CHAPTER 8: JAPAN AND PACIFIC RIM EXPERIENCE

8.1 INTRODUCTION to Chapter 8. Several of the most commonly used terms are, however, Chapter 8's organization and bulk reflect incorporated into the master glossary of careful consideration by the author and this report. other investigators on the best way to present this research. Except for high speed Simply put, joint use of track is generally intercity railroad ventures, there is a dearth the operation of one entity's trains over of readily available research material and a another entity's tracks without the passenger general lack of familiarity with Japanese having to change trains. Reciprocal running and Pacific Rim rail transit (in comparison is the operation of passenger trains by two with that of western Europe, for example). or more railways over the tracks of the other The nature and extent of Oriental shared companies. Such operation serves many track practices are particularly obscure. purposes and necessitates certain Accordingly, more detail is provided than preparations. With respect to electric is customary in an issue-based research railways and rapid transit lines, there is assignment. frequently the need to enable passengers to board at different-height station platforms, Shared track cannot be researched or and adapt to the partner's electrification and accomplished in isolation. All Pacific Rim other systems. Throughout Japan and in rail information, therefore, is presented here other Pacific Rim metropolitan areas, these in the context of joint use. The Japanese and other problems of reciprocity have been case studies, lessons learned, conclusions, resolved in different ways, offering lessons and descriptions of unique railway features to any North American urban area are structured around this study's first four considering joint use of track. The practice chapters; institutions/regulation, operations, has permitted and encouraged the rapid physical plant, and vehicles. This brings the growth of electric railway services in major reader up to the same level of understanding metropolitan conurbations and on rural of the Pacific Rim experience that is offered railways. Positive results are achieved for the North American joint use ranging from lower cost rail transit experience. The "Lesson" section of this expansion by avoiding financing and chapter mimics directly the first four building duplicate facilities, to rescuing chapter headings and the key issues that lightly-used branch lines from they raise on application to the North abandonment. American rail environment. Of Tokyo's thirteen fully- or partially- Six case studies were selected to finished rapid transit lines, only five do not demonstrate a variety of shared track have reciprocal running. Of them, the arrangements and the characteristics of Ginza and Marunouchi lines are too Japanese culture, institutions, and crowded, and Line 12 is a low-profile line commerce which encourage joint use. that is physically incompatible with any Selected case study rail operators were other rail line so cannot participate in surveyed during the course of this research, reciprocal running even though it employs but response has been disappointing within common 1435mm (4'8½") track and the time allocated for the survey. Because 1,500Vdc catenary. Extensions are under of the diversity of the Japanese joint use construction that will tie two more of the experience, the bibliography and glossary lines to interurban tracks for through are distinct units and appear as appendices running. Tokyo has almost consummated

Chapter 8 — Page 1 (indeed, exceeded in many ways) its bold business philosophy of separating public- 1985 rail expansion plan and is shifting deficit passenger transport from private attention farther in future efforts; 531.7 km income-producing real estate. (330.40 miles) of new railways are to be built, including more planned with While joint use of track/reciprocal running reciprocal through services, and focusing might be expected to be small as part of new rail lines on Yokohama, Chiba, and any nation's overall railroad network, it is Kawasaki. Transportation officials have extensive in Japan. To put this into concluded that with only modest public perspective, Table 8-1 shows the extent of clamor to improve existing lines, Japan's railroad network in terms of uncooperative residents along proposed operating entities, the number of them, and new alignments and public funds in short the number participating in joint use of supply, they must stay with available track. These are not just different corporate railway rights-of-way. Reciprocal running and public entities sharing track, as in U.S. is therefore well-established and the trackage rights. The following joint track practice is expanding based on favorable uses are between railways of different results thus far. types which would be regarded as incompatible, physically and operationally, The organization of railroads and rail by North American standards. transit in Japan is different than both North American (where the railroads have long As Table 8-1 shows, among the Japan Rail been pillars of private enterprise) and Group, the one freight and all six passenger Europe (where the railroads have long been companies participate in joint- national government entities). In at least use/reciprocal running. Among the private one way, Japanese railways are becoming railway companies, 43 do so (including 6 more like those in North America. Until a municipal systems). Among the Third- decade ago, the principal Japanese railroad Sector entities, 35 do. This sum of 85 network was a department of the national amounts to 55% of all the rail operating government. It is now well advanced in its entities in Japan participating in some form transition to geographic groups of private- of joint use. Thirty-four other entities that enterprise railroad corporations. Japanese operate fixed-guideway modes that cannot National Transportation policy, however, participate in joint use of track or has been more like Europe where attention reciprocal running, because of guideway and resources are more balanced between incompatibility (people movers) of which railroads, public transportation and half are funiculars, bringing the total highways. On national railroad networks, number of Japanese operating entities to freight dominates in North America, and is 189. There are also other freight-only important throughout Europe. In contrast, railroads and industrial railways. freight is decidedly subordinate to passenger service on the Japanese national This chapter also explores the remainder of railroad system. the Pacific Rim to find examples of joint- use of track. While there is growing A review of the evolution of the former passenger-rail development activity in the Japanese National Railways into the emerging Third-World nations, the present Japan Rail Group shows how, by established industrial/economic hubs of contrast, the North American experience Hong Kong and Seoul provide the best has tended to separate complementary examples of joint-use of track. transport and non-transport activities. This condition is traceable to anti-trust legislation, regulation, and a common

Chapter 8 — Page 2 Table 8-1 Tally of Entities Providing Rail Service in Japan

HSR = high-speed rail (Shinkansen); ICR = intercity rail; ECR = electric commuter rail; DCR = diesel commuter-rail; INT = interurban railway; HRT = heavy rapid transit; LRT = light-rail transit; StR = street railway; FRT = freight

* Because any entity might provide more than one kind of service, the row totals are adjusted to remove duplication.

Chapter 8 — Page 3 8.2 OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE RAIL places are without rail transit in some TRANSPORTATION form, and most of those are on outlying islands, and include only one large city – 8.2.1 Cultural Context Naha on Okinawa.

