Cat who has made NHK's Japan Railway Journal TV show unwatchable. If they had closed captioning (text) TV I would just mute the sound.

The video discussing JR Hokkaido shows a depressing retrenchment of railway lines in that region--to the point where JP Rail in the video states that JR Hokkaido should just be called JR Sapporo.

JR Sapporo , I am afraid so. LoL.
If they really close all the losing lines, then not even the Sapporo commuting belt lines can survive.

Are the Japanese likely to put up any resistance to this ?

Local government (village / hamlet, etc) may do so, but they don't have much power as they are also cash strapped and cannot help subsidising JR.

 

[Beebman]

Japanese broadcaster NHK has posted a news article today (in the Japanese language) reporting that JR East has released a list of 66 sections, the deficit of which totals 67.9 billion Yen:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20221124/k10013902281000.html

The list is in the form of a graphic using the Japanese alphabet but there's also maps. I've run the first part of the article through DeepL Translate (which I tend to find is more reliable at translating Japanese than Google):

JR East Announces Losses for 66 Segments, Totaling 67.9 Billion Yen
November 24, 2022 8:57 pm

Amidst the ongoing deficits of regional railroads, JR East has announced the revenue and expenditure for the last fiscal year (FY2021) for 66 segments that have particularly low usage. The total deficit for all sections exceeds 67 billion yen, and JR East plans to discuss with local governments, including conversion to buses.

JR East announced the amount of deficit for 66 sections with a "transport density" of less than 2,000 passengers.
According to East Japan Railway Company, amid a decline in the use of local railroads due to a decrease in population and the new Corona, there were 72 sections on 36 lines last fiscal year with particularly low "transport density," which indicates the average number of passengers carried per day, of less than 2,000.

On April 24, the company announced the revenue and expenditures for the last fiscal year for 35 routes and 66 sections whose "transport density" was still less than 2,000 passengers in fiscal 2019.

According to the announcement, all of these 66 sections were in the red, with a combined deficit of 67.9 billion yen.

Although the amount of deficit decreased by about 1.4 billion yen compared to the fiscal year 2019 before the spread of the new corona, the deficit is still substantial.
Deficit by Segment: Over 4.9 billion yen
The largest deficit by section is the section between Murakami Station in Niigata Prefecture and Tsuruoka Station in Yamagata Prefecture on the Hetsu Main Line, with a deficit of 4.998 billion yen in the last fiscal year.

The "operating coefficient," which indicates how much it costs to generate 100 yen in transportation revenue, was the worst on the Rikuu-Higashi Line between Naruko Onsen Station in Miyagi Prefecture and Mogami Station in Yamagata Prefecture, at 20,311 yen.

The national government is considering the future of regional railroads, which continue to suffer losses, and amending the law to strengthen support for them.

JR East has begun explaining the revenue and expenditure situation to local governments, particularly in areas where usage is particularly low, and plans to discuss sustainable regional transportation, including conversion to buses.

The amount of deficit for each of the 66 sections
JR East announced on March 24 the status of 66 segments with particularly low ridership, including the "amount of deficit" in the last fiscal year (FY2021) and the "operating coefficient," which indicates how much it costs to earn 100 yen in fare revenue.

The second part of the article has a very lengthy analysis of individual lines which I won't post here but it can be easily electronically translated from the original page.

 

[Dougal2345]

And his videos are presented in a much less grating voice than that shrill presenter Cathy Cat who has made NHK's Japan Railway Journal TV show unwatchable. If they had closed captioning (text) TV I would just mute the sound.

A little harsh on Ms Cat I feel!

The real problem with the sound on that programme is the insistence on adding background music to the studio discussions. When they also have model trains running round a layout adding to the background noise, I too would be opting for subtitles, were they available...

 

[hkstudent]

Japanese broadcaster NHK has posted a news article today (in the Japanese language) reporting that JR East has released a list of 66 sections, the deficit of which totals 67.9 billion Yen:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20221124/k10013902281000.html

The list is in the form of a graphic using the Japanese alphabet but there's also maps. I've run the first part of the article through DeepL Translate (which I tend to find is more reliable at translating Japanese than Google):



The second part of the article has a very lengthy analysis of individual lines which I won't post here but it can be easily electronically translated from the original page.

It looks like that the whole NE Japan (Tohuku) is suffering quite a lot, similar to the case of Hokkaido. I wonder they may need to force them to transfer to local government to look after them.
Lucky that I don't need to translate much of the article, especially the graphics as it's quite Kanji heavy.

Meanwhile, another article talking about bus replacement operation in Hokkaido:

鉄道廃線 路線バスも廃止や縮小の事態に 地域の足どう守る？ | NHK | ビジネス特集

【NHK】人口減少が進む地方の交通をどのように再構築するべきなのか。鉄道廃線の“先進地”北海道の現状から考えます。

www3.nhk.or.jp

Services that serve railway station only seems not attractive, while the ones have additional stops, or even detour to hotspots like high school get better profitability.

 

[Gostav]

The cost of running railways in Hokkaido is much higher than other area of Japan due to the snowfall in winter (snow removal required). I remember someone commenting on the current cuts who thought that in the past century the Hokkaido area had cut too few lines and the Kyushu area had cut too many lines.

 

[hkstudent]

The cost of running railways in Hokkaido is much higher than other area of Japan due to the snowfall in winter (snow removal required). I remember someone commenting on the current cuts who thought that in the past century the Hokkaido area had cut too few lines and the Kyushu area had cut too many lines.

There's a meme that if Hokkaido need to balance the book, none of the lines can run.

Even Sapporo metro area can't sustain itself.
While East Japan don't really look glamorous even in 2019.

 

[Beebman]

Here's a video I've found which was posted today by Kansai TV News about the current state of the deficit-affected JR West Sanin Line between Kinosaki Onsen and Hamasaka:

There's no commentary, the pictures tell the tale themselves. Electronic translation of the video description:

I took a picture of a day on the JR Sanin Line between Kinosaki Onsen and Hamasaka.

Deficit local lines are now a problem in various places. Various discussions are exchanged over the continuation and abolition of this line as well. We covered the current state of each station along the line and the appearance of the train running through the beautiful scenery of the northern Kinki region.

 

[Maybach]

A very interesting article on the 'Japan Times' website:

The little trains that could: Japan's rural railways keep chugging on

With savvy marketing, Choshi Electric Railway somehow gets back on track.

www.japantimes.co.jp

 

[hkstudent]

A very interesting article on the 'Japan Times' website:

The little trains that could: Japan's rural railways keep chugging on

With savvy marketing, Choshi Electric Railway somehow gets back on track.

www.japantimes.co.jp

The senbei sale is a fun one.
Though need to note that, the revenue source of most railway companies are from non fare revenues like merchandise and store rents.