&#;The reason why narrow gauge ( mm) was adopted for early Japanese railways is unclear.&#; This is the first sentence of Chapter 6 in A History of Japanese Railways, &#; written by four well-known specialists in Japanese railways and published in English by EJRCF. (Some Japanese readers might hope for a Japanese version too.)
I was invited to the publishing party on the book's completion and while glancing through my copy I came across the above sentence. Surely, I thought, more can be said on the subject than just that. There may never have been a written record explaining why the 3'6" narrow gauge was adopted for the first Japanese railways, but even if there was, no historian has ever found it. My guess is that the final decision was probably made Vice Minister of Finance Shigenobu Okuma (&#;) in the Meiji government assisted by his interpreter, Masaru Inoue (&#;), the only Japanese expert in rail technology at the time. Perhaps the two men discussed the decision later, but whatever was said has been lost with the passage of time. This is not a trivial matter, because their decision cannot be disregarded on Japanese railways.
Since the likely two prime movers in the decision left no &#;confession,&#; we must journey into the past and discover the reason for ourselves. After my mind started working on this track, I decided to take up the quest for an answer&#;my search was to lead me to Wales and the Isle of Man in the UK, and to Norway.
Early steam engines were huge. They had to be, because their power came from atmosphere pressures, and the only way to boost output was to increase piston area. Even after locomotives began using high-pressure steam, a similar rule applied&#;the larger the locomotive, the more power it had. Also, steel was an expensive commodity so all early locomotives were made of weaker wrought or cast iron. For the same reason, locomotives were made stronger by making them bigger, explaining why the 7' broad gauge once offered advantages over Robert Stephenson & Company's 4'8" standard gauge. Until the mid-s, a railway builder could only choose between standard gauge and broad gauge, explaining why standard gauge was called narrow gauge in those days!
Gradually, standard gauge spread throughout Britain and into other parts of Europe but when the builders began to look towards exports to less-developed areas, they preferred cheaper (and more profitable) construction methods. Legislation in England prohibited construction of narrow-gauge main lines, but the expansion of slate mining in Wales led to a search for some way to mechanize the human- and animal-powered mine railways that were mostly narrow gauge. Steam locomotives provided the answer and as the technology improved, it was realized that they could haul carriages on narrow-gauge lines too.
Here I must introduce Carl Abraham Pihl (&#;97), who was as important to Norway's railway development as Inoue was to Japan's. Pihl studied engineering at Chalmers Institute (now Chalmers University of Technology) at Gothenberg in Sweden and then went to England and apprenticed himself to Robert Stephenson (&#;59). Two years later, he began working on a railway construction project in eastern England. In , he returned to Norway to join his country's first railway construction project, which had just started under the direction of Robert Stephenson himself. Pihl was the only Norwegian with any experience in rail engineering, and played an important role in building his country's first railway, a standard-gauge line that opened in . He went back to England again to assist in construction of port and railway facilities, primarily in Wales and then returned home once more because of the Crimean War, becoming the first managing engineer of Norway's Railway Construction Bureau.
Norway only became fully independent from Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century and was nominally under Sweden's control when Stephenson and Pihl brought the first rail technology to the country. Clearly, the cheaper narrow gauge would have offered advantages to the builders partly because of Norway's difficult topography with many mountains, lakes and fjords and partly because of its backward economy. (At the time, Norway was the poorest region in Europe with a population of 2 million.)
However, the first priority of the builders was to construct a link with Sweden which used the standard gauge, so Norway became standard gauge too. And even today, a Swedish company owns the locomotives and passenger carriages operating on the line running south-west from Oslo into Sweden, and the abridged timetable published in Norway does not even show the service.
Two or three years after the opening of the first standard-gauge line, it became apparent that although standard gauge was fine for a main international line, it would be very uneconomical to lay standard-gauge track in the mountainous areas. When the decision was made to construct other separate lines, Pihl successfully argued that the next two should be narrow gauge to keep construction costs down. He had a possible choice of two narrow gauges: the 3'6" narrow gauge or the meter narrow gauge. Since both Stephensons (George and Robert) were locomotive manufacturers, they could adapt their engines to any track gauge, but they were still not completely sure about performance on narrow gauges and had tried a number of experiments in a mine that they operated. Robert Stephenson died in giving his protégé Pihl several years to get some opinions from the master on narrow track gauges. Pihl seems to have decided that the gauge of 3'3" or so were too narrow and settled on the 3'6" gauge, the first time the gauge had been used for a passenger line. His decision might also have been influenced by a preference for using inner valve gears, because the slightly wider 3'6" gauge offered more potential than the narrower gauge for using this design.