It is essential to understand how joint use It is important to appreciate that many of evolved and how Japanese rail projects the Japanese rail projects, if subjected to have been conceived, planned and the U.S. process of Alternatives Analysis implemented. Consider these with caution and Major Investment Studies, probably regarding wholesale transfer of Japanese would not be built. At the same time, the success in these ventures to America. notion that public transportation is better for the environment than automotive travel Politics are similar to America at all levels. is well accepted without successive studies. Japan's constitution, instituted by the Indeed, there has been some overexuber- MacArthur administration following World ance to build and some resulting mistakes. War II, makes Japan one of the more The overexuberance is demonstrated by a purely democratic nations of the world. As national landscape marked by unfinished in the United States, free enterprise is railroad projects – vacant bridges, viaducts, significant. Several things do set us apart. tunnels. These unfinished projects play a role in emerging third sector railways and One difference is that education is the the joint use enterprise they generate will responsibility of the municipality, but at be described. high-school level, parents can enroll their The Japanese maintain a high standard of children in any school that they can reach discipline. Failure is related to trust and daily as a practical matter. Significantly, less to endeavor. The slogan, "Safety this contributes in great measure to riding First," is carried to high levels in Japan. on public transportation. In lieu of local Yes, there are sophisticated systems of school buses there are school-tripper trains. Japanese train control apparatus, but the Some students travel very long distances, main link in the safety chain is the integrity up to several hours each way, to attend the of the individual operating employee and school of their choice. Student fares are supervisor. A review of Chapter 6 accident accordingly very low. Otherwise reports indicates a prevalence of human lowdensity branch lines survive in part failure as a cause. One cannot dwell on the from such functions now uncommon in the benefits of joint use of track and reciprocal U.S. Railbus services in joint use flourish running without an appreciation of the modestly in such environments. simplicity and steadfastness of operating discipline in Japan. In North America, it Tokyo's highways and public might be regarded as a risk mitigation transportation facilities are highly used and essential for joint use. very crowded – usually running at two to three times capacity even at Oriental levels There are other factors at work that in some of tolerance. But, one need travel only way have an impact upon the continuing relatively short distances away from development of the transportation system Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya to find ample and of joint use potential. One is personal capacity on roads and public longevity. Japanese have long been at the transportation. Most of Japan is rural, and top of world demographics with respect to most cities are small. Yet in the grouping of lifespan. Accustomed to extensive quality places of 50,000 population or more (the mobility and having disposable income that fundamental definition for U.S. Urbanized easily covers travel costs, the elderly do a Areas (UZAs), only 14 of the 118 such lot of traveling, much by train,

Chapter 8 — Page 4 providing market even in remote areas worth mentioning that the Japanese do not where joint use thrives on the third sector credit themselves with original thinking railways. regarding public transportation policies and practices. They readily acknowledge that In addition, Japan is land-shy. In general they learned from overseas. With respect to terms, the nation has half the U.S. joint use of track and reciprocal running, population in the space of the square miles America was a principal source of learning. comprising Montana, and more than 80% Every feature we might consider adopting of Japan is not developable – being steeply from Japan, North America once had here sloped mountains. Most of the population in some measure. occurs in the contiguous coastal conglomerations of the Kanto (Tokyo- 8.2.2 Evolution of the Japanese National Railway to Yokohama-Chiba-Kawasaki), Tokai the Japan Rail Group (Nagoya), and Kansai (Osaka-Kyoto- Kobe) regions. The joint use case studies Joint use of track evolved in several forms that follow cluster in these land-scarce in large part because of the way that the areas and are therefore organized by these Japanese railway ownership and regions. institutions have evolved. This evolution is sometimes recorded as a cultural trait, but What do these cultural characterizations it reflects more societal changes which have to do with joint use of track and ultimately translate into goods and service reciprocal running? It is simply the quest delivery. Understanding unique Japanese for mobility for a growing travel habit institutions, practices, and equipment helps constrained by land values that force the to grasp the environment which fosters examination of making greater use of joint use. Accordingly, Third-Sector existing railroad infrastructure. The railway joint use installations, railbuses, advantages of joint use of track are and other features of Japanese rail becoming more acute in Japan. To the operating practice are explained below. extent that cost and lack of space conditions become critical in North North American Contrasts America, the advantages of joint use become more pronounced. It's important to In the United States and generally in understand the institutional and political Canada, the railroad companies have been environment in Japan that permits (and private enterprise corporations that encourages) joint use. function differently than most corporations There is really no equivalent of U.S. states in that they had been regulated by the or Canadian provinces in Japan. The first Interstate Commerce Commission, the level of government below national is the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), ken ('prefecture"), of which there are 47. In and by individual State public utilities turn, prefectures are subdivided into gun commissions. Now the Surface ("county") and counties into combinations Transportation Board and FRA primarily of shi ("city"), machi ("town"), and mura regulate U.S. railroads. ("village"). For general reference, the nation is separated into the four major Throughout Europe and much of the rest of islands of Hokkaido (which is also a single the world, railroads are or were entities of prefecture), Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku, the national governments. There are also and is divided into nine regions. One lesser private-company railroads that feed region, Ryukyu, is distant from the others the national network and are dependent and contains the island of Okinawa. It is upon it. There is seldom rail-to- rail competition remaining within

Chapter 8 — Page 5 corridors under this national railroad faire free-enterprise system, in time the structure. In Japan, until a few years ago, major corporations re-created these the railroad network evolved briefly as monopolies through inter-company individual companies that were early agreements. These monopolies and inter- amalgamated into a nationwide company agreements created the government-owned and operated network. comprehensive transportation, finance, real However, many private companies estate, retail, recreation, and utility continued to be formed and were only conglomerates similar to those which selectively merged into the national JNR helped develop U.S. suburbs prior to anti- network. As in most countries, each such trust initiatives. This diversity also created railroad needed government sanction either a climate of cooperation between business through specific concession or franchise, or interests which encouraged joint use of through articles of incorporation, endorsed facilities, including tracks. through legislation and limiting the venture insofar as terminal points or routes are Japanese Regulation and Competition defined. A word about competition is useful to JNR Formation understand joint ventures and joint use. Japanese transport companies can diversify The mainline Japanese railroads were without fear of anti-trust retribution. In the nationalized in 1892. Japanese Government U.S., companies are usually limited to their Railways (JGR) was created in 1906 for initial purpose. In Japan, one company the main purpose of extending railroads enters diverse lines of complementary into areas where they could not become businesses. In this way, companies adjust profitable soon enough to attract private to changing markets and business cost investors. JGR was replaced on June 1, centers that can complement one-another. 1949 by Nihon Kokuyu Tetsudo (Japanese Like North American enterprise, Japanese National Railways —JNR). companies look after their primary need With the advent of electric railway first, to earn a reasonable profit. technology in the form of street railways Secondarily, businesses are dedicated to and interurbans, local railways blossomed the welfare of the community. A balance is throughout the developed world. This latter achieved, so that neither objective disadvantage has been overcome by smothers the other. A private railway ingenious methods of interchange in more company's intended business is to provide recent years. a useful transportation service. Because there is a point at which it would become In Japan, private railroad companies were unproductive for a transportation company granted unfettered free enterprise. to raise its fares to the level which would Nevertheless, by specific actions, national, drive away customers, the management is prefecture, and municipal governments obliged to find more and other ways to could legislate limitations. This intention make money. There being no anti-trust of enforcing efficiency and economy was laws, the railway companies diversify also imposed upon manufacturers, extensively to subsidize their establishing zaibatsu – single-purpose or transportation services. Until recent single-region conglomerates. An decades, they did not compete with the unintended result was the creation of private automobile. If bus service was enormous comprehensive monopolies. warranted, the railways provided it; they Following WWII, Japan dismantled these did not have to compete with separate bus zaibatsu as a means of returning to companies. But they competed fiercely normalcy. As Japan is a refined laissez- with each other, not on parallel routes, but

