TOKYO -- Bolstering airports in the Tokyo metropolitan area and making train and bus service more accessible are among an expert panel's recommendations for improving the Japanese transportation system.
The new medium-term plan, submitted Thursday to Transport Minister Akihiro Ohta, is expected to obtain official approval Friday. It seeks to raise Tokyo's global standing ahead of the 2020 Olympics while helping areas outside key cities cope with aging, shrinking populations. Plans call for completing all steps between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2020.
The main goal is to expand services at Haneda and Narita airports. These Tokyo-area airports now have direct flights to and from 88 cities overseas and a total of 750,000 takeoff and landing slots. The plan would add nearly 80,000 more slots by fiscal 2020, with flights to 130-plus cities, putting the two airports together on a par with those in Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Maintaining public transit outside urban areas is another key challenge. Many local bus lines are getting axed, and railway profits are shrinking. The report calls for spreading bus and taxi services that can flexibly meet local needs rather than follow fixed routes or schedules. Such services had been introduced in 311 municipalities as of fiscal 2013. The goal is to raise the figure to 700 by fiscal 2020.
Low-floor buses, which accounted for 44% of all buses in Japan in fiscal 2013, would expand to about 70% by fiscal 2020.
The report also calls for increasing the number of train stations with platform doors by just under 40% to roughly 800 locations across the country.
(Nikkei)