Cooperative Benchmarking Between the Dutch and Japanese Railways Donald Hatch

Feature Railway Reform and International Exchange Cooperative Benchmarking between the Dutch and Japanese Railways Donald Hatch Celebrating 400 years of differences. The benchmarking will million inhabitants (Fukuoka and Kita Dutch–Japanese Contact enable NSR to agree realistic performance Kyushu; Amsterdam and Rotterdam), and targets in the contract with the government the 15 largest cities represent about 40% April 2000 marked the 400th anniversary for services on the Dutch trunk network. of the total population in each country. of the arrival on Kyushu (southernmost of At the instigation of Yoshitaka Ishii, Just as the Netherlands has its Randstad the four major Japanese islands) of the chairman of JR Kyushu, a commemorative (‘Ringcity’) with a concentration of Dutch trading ship ‘De Liefde’ (‘Love’) month-long once-only ‘rail-cruise’ train population round the Amsterdam/The after a perilous voyage of more than 2 journey from The Hague (Den Haag) in Hague/Rotterdam/Utrecht ring, so is the years (see p. 17). Dutch presence on the the Netherlands to Nagasaki in Kyushu main concentration of population on tiny island of Dejima (Nagasaki) was the will be operated in September 2000 by Kyushu in the 100- km wide north-Kyushu only contact with the western world that the two railway companies. Thanks are area bounded by Kita Kyushu, Fukuoka Japan tolerated until the Meiji Restoration also due to him and many of his and Iizuka. Due to the mountainous of 1868. Fortunately, Japan and the colleagues for cooperating in the interior, Kyushu’s population is a little Netherlands now cooperate in many comparative analysis and benchmarking more concentrated than in the fields, one of which is that of transport research which form the basis for this Netherlands; most roads and railways and railways. article. follow the coast, where most of the In October 1997, JR Kyushu, which population is to be found. In the operates the trunk railway network on the Similarities and Differences in Netherlands, the cities are mainly inland south-western island of Kyushu, and NS Transport Environment and more evenly distributed. Reizigers (NSR—Dutch passenger railways) agreed on a programme of Geography and demography Transport infrastructure cooperation. Both companies realized At first sight, it seems unlikely that two As far as transport infrastructure is that a great deal was to be learnt from railways in such very different countries concerned, the Dutch trunk rail and road comparing performance and exchanging have much in common. Although the (motorway) networks are approximately expertise and know-how. To date, this has cultural differences are large, the two similar, both in length (rail ± 1600 km, taken the form of study tours for railway countries (Kyushu is referred to here as a excluding 1000 km of local lines, and staff, press and government officials, and ‘country’) and railways are however road 2200 km) and location. Nearly all of seminars on topics of mutual interest such remarkably similar in size and the 20 largest cities have direct road and as punctuality and marketing. An in-depth characteristics (Fig. 1). rail links with the rest of the country. comparative study of the two companies The island of Kyushu is approximately the Journey times between city centres, both has been undertaken, and JR Kyushu has size of the Netherlands (about 42,000 by car and train, are comparable, with contributed to an on-going international km2), but with slightly fewer people (13.5 average speeds of about 80 km/h being benchmarking exercise to compare against 15.5 million). Each country has achieved. Public transport in the cities is performance and learn lessons from two conurbations with just over one well developed, with metro and/or tram NSR Double-deck intercity EMU stock (Regio-runner) (NSR) NSR Single-deck intercity EMU stock (Koploper) (NSR) 18 Japan Railway & Transport Review 24 • July 2000 Copyright © 2000 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Figure 1 The Netherlands and Kyushu on the Same Scale The Netherlands Kyushu Kita Kyushu (Kokura) Iizuka Groningen Fukuoka (Hakata) Beppu Kurume Oita Omuta Haarlem Nagasaki Kumamoto Amsterdam Zutphen Utrecht Winterswijk Den Haag Breda Eindhoven Germany Miyazaki Kagoshima Belgium Makurazaki Maastricht 0 50 100 km 0 50 100 km Denmark Ireland Netherlands Hokkaido Great Britain Honshu Germany Belgium Kyushu France Shikoku networks in the 4 main cities. Fukuoka and Omuta, and in the suburban however inconveniently located 25 to 40 On Kyushu, the (toll) motorway network Fukuoka/Kita Kyushu areas. The km from the cities (JRTR 19, pp. 8–19). is limited to about 700 km, with routes remainder of the private railways amount A major difference concerns the between Kita Kyushu, Fukuoka and to about 420 km, mainly low volume local management of the railway infrastructure. Kagoshima/Miyazaki and between and