Chapter 8 — Page 6 in different territories on the basis of reflecting the great spending power of the "Come live and work in our service area auto workers who reach the Toyota plant by because we offer the best travel economical electric trains. opportunities and our area offers the finest quality of living." Joint use of track and Financing Rail facilities can thrive where such environments converge. The Japanese free-enterprise system allows the railways to establish credit and borrow In the largest conurbations, the interurbans as needed. There are no capital grants to compete aggressively. In Tokyo- help expand or public subsidies to maintain Yokohama-Kawasaki, each serves different operating margins. To eliminate grade quadrants of the region and competes in the crossings by dropping into subways or sense of "Come and live, work, and play in rising onto aerial structure, they must pay our territory because we render superior for the new facilities themselves, although service." In Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe, interurbans they often negotiate cost sharing compete point-to-point on differing arrangements with communities where alignments between the same pairs of cities. mutual benefit can be demonstrated. (For In most instances, these independent the severe damage of the Kobe earthquake, companies compete with Japan Rail for example, the Hanshin railroad had to mainline or branch line service, too. This sell real estate in order to raise the funds to competition extends beyond schedules and rebuild bridges, overpasses, viaducts, and levels of service. Every time one interurban tunnels, re-lay its track, and re-erect its announces a new feature, another will go to catenary.) Most infrastructure work to top it. The traveler benefits as improvements are therefore accompanied improvement after improvement is or motivated by joint-development projects introduced. The interurban's managements which produce immediate capital and have stretched their imaginations to produce ongoing revenue. While the new Japan marvelous circular tours. In spite of Rail Group companies are obliged to seek competition, they also cooperate with each consent of the Ministry of Transport to other and with Japan Rail when their raise fares, they need no consent to make business interest is being served commonly. investments. Joint use is therefore The interurbans own what would ordinarily unconstrained by business regulation. High be competing bus routes and coordinate cost and high density tend to encourage them with the rail lines. To varying extents, joint use ventures. these companies must compete with the private automobile. In Tokyo, this is of In the U.S., the railroad network is a group minor concern. But, in Nagoya — Japan's of competing corporations which do not automobile manufacturing center— rail rely on public subsidies. The U.S. railroad operators provide more comfortable seating system is envied by overseas governments with greater leg room and other passenger for its self-sufficiency. The Japanese amenities such as clean antimacassars on National Railway had become an the seat backs of transit vehicles. The enormous financial and social burden on suburban city of Toyota has one of the the federal government. Railroad world's most modern downtowns, with an overstaffing was a principal means of attractive mall and multi-level skywalks keeping the populace employed. While the between the stations of the two interurban railroad sysº tem was vital, it nevertheless lines that serve it. The centerpiece of this had numerous lines that were an economic 21st-Century development is one of Japan's drain on the rest of the network. largest department stores (owned, in fact, by "Privatization" was long pursued in Sanyo–another interurban company) all England as a conservative political

Chapter 8 — Page 7 philosophy. Japan examined all other Tokai Passenger Railway Company places' efforts and decided on a different (Tokai Ryokaku Tetsudo Kaisha)(Japan path. Its simplicity is the hallmark of its Rail-Tokai)1 rapid implementation and evident success. In summary terms, the national West Japan Passenger Railway government divided the Japanese National Company (Nishi-Nihon Ryokaku Tetsudo Railway infrastructure and management Kaisha) (Japan Rail-West) into six geographic-area corporations (and Kyushu Passenger Railway Company three other special-purpose companies), (Kyushu Ryokaku Tetsudo Kaisha) (Japan granted to them all the privileges and Rail-Kyushu) corporate regulatory freedom of a private railway company, and directed their Shikoku Passenger Railway Company managements to strive to become (Shikoku Ryokaku Tetsudo Kaisha) (Japan profitable as quickly as possible so that the Rail-Shikoku) government could sell its ownership through shares on the open market. Freight Railway Company (Kamotsu Tetsudo Kaisha) (Japan Rail-Freight) The Japan Rail Group companies can now diversify to earn revenue through various Shinkansen Property Corporation means in addition to the transport farebox, (Japan Rail-Shinkansen) can negotiate with other private railways just as those railways have negotiated The former Nihon Kokuyu Tetsudo cooperative agreements among themselves, (Japanese National Railways, JNR, or and are enabled to cast off the worst "Kokutetsu") continues as a corporation in earners among their branch lines. (See the the form of Kyu Kokutetsu (Old National section on Third-Sector Railways.) Notice Railway) as holder of debt and disposer of that the old concept of the zaibatsu prevails 2,600 Ha (6,424.6 acres) of surplus – monopolies within geographic areas. property. Within the context of joint-use of track, Shinkansen high speed lines are within the take notice that one of the new jurisdiction of only three of the companies corporations is Japan Rail-Freight. Freight – Japan Rail-East (JR), Japan Rail Tokai; continues to be managed and operated on a which extends to downtown Tokyo [JR- nationwide basis. But, unlike the U.S., the East territory] in one direction and to freight operation is consistently the tenant downtown Osaka [JR-West territory] in the on the passenger railroads. other direction; and Japan Rail-West, Institutional Rail Changes which extends well into Japan Rail-Kyushu territory. By 1991, these three companies The new companies, temporarily 'owned' that operate Shinkansen had become until offered by the government, are: sufficiently profitable that they purchased the assets from Japan Rail-Shinkansen. Hokkaido Passenger Railway Company Operation of the high-speed trains has long (Hokkaido Ryokaku Tetsudo Kaisha) been a major profit base; the income from (Japan Rail-Hokkaido) Shinkansen subsidizes those intercity and commuter/suburban operations that incur East Japan Passenger Railway Company losses. The proceeds from these sales is (Higashi-Nihon Ryokaku Tetsudo Kaisha) being used to finance Shinkansen (Japan Rail-East) extensions inland to Nagano, north to Aomori, and south to Kagoshima, as well as to contribute to lowering the debt held

