railways
The basic part of the national trunk railway network in Japan was completed before the 1960s. It now covers some 27,000 km with about 15,000 km of electrified lines and 1,800 km of Shinkansen lines. However, the average scheduled speed (average train speed including standing time at stations) is between 60 and 90 km/h on most conventional trunk lines. The average scheduled speed is slightly less than 100 km/h for all major trunk lines even including Shinkansen lines. Consequently, the present situation is hardly satisfactory for users in terms of speed and comfort.
Under these circumstances, construction and development projects are under way to construct new tracks over five sections of three Shinkansen lines (Tohoku, Hokuriku, and Kyushu). The Hokuriku Shinkansen between Takasaki and Nagano has top priority and is scheduled for completion in time for the Winter Olympics in Nagano in February 1998.
Other projects are also under way including direct connection of conventional lines to the Shinkansen for further expansion of the high-speed traffic network by making use of conventional lines with relatively small investment and short work terms (Figure 2).
Commuting is also a major issue for people living in the Tokyo and Osaka areas. While most people rely on railways, their capacity is insufficient, resulting in average overcrowding of around 200% (twice the number of passengers as the car capacity). This feels crowded with almost no space even to read a small magazine. In some sections, the overcrowding is as high as 250%, far higher than in major cities in any other countries (Figure 3).
More express commuting trains are being introduced during the rush hours to reduce the travel time. To increase carrying capacity, railway operators are trying to increase the number of cars per train and the train frequency. However, in some sections, these efforts are increasing travel time. As a last resort, railway operators are building extra lines next to existing ones, as well as extending subway lines. However, demand is increasing faster than the efforts to increase capacity.
(2) Railway issues
1) Qualitative enhancement of trunk railway network
The primary goal of trunk railway development is to improve the quality and travel comfort in areas where trains arepreferred to other modes of transport. In short, the quality of the nationwide high-speed train network needs to be furtherenhanced in combination with the air and road systems. A number of development projects are currently under way, especially in the sections described below, to maximise use of existing tracks:
(a) Railways of 100- to 800-km length connecting metropolitan areas with major regional cities. Railways are competitive enough with cars and airplanes over these distances.
(b) High passenger volume sections Another target is increasing the average scheduled speed to 120 km/h on major trunk lines based on user demand, investment return, and other elements.
Travel time between all medium-sized cities and Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, or Sapporo should be within 3 to 4 hours. This will be achieved by improving track alignment and developing new rolling stock. Moreover, tracks and other railway facilities should be improved to match with transportation needs. At the same time, the overall quality of the trunk railway network should be enhanced by measures such as direct connection of Shinkansen and existing lines.
2) More incentives for railway construction
Unlike airports and seaports, railways lack a long-term development plan at the national level. Railway operators are required to invest to remain competitive in the market over the long term.
Railway construction requires enormous investment. In the first place, available land is hard to find. If it is available, a large amount of money is needed to buy it and construct railways; this enormous capital investment can only be recovered over many years. Therefore, while railway operators are required to keep making necessary business efforts to provide high-quality services, it is equally necessary to ask railway users and other beneficiaries to bear a greater burden than they do now.
While the beneficiaries should bear the burden as a rule, appropriate cooperation and support is needed from central government and local communities to encourage more investment by rail way operators and to promote further construction. This will be achieved by introducing more investment incentives by means such as the subsidy systems of the Railway Development Fund (a special public corporation that receives government subsidies and distributes them among railway operators), and the non-taxable system by which railway operators are allowed to save a percentage of their passenger fare revenues to invest in projects aimed at reducing commuter congestion.
3) Need to reduce commuter congestion
Commuter congestion in large cities must be reduced to a target of 150% on average (passengers may brush shoulders but they can read a newspaper easily) on main sections by long-range planned comprehensive investment. This requires a combination of effective measures targeting increased transport capacity (more train services, more cars per train, extension of subways, etc.) and those targeting reduced peak commuting (staggered commuting hours, flextime, etc.) through cooperation of companies and schools.