rural feeder lines. On Kyushu and the rest of Japan, the Nagasaki and Oita. The major cities have Compared to the Netherlands with one railway infrastructure is owned, managed metro or tram networks (Fukuoka with a major airport and very little domestic air and maintained by the railway metro, Kita Kyushu with a monorail, traffic, Kyushu has a number of airports, companies. Access by other operators is Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Kagoshima for mainly for flights to the rest of Japan. only made possible by mutual agreement, example with trams). JR Kyushu runs the Fukuoka’s airport is close to the city and and must be authorized by the Minister main rail network of 2100 km, but there well linked by a direct metro, and of Transport. In the Netherlands, as is the are other operators, the largest being Miyazaki’s airport is linked by a new rail case of most European countries, rail Nishitetsu (Nishi-Nippon Railroad), with line (5 minutes). Most of the other airports, infrastructure has been separated from 120 km of competing rail lines between e.g. at Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Oita, are operations according to the European Copyright © 2000 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 24 • July 2000 19 Railway Reform and International Exchange the strength of rail in short distance Table 1 Approximate Passenger Volume and Modal Split, 1998 suburban commuting, and the high tolls payable on the island’s limited motorway Journeys (%) Passenger-km (%) network. Journey times by car are even Kyushu Netherlands Kyushu Netherlands longer and more tedious than in the Car 72 91 78 89 Netherlands if motorways are not used. 1 Train* (JRK or NSR) 6498Although petrol is cheap by Dutch ± Train (private) 6 3 standards ( Euro 0.85 per liter in Japan Bus* 15593compared to Euro 1.05 in the Air <1 <1 <1 <1 Netherlands), parking in cities is Ferries to islands 1 <1 1 <1 expensive and limited, and the motorway toll of Euro 0.19 per km amounts to a Total 100 100 100 100 considerable variable cost. Modal split on Passenger volume (billions) 5.5 10.4 96 166 Kyushu and in the Netherlands is shown Per head of population 410 670 7,100 10,700 in Table 1. *Metro included under train for Kyushu, under bus for Netherlands Price/Quality comparisons by mode Travel times by car and train for comparable middle distance city centre to city centre journeys are slightly quicker by train than by car both on Kyushu and in the Netherlands. Air travel halves the 4 hour Fukuoka–Kagoshima railway trip, while the express bus is as fast as rail. Bus and air competition do not feature in the Netherlands for domestic journeys. On Kyushu, the price per km including road tolls and rail supplements such as express surcharges, are Euro 0.25 for car, 0.22 for rail and 0.14 for bus. In the Netherlands, the comparative prices are 0.10 car and 0.13 rail, reflecting the toll- free motorways and significant taper in longer distance rail fares. JR Kyushu Sonic Nichirin 883 (JR Kyushu) Journey motive and distribution Union’s 91/440 Directive. This policy was Modal split by time designed to encourage access by other, The Japanese are on average less mobile There are differences between Kyushu and competitive, operators paying fair access than the Dutch. On Kyushu, the average the Netherlands in the motives for travel, charges based on clearly defined annual distance travelled is 7100 km, particularly as a result of the large leisure infrastructure costs. The practical compared to 10,700 km in the traffic flows in the Netherlands, linked to implications are still being dealt with, and Netherlands. Although car ownership on visiting friends and relatives, recreation, the infrastructure in the Netherlands will Kyushu is similar to that in the Netherlands etc. This is partly a result of the relatively only become the direct responsibility of a (5.0 million cars compared to 5.7 million), large amounts of leisure time that the government agency in 2001. NSR started car usage is relatively low; cars in Japan Dutch have compared to the Japanese; paying access charges, initially a limited run on average 10,000 km per year (days off work Japan ± 15 to 25, contribution to marginal costs, in January compared with 16,000 km in the Netherlands ± 30 to 40, excluding 2000. Netherlands. This may be explained by however public holidays, of which there 20 Japan Railway & Transport Review 24 • July 2000 Copyright © 2000 EJRCF. All rights reserved. are more in Japan). Commuter flows in spent in improving the quantity and services. With interests in hotels, shops, Japan are a relatively larger share of total quality of train services, which has leisure complexes, etc., a much larger traffic, especially for the railways. successfully reversed the downward trend share of its total turnover is now non-rail of traffic, and absorbing the considerable compared with the situation in 1987.

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