Chapter 8 — Page 8 by the JNR Accounts Settlement the other hand has resulted in remarkable Corporation. improvements of all sorts, not the least of which being the financial stature. Faster The process has moved swiftly by trains, thoroughly refurbished older rolling comparison to controversial stock, purchase of new rolling stock, denationalization of railroads in other modernized stations, and better customer nations. A JNR Rehabilitation Supervision service brought increases in ridership and Committee presented a report and revenues. Joint real-estate development recommendation to the Prime Minister, and around stations, new passenger-train the Cabinet met on July 30, 1985 to services, joint use arrangements with other endorse the government's commitment to railways, and diversified enterprise brought carry out the recommendations. A primary in additional revenue. issue was the determination of how much of the large JNR debt ought to be Japan Rail-East typifies the rapid transferred to the new corporations. A transformation of the conservative JNR controversial element was the drawing of management to an aggressive stride. Some boundaries for the six geographic groups; of its aggressive changes apply joint use of the arrangement finally accepted was to track and facilities as a tool for rapid keep commuter-districts together rather expansion and improvements. Within only than focus on continuity of intercity routes. a few years, it had: This established a framework for future joint use. ! extended the north network of The Shinkansen lines were treated Shinkansen lines from outlying Ueno separately at first to simplify the number of terminal to Tokyo [Central] station; regional companies that would be ! increased the maximum operating responsible for them. Those who crafted speed for Shinkansen trains up to 275 the details of turning the government-run km/s (170.88 mph); national railway system into regional ! worked with a Third-Sector railway railway companies were encouraged by to bring direct rail service from "the success of the private commuter lines Tokyo (by an interurban company in keeping costs and fares down while and Japan Rail-East) into the providing a high level of service to their terminal buildings of Narita customers." The government International Airport, then expanded acknowledged that at least three of the the service to Shinjuku and regional companies – serving the islands of Ikebukuro by putting freight tracks to Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku – were passenger use, and to Yokohama going to need public subsidy for a long (cutting Narita-Tokyo travel time period of time before they could become from 90-minutes by non-stop bus to profitable. Although the extant private 53 minutes with capacious trains has railway companies anticipated some new attracted more than 41,000 average competition, they did not resist the daily riders); movement. The date of April 1, 1987 was ! remodeled sleeping cars from open set for implementation, and the Minister of berths to compartments and scheduled Transportation was instructed to draft all overnight trains for convenient the necessary legislation. departure and arrival times; ! introduced double-deck high-speed The incentive splitting up of JNR and Shinkansen trains and bi-level giving the group corporations the ability to commuter trains; compete on the one hand and the requirement to become self-sufficient on

Chapter 8 — Page 9 ! introduced super-express trains from It is clear that deregulated, decentralized Tokyo to several shore resorts, some in decision-making, and applying prudent yet cooperation with interurban railways; aggressive business practices, created introduced commuter/suburban service innovative new services and a climate in through densely populated areas by which joint ventures of many types, using freight tracks; added the 43 km including joint use of tracks, is encouraged. (26.7 miles) Keiyo Line to the dense Tokyo rail network; Emergence of Passenger Rail Supremacy ! introduced high-speed Shinkansen commuter trains; extended A paradox observed in Japan is that due to electrification; improved signaling; declining freight loadings, JNR began and developed ATP (automatic train the Japan Rail Group passenger companies protection) and ATS (automatic train continue to turn central-city team tracks stop), then merged them into ATS-P and freight yards into revenue-producing – a form of moving block train joint land developments at the same time control; that Japan Rail-Freight's main endeavor is ! increased ridership by 13% since the to increase the rail share of cargo company was established; and movement throughout the nation. Tonnekm ! operated the company at a profit, had declined by 1988 to only 37% of the thus fulfilling the underlying 1970 level. Adding to this dilemma is the objective. introduction of intensive passenger service on former freight-only lines in the major Japan Rail-East was the first of the Japan metropolitan areas and relegating freight Rail Group to be marketed to the public. moves to nighttime, only because of high By mid- to late-1993, two million shares traffic density, not incompatibility. But were put up in the Tokyo Stock Exchange Japan Rail-Freight has joined with Nippon by the Japanese National Railway Express, All-Japan Express Company, and Settlement Corporation. The issue was so individual Japanese shippers to form heavily oversubscribed and the share value Kukusai Kamotsu Tetsudo System – a sea- inflated that the stock exchange had to rail venture between Japan and China suspend sales. A starting share price of which will also – under agreement with face value ¥50,000 started at ¥250,000 and China's Ministry of Railways – operate skyrocketed to over ¥600,000. Cautiously, freight service within China and participate the government had held back 50% of the in container and parcel service between four million shares. Japan Rail-East's Japan and Vietnam, Mongolia, Kazakstan, importance can be appreciated from the and Russia. Within Japan, Japan Rail- fact that it carries as many passengers as Freight maintains a fleet of 593 electric the other five Japan Rail Group companies locomotives and 283 diesel locomotives. combined (although not as many as the total of private railways), and passengerkm While the Japan Rail Group companies are rose 23% from July 1, 1987 when the pressing for the lifting of certain company went into business, to 1993. restrictions which were introduced into the legislation creating these companies, the On October 8, 1997, Japan Rail-Tokai government has been helpful in other stock was floated on the Tokyo Stock ways. A way was found to write off a Exchange. The ¥385,000 for each of the considerable portion of JNR's debt instead 800,000 shares was higher than the of passing it along to the companies. The expected ¥359,000, but lower than the sale tax threshold on monthly tickets was price of Japan Rail-East stock in 1996. doubled, making it more worthwhile for commuters to choose Shinkansen; Japan