With the benefit of hindsight, Pihl was right to choose the 3'6" narrow gauge because it offers greater operating safety, higher transport capacity and better ride comfort than the 3', meter and other narrow gauges. But was Pihl the inventor of the 3'6" gauge? Perhaps the honour belongs more to Robert Stephenson because he manufactured the locomotives using this gauge and ran some trials, but even so, Pihl was a major force in getting the gauge accepted.
Norway placed its first order for a 3'6" gauge locomotive in and the first 3'6" narrow-gauge line opened in June from Hamar (120 km north of Oslo) to Grundset. A second 3'6" narrow-gauge track began linking the northern city of Trondheim on the Atlantic Ocean with the interior in August .
The locomotives supplied by Robert Stephenson & Company had B-1 axles on a long (384 cm) fixed wheelbase with the trailing wheels mounted on a fixed frame. The fixed wheelbase was too long for the sharp curves in the Trondheim region and resulted in a derailment. The minimum radius for track curves around Hamar was 300 m, but in the northern Trondheim district, it was set at only 200 m or so, although Stephenson's company had insisted on a minimum radius of 300 yards (275 m).
The railway then imported 1-B locomotives with swiveling, single-axle leading wheels and there were no more problems with derailment. Incidentally, Japan imported the same type of 1-B locomotive for its first Class 150, but the leading wheels were fixed. The locomotives also ran without problems because track curves were more gradual in Japan. Norway still has one 3'6" line in operation&#;part of the former Setesdal Line near Kristiansand in southern Norway preserved as a vintage railway. It remains fairly untouched by time&#;a railway constructed to narrow-gauge specifications in order to save money. The 20- to 25-kg rails can accommodate an axle load of 6 tonnes and are so thin that the gauge appears wider than it is. A Dübs 1-C-1 tank locomotive with 914-mm driving wheels hauls three wooden passenger carriages up grades of 20 per mill. When the line was constructed, it was assumed that the locomotives would require a cable assist on any gradient greater than 25 per mill.
Here I'd like to digress for a moment. Norway's modern standard-gauge railways have plenty of curves, and you rarely see a straight stretch of track. The only double-tracked sections are commuter lines and the rail link from Oslo to Oslo Airport. Although Norway is described as having no high-speed trains, the airport link runs at speeds of up to 210 km/h. However, the same rolling stock is used for limited expresses on trunk lines with many sharp curves, causing the train to slow to less than 100 km/h and emit screeching from the bogies. There are 45° shock absorbers between the bogies and axle boxes and the axles appear to shift laterally as the train passes a curve. Needless to say, the ride comfort is poor but the upside is that you get an excellent view of the locomotive from the sixth carriage because the minimum curve radius seems to follow the 300-yard guideline recommended by Stephenson!
On the Isle of Man, I saw locomotives from the s almost all manufactured by Beyer Peacock with leading bogies that are very similar to those once used in Norway. They now haul tourist trains and look very attractive with their brightly polished boilers. The 3' gauge is not a problem because the island line is not connected to any other. This further reduction in the width of narrow gauge from 3'6" to 3' shows how much rail technology advanced in the few years before the s.
Norway's rail technology and locomotives came from Britain, so it is natural that the railway consultants in Britain's colonies were extremely interested in transportation developments there. Sir C. Fox served as a consultant in Australia and sent his son Douglas to Norway in to gather information. The information was put to good use the following year in Queensland.
New Zealand began laying track to the 5'3" gauge from but all of it had been reduced to 3'6" by . Similarly, standard-gauge track laid in Indonesia from was gradually changed to 3'6". The gauge-change took time and was only completed during Japan's wartime occupation.
Meanwhile, in England, lobbyists eager to take advantage of recent technical advances overseas began pressuring the government to permit narrow-gauge railway construction. One keen promoter of narrow gauge was the Duke of Sutherland who believed that the standard gauge was unsuitable for backward rural areas. The Duke was born and lived in London and seems to have had little interest in his landholdings in the County of Sutherland in northern Scotland. But he was very interested in railway development and became a central figure in rail circles, offering financial backing and consensus-making expertise.
Since the government prohibited construction of narrow-gauge main lines, public's attention turned to slate mines at Festiniog in Wales, where human or animal power was used to pull carts on narrow track (most no wider than 2'). Railway-related people at Festiniog decided to mechanize the track using steam locomotives.
