Railways and The Environment (part 3) JR Freight Approach to Infrastructure Development for Modal Shift Ikuo Funahashi Introduction established as a public corporation to help the country recover from the ravages of war. Domestic transport relied Japan’s current freight transport market sees on-demand heavily on JNR, and the company secured about a 53% truck transport—with its seamless door-to-door and share of rail freight on a tonne-km base in 1955. convenient service—taking about a 60% share on a tonne- In rail passenger transport, the Tokaido and San’yo km basis. Marine transport is also strong with about a 36% shinkansen were built to connect the nation’s megalopolises share of heavy cargo. On the other hand, rail freight only has and meet increasing demand for transport between large about a 4% share of the total market. However, in land freight urban areas in line with the surge in economic growth. transport exceeding 1000 km, rail freight has a 33% share. Furthermore, a commitment was made to diversify urban Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and rail networks (quadruple tracking and separate freight and Tourism (MLITT) defines modal shift as a shift of freight passenger tracks) and otherwise increase transport capacity transport on main routes from trucks to less polluting and to handle the rapid increase in people commuting between more efficient large-scale transport modes, such as railway the suburbs and large city centres. and coastal shipping. This means persuading customers Without Japan’s extensive shinkansen network, domestic needing to transport freight to use railways. air travel would probably be higher than it now is, people Because economics is a factor in choice of transport would not be able to move around so easily, and today’s mode, JR Freight is pushing forward with developing economic growth may never have been achieved. Suburban infrastructure for terminals and trunk line transport as an all- single-family dwellings near large cities may never have out effort to promote a modal shift. In addition to cutting costs appeared without railways. for businesses, the aim is to improve services by enhancing Focussing back on freight transport, freight railways capacity in response to customer needs and reducing freight undoubtedly played a major role in Japan’s postwar high transport times. economic growth. But freight transport at that time mainly Other factors affecting the modal shift have also come used wagonload services like before the war, meaning single into play in recent years. These include changes in the labour freight wagons were assembled into train loads and moved environment with declining population, the impact of spiking between freight yards across Japan. Using wagonload global energy costs on economic growth, and JR Freight’s services, trucks deliver freight to the departure station for approach to global environmental issues. loading by hand into wagons and movement to the delivery This article explains JR Freight’s approach to infrastructure station where the freight is unloaded by hand before final development contributing to a modal shift and covers issues delivery. This loading and unloading by hand requires such as future measures. It also discusses current transport considerable time, labour and costs. As the road network logistics in Japan. developed and trucks became larger and more reliable, direct transport from the point of freight pickup to the final Transition of Rail Transport in Japan destination became possible, cutting transport times greatly and offering manufacturers more freedom in production Japan’s first passenger railway opened between Shimbashi schedules. Of course, truck transport soon had an image of and Yokohama in 1892 and freight transport followed the next better convenience than rail freight. year. Secondary industries grew, factories and warehouses To combat the increase in truck transport, JNR started were built near ports, and private sidings were built. Freight container services between Tokyo and Osaka in late 1950. trans-shipment tracks were set-up in station yards across Such service was expected to expand because the need Japan to move freight to inland consumers, and wagonload for manual freight loading and unloading at stations was freight services started. eliminated, and transport time reached a level comparable to After WWII, Japanese National Railways (JNR) was trucks. However, freight transport at the time was mainly bulk Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 51 • Feb 2009 40 Railways and The Environment (part 3) loading and transport of large objects. Five-tonne containers Germany. These developments show how railways in some that could only carry a third of the load of freight wagons did parts of the world are regaining their lost stature. not match the needs of shippers, so demand for wagonload In Japan, the MLITT is calling for measures to combat services did not diminish and container service was resigned global warming in its New Comprehensive Program of to simply modifying stations and gradually increasing the Logistics Policies. Specifically, the aim is to achieve a 50% number of stations handling the service. The amount of or greater modal shift (share of railway and coastal shipping rail freight on a tonne-km base at the height of JNR freight in long-distance general freight transport) by fiscal 2010 transport in 1970 had a wagonload to container ratio of about by enhancing transport capacity and cutting freight times, 10 to 1. constructing ships promoting a modal shift, and advancing Furthermore, the level of freight fees is greatly affected use of greener and large-capacity rail freight and coastal by the value of transported freight. Low-value freight cannot shipping. be transported at high freight fees, so the trend is to choose The Ministry is also going forward with multimodal a cheaper mode of transport, when there is no great quality measures for domestic inter-regional logistics, promoting difference. efficiency by aiming to build an appropriate transport system JNR was faced with frequent strikes and increasing freight with good distribution of roles by competition and cooperation fees, resulting in a continuing drift to trucks. In the end JNR between modes and free choice of users. Specifically, it will was broken up and privatized, but the timing of the breakup work to enhance access to airports, seaports, stations, and did allow for a major system change. The ratio of wagonloads other transport nodes. In this way, the government is creating to containers just before JNR breakup was 1:1; today, it is 1:8 targets and starting work in fields where work needs doing. with container transport being the main method. However, it is also waiting to see the results of private-sector While rail freight evolved on one hand, the trucking large-scale infrastructure developments. industry grew to handle large-volume transport with the On the other hand, the April 2006 passage of the revised flexibility provided by rapid development of expressways Energy Conservation Law requires all larger companies to and highways. Just as the shinkansen took the major part of create and submit energy conservation plans and report passenger transport, trucks came to occupy the majority of energy-conservation measures. For example, efforts are trunk freight transport. mandated to improve efficiency in freight loading and promote So what became of conventional lines as the shinkansen use of public transport. Moreover, the rapid sharp increase in network developed? The intercity passenger transport role prices for petroleum products and raw materials is creating was transferred to shinkansen, temporarily relieving the severe business conditions for truck transport. If this situation tight main line capacity. But frequent trains departing at continues coupled with the decline in the younger population regular intervals also boosted intra-city transport in urban creating a shortage of truck drivers, there will be inadequate areas due to improved convenience, especially following road transport capacity. the establishment of the JR group of companies. As a result, Japan could probably still achieve sustainable growth line capacity has tightened and coordination of time slots for if the situation remained unchanged with an adequate long-distance freight trains running on tracks owned by the workforce, expanding economy, and vibrant production JRs requires close cooperation with the passenger operators. and consumption. However, the reality is that the nation is In such a situation, it is impossible to increase capacity for entering a new phase with declining population, movement freight trains needing speedy transport. of manufacturing to overseas, and tremendous competitive economic growth in developing nations. Against this severe Modal Shift in Japan background, what is needed to maintain current economic growth and living standards into the future? Countries worldwide have been proceeding rapidly with Logistics is indispensable for increasing the vitality and specific approaches to tackle global warming since the 1997 prosperity of any country. The August 2008 Comprehensive adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. Immediate Policy Package—Easing Public Anxiety— One typical example is the development of large- announced a policy of enhancing energy efficiency in scale infrastructure projects in the EU where advanced transportation systems and promoting modal shifts. environmental policies aim to reduce the absolute number Specifically, this