Chapter 8 — Page 10 Rail-East Shinkansen commuters increased Japan Rail-East has successfully from 3,800 in 1986 to 106,000 in 1989. established itself in station restaurants, One of the restrictions the Japan Rail convenience stores mostly at stations (108 Group wanted discontinued was a outlets by 1996), rental of surplus land and prohibition against abandoning 1067mm buildings, developing housing projects (3'6") lines after opening 1435mm (4'8½") along its lines, a hotel chain at or near Shinkansen lines in the same corridor. stations (the eleventh opened at Nagano in Japan Rail-Freight was against this time for the Winter Olympics), bed-and- capability because key links in a freight breakfast facilities in stations (eight by network would be lost; its only recourse Spring 1997), redevelopment at or near would be to acquire and continue operation stations with hotels, office buildings, and of such lines. In turn, because local stations shopping centers, and management of would be bypassed by the high-speed shopping centers, hotels, advertising trains, this would place Japan Rail-Freight agencies, and information services. In in the undesirable position of having to February 1993, Japan Rail-East introduced supply passenger service. When in late its own credit card – VIEW – which is 1997 the Nagano Shinkansen service was honored at station businesses and for ticket started, Japan Rail-East was enabled to and and tour purchases. (An interesting side did discontinue the old line. A related fact economy is the recycling of used ticket was that the line contains a 6.7% gradient – stock as toilet paper for the company's once operated with rack-and-pinion – stations and trains.) which is less economical for freight than longer lines that climb the mountains A focal point for income production has elsewhere. The section from the top of the been the space below, above, and alongside slope at Karuizawa to Nagano, however, Japan Rail-East tracks. Adding to a similar was transferred to the new Shinano array, Japan Rail Central has concentrated Railway as a ready-made Third-Sector on mammoth building complexes at, on, electric interurban line. So, Japan Rail- and around principal stations (Nagoya and Freight access is preserved to the cities Toyohashi so far), a major resort hotel (at along the way. Takayama) with more to follow, a tour company, investment services, and a For the first several years of their separate Japanese restaurant in London. The existences, the Japan Rail Group Affiliated Business department has been companies were exempted from taxes on the income-growth leader among Japan their assets. Then this immunity was lifted Rail-East departments. Japan Rail-West on a sliding-scale basis. adds world-wide travel bureau; the Tennoji station building in Osaka, which is claimed Blending Transport and non-Transport to be Japan's largest commercial complex; Ventures the largest shopping mall in Japan; and 110 Japan Rail-East, again, is used as an miscellaneous profit-making subsidiaries example of how individual companies have and affiliates, including a railway, two bus been diversifying. Initially, the non- companies, and taxicab companies. transportation (but transportation-related) Summary Evaluation of Rail Systems in income is being used to construct new Japan and Application of Experience station buildings (which in turn create more opportunities for this diverse income A summary observation concludes that the source). By 1996, in spite of heavy break-up of JNR into the regional railway expenditures of this new-found income, the companies has been successful, and that Related Business department contributed the keys to success of the action have been 4% of Japan Rail-East's annual profit. (1) not requiring the new companies to

Chapter 8 — Page 11 carry the full burden of past debts, (2) tracks, but between cities on railroad-like granting to the new companies the private rights-of-way. Rather quickly, the privileges that the private railways (indeed, interurban railway developed into a unique any private corporations) have – coupled rail form with its own kind of rolling stock with the lack of stern regulation or anti- capable of running slowly in mixed traffic trust prohibitions, (3) adopting public- among the streetcars and fast on the open interest benevolent goals and objectives, railroad-type track. In time, numerous and (4) a prevailing positive attitude of instances of joint use of track emerged, cooperation and coordination. This latter although the practice was not at that time weighs heavily in the successful ventures heralded as anything unusual. into joint-use of track. It is more the interurban than the streetcar A summary of significant points with that was reborn as light-rail transit, with all respect to transferring Japan's success with the versatility introduced by the interurban joint-use of track to North America railway. The historical timing was such include: Freight service has been that the defining interurban features of corporately separated from passenger either running cross-country to link urban service – as in the U.S. – but Japan-Freight centers or radiating from urban cores were is a tenant on the regional Japan Rail applicable to Japan as it underwent its companies' tracks. In a reverse of the roles rapid Meiji-Era transition from a feudal of Amtrak and the nation's freight state to a modern industrial nation. In railroads, Japan Rail-Freight supplies and Europe, the emergence of regional railways operates its own motive power and rolling and independent Stadtbahn reflect a return stock. The railways have long voluntarily to the interurban, but in a contemporary adhered to identical standards of track form. gauge (although several), traction power (again, several), and clearance envelope. In Although some historians erroneously Japan, anomalies are addressed rather than credit the automobile with the rapid used as reasons to not accomplish things to outward growth of Los Angeles, it was gain benefits (e.g., one of Tokyo's rapid actually a well-planned interurban network transit lines adopted the Tokyo streetcar that set the pattern for metropolitan gauge of 4'6" rather than require an growth. The automobile merely took extensive interurban company to convert to advantage of it. Similarly, it was the standard gauge.) This also reveals how one interurban railway that defined the low- action to achieve a standard for joint use profile but extensive pattern of growth can cascade through the system to compel experienced at the same time by Tokyo, other changes in standard which are Osaka, and Nagoya. otherwise unjustified. The surge in Third- The interurban railway has become a Sector railway projects created a sudden dominant practitioner of joint market for economical, efficient, easy-to- use/reciprocal running in Japan. The maintain railbuses (and the willingness of Japanese interurban railways – both private the railcar manufacturers to take orders of and third Sector – practice joint only a few at a time). use/reciprocal running to a greater extent 8.2.3 Japanese Private Interurban Railways than the other rail modes. Nevertheless, among the interurban systems' partners in The American interurban industry was a the practice, the urban rapid transit natural outgrowth of the early electric systems, though numerically fewer, have a street railway and urban rapid transit. larger percentage of participants in joint Typically, but not always, the interurban use/reciprocal running. trains ran into and out of cities on streetcar