A standard-gauge track belonging to a railway company already came close to the mine and mine owners feared that if the standard gauge reached near the mine track, the mine might end up in the hands of the railway company. The mine owners therefore decided to mechanize the mine railway themselves to guarantee access to the nearby port. In , Festiniog Railway started operating on a 2' narrow gauge (600 mm) and was hauled by a B-locomotive. Before the mechanization, the mine carts had used gravity to roll downhill but had been hauled back up separately by horses. This was more strenuous work than hauling slate inside the mine because the elevation rose by 216 m over a length of 22 km. Developing a locomotive capable of pulling such a load up this grade on such a narrow gauge took 3 years.
Although Festiniog Railway advanced narrow-gauge technology, the railway only proved its potential after a Fairlie locomotive with special bogies was introduced in . Just as interest in narrow-gauge railways was rising, Englishman Robert Fairlie (&#;85) demonstrated how the B+B steam locomotive he had invented could boost carrying capacity on the Festiniog Railway. But even Fairlie experienced considerable difficulty designing a locomotive for the 2' gauge at Festiniog and when he was later invited to the Rio Grande Railway in the United States his advice was to build no narrower than 3'. This was the origin of the 3' gauge in the United States.
Fairlie's locomotive had insufficient space to mount the valve gear inside, so he adopted the first Walschaert valve gear design in Britain. He had great difficulty before designing flexible high-pressure steam pipes to fit the bogie configuration. I took a good look and saw how he designed what looks like a rubber pipe covered in white cloth wrapped in a stainless-steel netting. Improvement in these materials offered a simple solution posed by steam at about 10 atmospheres.
Fairlie's locomotive offered better stability and far superior performance and the double boilers were more than three times larger. These advantages plus the economic attraction of narrow gauge quickly attracted the public's attention and Fairlie was lionized in the London Times and other major newspapers. Countries with vast rural areas were also interested. In , at the instigation of the Duke of Sutherland, the governments of Russia, India, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland sent numerous delegates to his Festiniog Railway to gather information on the new technology.
When I sat in the lobby of the old hotel in Portmadoc at the port once served by the Festiniog Railway, I could feel the excitement of those days&#;Fairlie's Little Wonder hauling a delegation in four cars with 90 empty freight wagons trailing behind. There is still a photograph of the scene and I walked along the line for about a third of its distance to the exact spot where the photographer had stood 130 years previously and took a picture from almost the same angle. Today, the same view complete with an exact replica of the locomotive painted the same reddish-brown can be seen among trees that have grown tall in the intervening years. Visitors enjoy seeing the locomotive chugging gallantly up the continuous grade of 10 to 15 per mill at more than 40 km/h.
In , the same year that British railway engineers first became interested in narrow-gauge railway developments in Norway and the year that the 2' gauge Festiniog Railway began steam operations, Inoue left Japan in secret with four friends bound for England. They left in secret, because the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate still banned foreign travel. Inoue studied civil and railway engineering at University College in London and returned to Japan in to become Japan's first railway expert.
His return coincided with the establishment of a new Meiji government that was eager to modernize the country. The government was convinced that railways were the best way to promote modernization and exert centralized authority throughout Japan. Inoue was in the right place at the right time.
While Inoue was studying in London, narrow-gauge railways were being constructed in one European colony after another and the media was praising railways and calling for more. In , the year Inoue returned home, a special committee of experts met in England to promote the concept of a global network of cheap-to-build, narrow-gauge railways. After his return, Inoue must have heard of Fairlie's successful narrow-gauge locomotive. A new age had arrived&#;a time when narrow-gauge railways were being accepted by rail experts as an excellent way to bring modern civilization to underdeveloped parts of the world.
At the end of the s, who would have thought that Japan would become a major economic power? In those days, the government still had not come up with its strident &#;Enrich the Country and Strengthen the Military' slogan. The cheap-to-build narrow gauge was probably the only option considered at the time. When the Norwegian government indicated that it was not going to invest in railway construction, local citizens raised the funds through bonds. On the other hand, Japan depended entirely on funds raised in England, so we can assume that the Japanese government was not in a position to consider any track other than narrow gauge. Inoue probably would not have thought anything better was possible.
Japan's topographical features permitted more gradual curves than in Norway, perhaps explaining why the 3'6" gauge was chosen over other even narrower gauges. Edmund Morel (&#;71), a British engineer hired by the Japanese government, conferred with Inoue and it is likely that these two men agreed on 3'6". Vice Minister of Finance Okuma had no first-hand knowledge of track gauges and surely had no option but to accept Inoue's recommendation.