Chapter 8 — Page 12 When interurbans were introduced in There are other private companies and Japan, the Japanese had progressed Third-Sector companies operating electric sufficiently to carry on their own railways in other forms, such as heavy entrepreneurship. They followed U.S. rapid transit, light-rail transit, street practice closely and created American- railways, and more operating diesel style electric interurban railways. A railways. century later, the interurban has evolved into the dominant mode for travel in Interurban versatility is underscored by a Japan's major conurbations. The variety of track gages: 1435mm (the North technology and operating practices have American standard gauge of 4'8½"), advanced to the state of the art. The natural 1372mm (4'6"), 1067mm (Japanese course of continued development in Japan "standard" gage of 3'6"), and 762mm shows how the interurban might have (2'6"). Versatility continues with a variety evolved in the U.S. and Canada had not of electrification systems: 600vDC trolley other forces intervened. wire or catenary, 750vDC third rail, 1,500vDC catenary, and 20,000vAC Interurbans shoulder most of the catenary, as well as some diesel railcars commuting burden in the major Japanese and railbuses oper ating under catenary. urban areas. Their role is vital. In the vast This diversity may have suppressed some Kanto region (i.e., the Tokyo-Yokohama joint-use track ventures, but where gauge commutershed), the large Kansai region compatibility exists, joint use by (Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe commutershed), and interurbans and other carriers flourishes. the Nagoya region, the sharing of average Even where track gauges are different, the weekday passengers among urban problem has been overcome by joint use of transportation modes was as shown in rights-of-way, or three-rail track. New Table 8-2 in 1980. interurban lines continue to be built. All feature some degrees of joint venture, joint The interurban companies carry the use of track, or reciprocal running. Since greatest share of passengers each day. In the institution of the Third Sector the Kanto region, they carry 41.62% of all arrangement, the following eleven electric rail passengers in a network having the interurban lines have been opened: (Note world's most extensive electrified those that participate in reciprocal suburban/commuter-rail network (Japan running/joint use of track with Japan Rail Rail-East's) and the world's most extensive group railway companies are indicated by heavy rapid transit ("subway") network. In "*", and those that participate in reciprocal the Kansai region, the interurbans carry running/joint use of track with other 54.61% of the rail passengers, and in private railways are indicated by "#".) Nagoya, 51.56%. There are 38 private companies and 15 ! Abukuma Railway – 1067mm (3'6"), Third-Sector companies operating electric 20,000vAC catenary – 54.9 km interurban railways in Japan. In addition, (34.11 miles).*# three of the Japan Rail Group companies ! Aichi Loop-Line Railway – 1067mm operate a total of 16 interurban lines in 11 (3'6"), 1,500vDC catenary – 43.5 km localities; predecessor JNR acquired these (27.03 miles).* over the years and added them to the national railway network. No matter how ! Chiba Express Electric Railway – you count them, there is a greater 1435mm (4'8½"), 1,500vDC catenary concentration of electric interurban – 10.9 km (6.77 miles).# systems in Japan than in any other nation of the world.

Chapter 8 — Page 13 Table 8-2 Interurban Market Share

Chapter 8 — Page 14 ! Hokuetsu Express – 1067mm (3'6"), cars and trains. They extend their travel 1,500vDC catenary – 59.5 km (37.00 influence by encouraging hiking in regions miles).* that they serve, and even maintain hiking trails. They have expanded into travel ! Hokushin Express Electric Railway – bureaus and publishing travel-oriented 1435mm (4'8½"), 750vDC catenary – 7.5 km (4.66 miles).# periodicals. ! Kamogawa Railway – 1435mm Copying their U.S. counterparts of earlier (4'8½"), 1,500vDC catenary – 2.5 km decades, Japanese interurbans developed (1.55 miles).# family amusement parks to generate off-peak riding on their lines. Some of the amusement ! Kansai Airport Access Line — parks have graduated to theme parks. The 1067mm (3'6"), 1,500vDC catenary – sponsor and local partner for Walt Disney 6.9 km (4.29 miles).*# Enterprises' Disneyland near Tokyo is the ! Narita Airport Rapid Railway – Keisei Railway interurban company. The 1067mm (3'6") 1435mm (4'8½"), interurban companies have built sports 1,500vDC catenary – 8.7 km (5.41 stadiums strategically located so sports fans miles).*# must ride their trains to reach the games, and they own their own baseball teams. Of the ! Shinano Railway – 60.4 km (37.53 twelve major league Japanese baseball miles).* teams, five are owned by interurban ! Toyo Rapid Railway – 1067mm companies: Seibu [Railway] Lions, Hankyu (3'6"), 1,500vDC catenary – 16.2 km [Railway] Braves, Kintetsu [Kinki Nippon (10.07 miles).*# Railway] Buffaloes, and Nankai [Railway] ! Yagan Railway – 1067mm (3'6"), Hawks in the Pacific League, and Hanshin 1,500vDC catenary – 43.5 km (27.03 [Railway] Tigers in the Central League. miles).# In retailing, they have ventured into non- In addition, the following were developed traditional transport businesses such as as non-electrified railways using diesel- small stores (like florists), at one extreme, propelled rolling stock as a vanguard for and into shopping malls at the other future electrification: extreme. Many of the nation's major department store chains are owned by the ! Ise Railway – 1067mm (3'6"), interurbans, and their principal stores often railbuses – 22.3 km (13.86 miles).* serve also as the main railway terminal. ! Kita Kinki Tango Railway – Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railway 1067mm (3'6"), railbuses – 30.4 km Company on the island of Shikoku (18.89 miles).* operates a major chain of supermarkets, with the stores alongside stations. Notice ! Tokai Transport Development that in addition to making a profit Agency – 1067mm (3'6"), DMUs – themselves, all of these non-transit 11.2 km (6.96 miles). ventures are expected to generate travel on Many interurbans operate networks of bus the interurbans. The interurbans have routes, and often extend their influence into expanded their activity to hotels, including resort areas with funiculars and aerial major chains and overseas locations. The cableways. Several operate fleets of interurban companies are also involved in taxicabs. Some operate ferries or excursion planned communities and new-town boats. Such diversification, of course, development. Some build their own expands their transportation sphere, putting rolling stock, and a several sell their more passengers into their electric railway products to other railways in Japan and

Chapter 8 — Page 15 abroad. Hence, there is no need for public ventures as a means to bring about new subsidy of these private railways. facilities or services. In some ways, super- turnkey projects embrace some Third- These joint business arrangements among Sector characteristics. The third sector the interurbans and other Japanese railways railway's closest equivalents are the new are uncommon in North America where, LRT DBOM ventures in the U.S. The for anti-trust reasons or profit motives, manner and extent to which they have been real-estate/land development and public used in Japan to affordably restore failing transportation were separated over the past or discontinued passenger railroad services six decades. Attempting to preserve and to establish new rail lines has potential themselves, and in the face of real-estate application on such entities in North taxes, U.S. railroads divested themselves of America. It is no coincidence that Third- real estate at the very time Japanese Sector railways, joint ventures, and shared railways were continuing these track appear to be related. investments. In separating transport from non-transport, freight from passenger, and Accompanying the breakup of the Japanese railroad from rail transit, the climate for National Railways (JNR) into the Japan joint ventures, much less joint use of track Rail Group was the selective screening out and facilities, diminished. of "unproductive" branch lines and the discontinuance of construction (most of The interurban railways range from vast which had long been dormant anyway) of and modern (e.g., the Tobu Railway with new lines. Arrangements were promulgated 293 miles of line and 1,951 units of motive to make these facilities available to other power and rolling stock) to small and existing or new operators. Because much quaint (e.g., the 2.6-mile Kambara Railway of the service on these low-density with only a few cars). candidates for discontinuance was regarded 8.2.4 Japanese Third-Sector Railways as vital to regions or municipalities, various levels of local government stepped The Third-Sector railway, a relatively-new forward to rescue lines, usually in joint form of railway corporate entity is not ventures with private investors. Facilities exclusive to any one rail mode, or or services that did not suit national or transportation or economic development large-scale priorities were often important enterprise. There are over 5,400 third to the locales they served. sector (Daisan) ventures of all types in Japan, representing over $10 billion in The disposition of branch lines by Class 1 investment. It is explained to help railroads to local county economic understand the nature of this increasingly development agencies, councils of popular railway organization. government, and their contracting with Understanding Third-Sector railways is private short-line railroad operators is a vital because these type railways are process paralleling Third-Sector formation principal participants in joint use of in Japan. A major difference is that the track/reciprocal running in Japan. There branch lines in the U.S. provided freight are no examples of such entities in the service while the Japanese lines were U.S., although their formation has been predominantly for passengers. promoted indirectly by encouraging Technically, there already were third- private-sector participation and joint sector railways in Japan, but they were not public/ private ventures. Various state and separately categorized. They were local legislative bodies are making or grouped with the private railways. The considering legislation that will enable casting off of certain lines as part of the transportation entities to employ joint creation of the new Japan Rail group of

Chapter 8 — Page 16 railways, however, was an inducement to Japanese branch line railways are the quick formation of a multitude of such commonly picturesque and endowed with railway ventures and the "Third Sector" unique local character. How are Third- term was introduced. Sector railways financially self-sufficient? The basis for assuming operation of a JNR Previously, Japanese railways were financial loser and making it financially separated into two general groups: viable local operation required lower than Kokutetsu or JNR (i.e., the "first-sector") JNR wage rates, part-time employees, and and shitetsu or "private railway" (hence, volunteer marketing efforts. The railways the "second-sector"). In Japanese railway employ retired JNR employees as lexicon, "private" does not necessarily dispatchers and train operators, housewives denote exclusive private sector ownership. as ticket collectors at stations, and teenage The term encompasses all railways other students for station maintenance work. The than JNR, including municipally owned service areas are saturated with and operated rapid transit and street promotional literature aimed at gaining railway systems. For this new wave of joint more use of the railway. municipal/private-enterprise railway ventures the term Daisan Sekuta (i.e., Other Third-Sector projects which "Third Sector") was introduced. The Third- complete unfinished JNR lines or build Sector pattern followed by Japan is very anew are high-quality facilities with first- similar to many of the smaller railways of class rolling stock and modern operating Switzerland which are owned jointly by practices. These usually have the corporations and cantons or municipalities. prefecture within which they occur as a Absent prohibitions, this process initiates participant, and are pursued for the purpose and happens from the bottom up rather of opening new territory for economic than being prescribed by the national development. Without exception, these government. have become significant partners in reciprocal running arrangements. The municipal investors in these third sector railways include villages, towns, While the foregoing characteristics typify cities, counties, and prefectures. The the Third-Sector Railways, there is more private investors range widely from variety than can be portrayed here. Their interested individuals to corporations scope and variety could justify a separate formed expressly for the purpose. Some research effort. Some of these new also include shippers and existing private railways are profitable even at prevailing railway companies. Japan Rail or transit authority wage rates. Some are not at all modestly capitalized, Some are bold ventures of heavy public but have made enormous capital financing with goals of opening new investments which must be repaid territory for development – both on a city essentially through the farebox. scale, such as the tunneled Hokushin Express Railway in Kobe, and on a Third-Sector railway practices that are regional scale, such as the Yagan Railway performing financially superior to the into the isolated interior of Honshu Island former JNR operation include the north of Tokyo. Typically, the Third- widespread use of diesel railbuses, which Sector railways are single lines. Most cost little more to purchase and no more to often, they are on the fringe of run than highway buses, wan-man ("one- urbanization or in rural areas. This stems man") operation – dispensing with from their heritage as cast-off Japanese conductors and placing fare-collection National Railways branch lines. apparatus within view of the engineer/ motorperson, and elimination of staff at

Chapter 8 — Page 17 stations other than at crew operating commuter/suburban, interurban, heavy points. The national government and the rapid transit, or light-rail transit rail JNR holding companies have been helpful, services. Nine others operate monorail- too. Many of the rights-of-way and ways, people-movers, or funiculars. physical plant remain in national- government/JNR ownership and are made 8.2.5 Japanese Diesel Railbuses available at little or no charge, thereby If the Third-Sector is a prime practitioner reducing the debt incurred locally to take of joint track use, then the diesel railbus is over a railway. Surplus JNR rolling stock – a major tool in implementing joint track usually diesel multiple-unit (DMU) use on a local scale. railroad cars (comparable to TCRP A-17 Category 1 DMUs) – have been made A principal item of motive power/rolling available for rebuilding (or at least stock employed throughout Japan in repainting) to provide initial service while instances of joint-use of track/reciprocal replacement railbuses are being running is the railbus. Railbuses were used manufactured. Because the service is in Japan as early as they were found across locally, or regionally regarded as essential the United States. They disappeared here, though not profitable, local subsidies keep and they nearly disappeared in Japan. the trains running. Because the local There was a momentary resurgence governments are part-owners, there is not following World War II in light-weight the American-style concern for putting railcars, including railbuses, even in the public tax money into the hands of private U.S. The vehicle, however, did not really operators. Early results in converting come into broader use until the advent of former JNR lines to Third Sector Railways the Third Sector railway. This parallels the show an increase in farebox recovery rates popularity of these vehicles, called from 10-or-20% to 70-to-more-than-100%, Schienenbusse, in Germany. Suddenly, thus demonstrating that railways can be Third-Sector railways needed affordable basically economical, with ingenuity and rail vehicles that could be operated and enthusiasm packaged in locally/regionally- maintained by semi-skilled neo-railroaders fashioned institutions. and would be dependable, economical, and efficient. Their rapid deployment results in The emergence of this new category of their use now by all six of the regional railway in Japan has caused a renaissance for Japan Rail Group corporations, 18 private the manufacture of railbuses. The railway companies (including some characteristics of these new Third-Sector interurbans), and 34 of the Third-Sector railways has placed new expectations on railways. This represents 37½% of all railbus design, construction, and railroad ventures in Japan. performance. Third-Sector railways are distributed throughout the nation. They are Japanese, like Europeans, tend not to often operated and maintained by relative categorize and separate their rail modes, novices, who have neither spacious shops such as high-speed rail, intercity rail, nor sophisticated tools. Their operating commuter rail, heavy rapid transit, light requirements are seldom for more than two rail transit, and street railway. These are all to five vehicles. The challenge to just "rail," the only distinction being if they manufacturers of these versatile, economical, are electrically propelled. The one word reliable vehicles is to fill very small orders densha ("electric car") applies to and to maintain parts inventories. everything from streetcars to the high- speed 16-car Shinkansen trains. While the By January 1, 1998, there were 54 Third- term "DMU" (diesel multiple-unit) is Sector companies operating intercity, internationally recognized, including in