Today's conventional (non-shinkansen) rail network does not have curves sharp enough to require narrow gauge and Norway's main lines have even sharper curves but the tracks are built to standard gauge. Clearly, it is safe to assume that Japan's choice of the 3'6" narrow gauge was based more on the cheaper construction cost than on the demands of topography. Norway gradually replaced its narrow gauge track with standard gauge but Japan did not take this road because of economic and military considerations.
There are still some loud complaints about the problems caused by Japan's adoption of the 3'6" narrow gauge but it is simplistic to say that if Japanese railways had switched to standard gauge they would have immediately enjoyed greater capacity and speed. I believe there would have been little improvement at least up until WWII. Norway's standard gauge track permits an axle load of only 15.5 tonnes and advanced locomotives have to deal with curves and gradients using 1.53-m driving wheels and four axles. A broader gauge does not offer substantial advantages unless the basic track configuration is improved.
Although Japan was strong militarily in the years leading up to WWII, the people's standard of living still placed it among countries that needed no more than a narrow-gauge railway.
It seems to me that Okuma and Inoue's choice of the 3'6" narrow gauge was just dictated by the times.
Yongyang supply professional and honest service.
JapanOperationMajor operatorsJapan Railways GroupStatisticsRidership7.589 billion ()Passenger km260 billion ()System lengthTotal30,625 kmElectrified21,600 kmMap
Railway Map of Japan
Hiroden Tram in HiroshimaRail transport in Japan is a major means of passenger transport, especially for mass and high-speed travel between major cities and for commuter transport in urban areas. It is used relatively little for freight transport, accounting for just 0.84% of goods movement. The privatised network is highly efficient, requiring few subsidies and running with extreme punctuality, though since privatisation several unprofitable but socially valuable lines have been closed by private operators.
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Rail transport services in Japan are provided by more than 100 private companies, including
Many of the private rail companies rank among the top corporations in the country. Railways were built by private corporations developing integrated communities along the railway lines, allowing them to achieve profitability by diversifying into real estate, retail, and numerous other businesses.[1] These rail integrated communities are a form of transit oriented development unique to the rail system in Japan.[2] Rail integrated communities increase walkability in these urban spaces. As they are to be used by pedestrians, they include sidewalks and bikeways. Regional governments, and companies funded jointly by regional governments and private companies, also provide rail service.
There are 30,625 km (19,029 mi) of rail crisscrossing the country. JR (a group of companies formed after privatization of JNR) controlled 20,135 km of these lines as of March 31, , with the remaining 7,133 km (4,432 mi) in the hands of private enterprise local railway companies. Japan's railways carried 9.147 billion passengers (260 billion passenger-kilometres) in the year &#;14.[3] In comparison, Germany has over 40,000 km (25,000 mi) of railways, but carries only 2.2 billion passengers per year.[4] Because of the massive use of its railway system, Japan is home to 46 of the world's 50 busiest stations.[5]
The major usage is of urban and intercity lines, and around the time of the privatisation of JNR, many unprofitable local and rural lines were closed, especially in Hokkaido and Kyushu. However, with patronage on many non-urban local lines continuing to decline due to factors such as rising levels of car ownership and declining rural populations, further closures are planned. For example, On October 16, , JR West announced that it was considering closing the 108 km (67 mi) Sanko Line due to poor patronage, and was in discussion with the two prefectures served by the line, Shimane and Hiroshima, as well as other municipalities served, concerning future plans.[6] In fiscal , the line carried an average of 50 passengers per km per day, compared to 458 per km per day in .[7] The entire line closed on March 31, .[8]
On November 19, , JR Hokkaido's President announced plans to further rationalise its network by up to 1,237 km (769 mi), or ~50% of the current network,[9] including closure of the remaining section of the Rumoi Main Line (the Rumoi - Mashike section closed on December 4, ), the Shin-Yubari - Yubari section of the Sekisho Line, the non-electrified section of the Sassho Line and the Nemuro Line between Furano and Kami-Ochiai Junction. Other lines including the Sekihoku Main Line, Senmo Main Line, the Nayoro - Wakkanai section of the Soya Line and Kushiro - Nemuro section of the Nemuro Line are proposed for conversion to Third Sector operation, but if local governments are not agreeable, such sections will also face closure.
Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo and Yokohama have subway systems. However, unlike Europe, the vast majority of passenger traffic is on suburban commuter trains that criss-cross metropolitan areas. In addition, many cities have streetcar and monorail networks.
Japan pioneered the high-speed shinkansen or "bullet train", which now links Japan's largest cities at speeds of up to 320 km/h (200 mph). However, other trains running on the conventional line or "zairaisen" remain relatively slow, operating at fastest 160 km/h (99 mph) and mostly under 130 km/h (81 mph), most likely due to the wide usage of Narrow-gauge tracks they operate on.
Japan's railways carried 31 million tons (21 billion tonne-kilometres) of goods in &#;14.[3] The share of railways in the national logistics is as small as 6.2% (), by far the lowest in the G8.[10]
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Class 150 steam locomotive made by Vulcan Foundry came to Japan in . It is one of the steam locomotives which ran between Tokyo and Yokohama in . This line was the first railway in Japan. Steam excursion train Niseko hauled by a C62 locomotive on the Hakodate Main LineRailways are the most important means of passenger transportation in Japan, maintaining this status since the late nineteenth century. Government policy promoted railways as an efficient transportation system for a country that lacks fossil fuels and is nearly completely dependent on imports.
Rural land near large cities was acquired cheaply by private railway companies from the late nineteenth century, which then built lines that became the backbone of urban transport between the suburbs and cities formed around the railway lines radiating out from metropolitan areas, similar to suburban growth around railways in other nations.
Despite this efficiency, growing affluence and associated car ownership led to road transportation usage increasing to the detriment of rail from the s. The relative share of railways in total passenger kilometers fell from 66.7 percent in to 42 percent in , and 29.8 percent in , although this still accounted for the largest percentage of the OECD member countries.
The figure is 43.5% (as of ) in the largest metropolitan areas in Japan: Tokyo (including Chiba, Saitama, Tokyo, and Kanagawa Prefectures), Osaka (including Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyōgo Prefectures), and Nagoya. Private automobiles in Greater Tokyo account for less than 20% of daily trips as car ownership is restricted to those with a dedicated parking space.
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The COVID-19 pandemic in Japan abruptly reduced passenger railway ridership in , which has been increasing since .[
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The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as JR Group, is a group of successors of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). The JR Group lies at the heart of Japan's railway network, operating almost all intercity rail services and a large proportion of commuter rail services.
The six passenger operating companies of the JR Group are separated by region, but many operate long-distance train services beyond their regional boundaries. The six companies are: Hokkaido Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, Central Japan Railway Company, West Japan Railway Company, Shikoku Railway Company, and Kyushu Railway Company.
Freight service belongs to Japan Freight Railway Company or JR Freight which operates all freight network previously owned by JNR.
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Japan also features multiple competing private railway systems. In post-war Japan, the Japanese government encouraged private corporations to develop their own mass transit systems in order to quickly rebuild the country's urban transport networks.[11]
Private rail lines were encouraged to compete with each other as well as the national rail lines with the government's role limited to regulation of fares. In exchange for developing rail lines, private corporations were given business opportunities to diversify their operations and develop the real estate surrounding their railway networks.
By allowing private corporations to control transit oriented developments as well as railway lines, planned communities were facilitated allowing private railway operators to establish a vertically integrated business of developing residential, business, industrial and retail land and the commuting methods used by the populace to travel between such areas.[12]
As such, through diversification of their business, the majority of the private railways in Japan are financially independent and their railway operations are usually profitable, in sharp contrast to most transit networks in other countries.[13]
The Japan Private Railway Association [ja] classifies the following 16 companies as the major private railways of Japan.[14] These companies, in total, operate 2,870.1 kilometers of rail. In a one-year period from April , a total of 9.46 billion passengers (118 billion passenger kilometers) traveled by means of these major railways.[15]
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Other railway operators include:
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In the legal sense, there are two types (with several subcategories) of rail transportation systems in Japan: railway (&#;&#;, tetsudō) and tramway (&#;&#;, kidō). Every public rail transportation system under government regulation in Japan is classified either as railway or tramway. In principle, tramways can have sections shared with road traffic while railways cannot, but the choice may seem rather arbitrary in certain cases. For example, Osaka Metro is a tram system while subways in other cities are railways.[16]
Railways and trams are respectively regulated by the Railway Business Act (&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;, Tetsudō Jigyō Hō, Act No. 92 of ) and the Tram Act (&#;&#;&#;, Kidō Hō, Act No. 76 of ).
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Under the Railway Business Act, operations of "railways" (in the legal meaning) are divided into three categories: Category 1, Category 2 and Category 3.[17] They are defined by the Act as follows:[18]
(
&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;
,Dai-isshu Tetsudō Jigyō
): the business of transportation of passengers or freight by railway (except tramways) other than a Category 2 Railway Business operator.(
&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;
,Dai-nishu Tetsudō Jigyō
): the business of the transportation of passengers or freight using railway tracks other than those constructed by the operator of the business (including the railway tracks constructed by others which were assigned to the operator) to meet the needs of others.(
&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;
,Dai-sanshu Tetsudō Jigyō
): the business of constructing railway tracks for the purpose of assigning them to a Category 1 Railway Business operator and the business of constructing railway tracks to have a Category 2 Railway Business operator use them exclusively.Most railway operations in Japan are Category 1. Examples of Category 2 railway businesses include most operations of the Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight) and the JR Tōzai Line operation of the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Examples of Category 3 railway businesses include the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway company and the government of Aomori Prefecture with regards to the Aoimori Railway.
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The rail system of Japan consists of the following (as of ):[19]
The national railway network was started and has been expanded with the narrow 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge. Railways with broader gauge are limited to those built not intending to provide through freight and passenger transport with the existing national network. The Shinkansen network uses standard gauge. Recently[when?], a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1&#;2 in) standard gauge freight railway network (partially electrified with 25 kV AC) is proposed for Hokkaido, Honshu and the northernmost Kyushu (Kanmon strait - Hakata).
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Excluding the Shinkansen, even with Automatic Train Control cab signalling, most Japanese trains are limited to a maximum speed of 130 km/h (81 mph), which restricts the viability of longer-distance routes. This is due to legislation restricting emergency stopping distances of trains to 600 m (2,000 ft) on a railway with grade crossings. Grade separated railways, without grade crossings, are not subject to such legislation. Both the Keisei Narita Airport Line, and formerly the Hokuhoku Line, being grade separated, currently operate or operated at a posted speed limit of 160 km/h (99 mph), the latter being the fastest narrow-gauge line in Japan. [20]
Due to the tight and twisty nature of Japanese narrow-gauge railways, many intercity/limited express services also extensively utilise tilting trains, which shorten travel time by enabling a train to corner faster. Kamome (883 series and 885 series), Azusa (E353 series), Shinano (383 series) and Ōzora (261 and KiHa 283 series) are some examples of limited express services ran by tilting trains.
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Electrification systems used by the JR Group are 1,500 V DC and 20 kV AC for conventional lines, and 25 kV AC for Shinkansen. Electrification with 600 V DC and 750 V DC are also seen in private lines. Frequency of AC power supply is 50 Hz in eastern Japan and 60 Hz in western Japan.
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Japanese national network operated by Japan Railways Group employs narrow gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) and has maximum width of 3,000 mm (9 ft 10 in) and maximum height of 4,100 mm (13 ft 5 in); however, a number JR lines were constructed as private railways prior to nationalisation in the early 20th century, and feature loading gauges smaller than the standard. These include the Chūō Main Line west of Takao, the Minobu Line, and the Yosan Main Line west of Kan'onji (3,900 mm (12 ft 10 in) height). Nevertheless, advances in pantograph technology have largely eliminated the need for separate rolling stock in these areas.
There are many private railway companies in Japan and the loading gauge is different for each company.
1,435 mm
(4 ft
8
+
1
&#;2
in)/1,520 mm
(4 ft
11
+
27
&#;32
in) (with 25 kV 50 Hz AC) in the northern Hokkaido. (see Sakhalin-Hokkaido Tunnel)1,435 mm
(4 ft
8
+
1
&#;2
in) on board)1,435 mm
(4 ft
8
+
1
The company is the world’s best Japanese Standard Rails supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
&#;2
in) on board)[
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Ticket barriers at Shinjuku StationRail transport in Japan is usually for a fee. In principle a fare is pre-charged and a ticket is issued in exchange for a payment of fare. A ticket is inspected at a staffed or automated gate in the station where a travel starts and is collected at the station where the travel ends.
A ticket required for a travel by railway is called a fare ticket (&#;&#;&#;, jōshaken), the price of which is fare (&#;&#;, unchin). The fare ticket is valid regardless of number of transfers. Long-distance travellers (usually longer than 101 km) are allowed unlimited number of stopovers (&#;&#;&#;&#;, tochū-gesha) along the route subject to the duration of the validity of the fare ticket. In addition, a ride on a specific train and/or coach may require a surcharge ticket (&#;&#;&#;, ryōkinken).
Except for very short railways and some tram systems with a flat fare, fare varies by distances or number of zones travelled. The pricing based on the time of travel (peak or off-peak) is not common in Japan. The children's fare (&#;&#;&#;&#;, shōni-unchin) for children between 6 and 12 is half of the adult fare. A recent development in the fare collection system is the stored-value card systems shared by multiple operators in large cities, such as Suica, Pasmo and PiTaPa, by which passengers can avoid consultation with complicated fare tables and lineups for ticket machines before each train ride.
There are many types of surcharges. For example, in JR, surcharges include:
(
&#;&#;&#;&#;
,kyūkō ryōkin
) for travel on an "express train"(
&#;&#;&#;&#;
,tokkyū ryōkin
) for travel on a reserved seat of a "limited express train"(
&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;
,jiyūseki tokkyū ryōkin
) for travel on a non-reserved seat of a "limited express train"(
&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;
,shiteiseki ryōkin
) for travel on a reserved seat of trains except for a "limited express train"(
&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;
,gurīn ryōkin
) for travel on a special coach called "Green Car"(
&#;&#;&#;&#;
,shindai ryōkin
) for travel on a sleeping carAn unusual feature of Japanese surcharges, compared with other train systems, is that they often require a separate ticket. Thus, if riding the shinkansen, for instance, rather than purchasing a single shinkansen ticket, one purchases two tickets: a fare ticket (&#;&#;&#;) for the distance traveled, and an additional shinkansen ticket (&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;, shinkansen tokkyūken, shinkansen special express ticket) to allow one to ride the shinkansen for that distance, rather than ordinary trains. Since express trains are not separated by special gates from ordinary trains, express service requires manual inspection of tickets by a conductor, and express tickets can be purchased from the conductor. However, an increasing number of gates can now accept both fare and express tickets. In short, the fare ticket allows access to the train platforms at entrance and exit, where it is inspected by the gate or attendant at the station, while the express ticket allows one to ride an express train over the interval and is inspected by a conductor on the train.
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JRE Limited Express trainsSuburban or intercity railway lines usually set several types of trains (&#;&#;&#;&#;, ressha shubetsu) with different stop patterns.
A train that stops at every station is called a local train (&#;&#;&#;&#;/&#;&#;&#;&#;, futsū-ressha/kakueki-teisha). Only a fare ticket is required to ride local trains. Trains that stop at fewer stations and are therefore faster than local trains are classified as Rapid (&#;&#;, kaisoku), Express (&#;&#;, kyūkō), Limited Express (&#;&#;, tokkyū), etc. and may require surcharges depending on company policies. Railways with many types of trains use prefixes like "semi-", "rapid-", "section-", or "commuter-". For example, the Tōbu Isesaki Line has Local, Section Semi-Express, Semi-Express, Section Express, Express, Rapid, Section Rapid, and Limited Express.
Train operators usually name long-distance trains (Kintetsu is a rare exception of this practice). The process of ticket reservation utilizes the train names instead of the train numbers. Train numbers are almost exclusively for professional use.
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Railway lines have adopted station numbering in preparation for Tokyo , making it easier for tourists to distinguish the stations. Station numbering was previously exclusive to subway lines.All the railway and tram lines in Japan are named by the operators. In principle (with some exceptions), a section of railway has only one name. Line names are shown on a ticket to indicate the route of the ticket. Passengers refer the railway by the name of line (e.g. "Tōyoko Line") or the name of operator (e.g. "Hanshin").
The line names may come from a name of destination or a city along the line (e.g. the "Takasaki Line" goes to Takasaki, Gunma); a name of region (e.g. the "Tōhoku Main Line" goes through the Tōhoku region); an abbreviation of provinces or cities (e.g. the "Gonō Line" connects Goshogawara and Noshiro); or a course of the line (e.g. the "Tōzai Line" means the East-West Line).
Line names were used as a basis for the restructuring of JNR in the s. The railway business was evaluated line-by-line in order to identify significantly unprofitable lines for closure. This left some unnamed branch lines, which would have been closed if they had line names, unaffected by the restructure.
In some cases the current route of a railway has changed but the historic line name has not reflected the change, in which case the operational name will be different from the original line name. Examples include the Keihin-Tōhoku Line and the Shōnan-Shinjuku Line.
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Tokyo subway mapIn addition to its extensive railway network, Japan has a large number of subway systems. The largest is the Tokyo subway, where the network in consisted of 211 kilometers of track serving 205 stations. Two subway systems serve the capital: one run by the Tokyo Metro (named Teito Rapid Transit Authority until ), with nine lines (the oldest, Ginza line was built in ), and the other operated by the Tokyo metropolitan government's Transportation Bureau (Toei), with four lines. Outlying and suburban areas are served by seven private railway companies, whose lines intersect at major stations with the subway system. More than sixty additional kilometers of subway were under construction in by the two companies.
There are a number of other metro systems in other Japanese cities, including the Fukuoka City Subway, Kobe Municipal Subway, Kyoto Municipal Subway, Osaka Metro, Nagoya Subway, Sapporo Subway, Sendai Subway and Yokohama Subway.
While metro systems in Japanese cities are usually operated by the city government and therefore tend to limit their networks within the city border, there are many cases of through services using subway trains on suburban railway lines and vice versa. One of the reasons for this situation was the sharp increase of ridership on the railways in the rapid growth of the postwar economy that could not be handled by small original railway terminals in the city center.
Automated guideway transit (rubber-tired motor cars running on concrete guideways) has also developed in Japan. Cities with such intermediate capacity transit systems include Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, Saitama and Tokyo.
Some cities operate streetcar systems, including Hiroshima, Matsuyama, Nagasaki, Tokyo (one line only) and Toyohashi. All of these cities are also well served by public and private railroads; also, there are private tramways not included above.
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Japanese railways are among the most punctual in the world[citation needed]. The average delay on the Tokaido Shinkansen in fiscal was 0.7 minutes.[21] When trains are delayed for five minutes, the conductor makes an announcement apologizing for the delay and the railway company may provide a "delay certificate" (&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;). Japanese passengers rely heavily on rail transit and take it for granted that trains operate on time. When trains are delayed for an hour or more, it may even appear in the newspaper.[22] However, some argue that railway staff are under too much pressure from the public.
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One of the most widely publicized crimes committed on trains is chikan or groping, taking advantage of overcrowded cars and a reluctance for people to ask for help, or to jump to the aid of another. A recent trend for railway companies to promote their lines is to service female-only cars on some trains (typically during morning rush-hours and late night trains, and often the front or back car) and is quickly becoming a standard practice, especially among Tokyo's busy commuter lines.
The Japanese language has a number of expressions for fare evasion. One is Satsuma-no-kami. It is a reference to Taira Satsuma-no-kami Tadanori, a member of the Taira clan who is mentioned in the Tale of the Heike. His name, Tadanori, is pronounced the same as words meaning "riding for free".
Another expression is kiseru jōsha. This refers to a kiseru, a smoking pipe that has a long hollow section made of bamboo between the bowl (where the smoke enters) and the mouthpiece (where it leaves) made of metal. Based on an association of metal and money, kiseru jōsha is the practice of using one ticket to enter the train system and a different ticket to exit, with a long unpaid segment in the middle &#; purchasing two separate tickets, covering just the initial and final segments of the journey (corresponding to the bowl and mouthpiece), rather than one ticket for the whole length.
Other notable crimes staged in railway facilities in Japan include the assassination of the Prime Minister Hara Takashi in Tokyo Station in , the deliberate train wreck at Mitaka Station in and the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in .
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Police officers clearing up the remains of a suicide in Saitama Prefecture, FebruaryTrains are also used as a means to commit suicide. Its relative popularity is partly due to its practical ease, and to avoid causing a nuisance to one's family, although families are often charged or sued by the railway companies to compensate for the trouble caused by the accident. Suicides often cause delays on the lines on which they occur. The deceased's family may be charged damages on the order of approximately 1 million yen by railway operating companies.[23] Railroad operators have taken steps to discourage and prevent suicides. This includes use of blue LED lights in stations, which officials hope will calm potential jumpers.[24] Platform edge doors are also being installed at numerous stations in an effort to keep people contained on the platform until the train arrives.[25]
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Shoppers, travelers, and hotel guests share Kyoto StationAn important aspect of the romance of the rails in Japan is the ekiben, the station bento lunchbox. The first pre-packed station lunchboxes originated at Utsunomiya Station in and became an instant success.[26] Many stations (eki) around the country soon began to make special bento featuring local specialties such as seafood, meat or vegetables. Including generous portions of rice, the ekiben was a complete meal. It was often served in a wooden box; nowadays cardboard and plastics have become popular, although wooden chopsticks still accompany the ekiben. The Central Committee of the Japanese Association of Railroad Station Concessionaires (&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;) is a prominent trade organization promoting ekiben.
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Japanese books and television feature rail transport in various contexts. Examples include travelogues visiting rustic routes or unusual trains, such as the popular Sci-Fi franchise Galaxy Express 999 or murder mysteries on sleeper trains.
A major television series based on rail transport, Ressha Sentai ToQger, was broadcast on TV Asahi from to .
Densha de Go! is a series of Japanese train simulators.
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