Chapter 8 — Page 18 Japan, the general reference to the topical serve merely as extracapacity units at the vehicles is rerubasu (railbus), although ends of trains, but in the opposite direction, deizeruka (diesel car) is common. They are they take on the important role of control not called DMUs or diesel LRVs in Japan. cab. The railbuses have been built in Distinction between railroad DMU additional variations such as married pairs (Category 1) and rail transit railbuses and three-car train sets. Some have (Category 2) is blurred in Japan. streamlined ends. Some have been styled to appear as vintage trolley cars. Those It is, however, their combination of light assigned to long-distance trips are weight and short length that distinguishes equipped with lavatories. They would not the Japanese railbuses as the smallest be considered FRA-compliant in America. among other self-propelled rail-bound The Japanese railbus has become a very conveyances. The conventional diesel versatile passenger-rail vehicle. Hence, multiple-unit (DMU), of which there are their numbers have grown rapidly. By the thousands in Japan, are typically of 21,500 end of 1997, there were more than 780 of mm (70'7") length and are powered by these "non-compliant" railbuses operating underfloor pancake or side-mounted throughout Japan. engines – somewhat comparable to the venerable Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC). The types of service in which railbuses Railbuses are shorter than DMUs and have found their niches are many: employ smaller engines, all evolved from bus and coach technology. They would be ! rural branch lines, including Third considered FRA non-compliant in the U.S. Sector railways, that otherwise would have been abandoned The first of the new generation of railbuses used conventional bus bodies. Then, ! as means to open new rural or urban reacting to customer comment, railway lines and serve until larger manufacturers made the bodies wider and cars become necessary longer than would be suitable for a highway vehicle, and evolved the vehicle ! urban shuttles – more effective than into a better-riding double-truck version short bus trips on congested streets rather than the two-axle version. ! school trippers on commuter/ In the rapid but intermittent evolution from suburban rail lines buses on rails to small railroad coaches, a significant feature was the introduction of ! means of reaching parks, natural train doors to enable crew (and sometimes features, shrines and temples, and passengers) to move from car to car when places where automobiles and other they are coupled into trains. This feature vehicular traffic might be unwelcome deprives Japanese rail-buses of their motor-bus appearance (see Figure 8-4a). ! vanguard for future electrification, to Another significant step, less obvious, was develop a ridership constituency equipping the railbuses to operate multiple- before the catenary is erected unit with each other and with their larger DMU counterparts. This required ! temporary services during special upgrading the control, performance, events, world's fairs, expositions, etc. coupler, and other mating surfaces to railroad standards. The shell and structure ! replacement of older DMU stock, the remained bus derivative, however. In train large capacity of which is not needed with larger DMUs, the railbuses do not

Chapter 8 — Page 19 Very early in the new era of railbuses in diesel-electric streetcars was a means of Japan, with the impetus being the smaller extending street railway service into railways and the third-sector movement, growing urbanization areas in advance of the Japan Rail Group found it useful and erecting trolley wire (which eventually was economical to buy their own railbuses. done). The cars were converted to straight This is a similar circumstance to the electric and in that form found their way to German Federal Railways who, after other street railway systems when Sapporo permitting Karlsruhe urban light-rail renewed its fleet. They operated in diesel vehicles to venture onto its main mode from 1958 to 1968, and continue in line/branch line rails, observed the 1998 running in electric mode. These resulting economy and bought and operates Sapporo LRVs were not dual power its own LRVs to replace older vehicles but were diesel-electric drive, commuter/suburban trains. never running off wire until their conversion to all-electric power. There has Because of the synergy with bus design, been no repeat or imitation of this special railbus manufacturers are willing to fill mode, which, incidentally was neither an small orders for a few or only one unit. In experiment nor a demonstration, just a addition, they are willing to tailor them to financial and operating expedient. each customer's unique needs. The railbuses are maintained and repaired by Dual-power exists in the U.S., Japan, and the individual owning railway companies. elsewhere. In the U.S., there are several While a variety of national and local laws parallels with the Japanese railbus and its pertain to such matters as safety (e.g., German counterpart, the Schienenbusse. grade-crossing protection) and The Mack FCD railbus on the New York, environmental issues, railbuses per se are New Haven & Hartford Railroad in the not "regulated." 1950s was most common among an otherwise rare vehicle type. Mack mated a The history of the modern Japanese railbus conventional transit bus body on stock is brief. Few changes in design through the PCC-car trucks – at least two models were Japanese railbus' short evolution have produced by Mack. Ten were built by resulted in a record of reliability. The Mack's Allentown, Pennsylvania plant newer vehicles keep pace with advances in during 1951-19542 bus and railway technology. The use of and in view of the off-the-shelf components contributes to respective dates may have influenced the favorable maintenance experience. Sapporo cars, or at least the decision to build them. Both the railbus and light DMU are derived from non-railroad vehicles; the 8.3 JOINT USE RATIONALE, THE DMU from the LRV and the railbus from JAPANESE EXPERIENCE the bus. The railbus and the light DMU (Category 2 and 3) are following separate Some specific regional transportation functional and evolutionary courses. policies and rationale underlie Japanese joint-use of track experience. The Tokyo Other than a temporary effort by the Tozai Line's implementation provides Sapporo Municipal Transport Bureau with examples of the rationale in practice, and is operation of diesel-electric streetcars, there subsequently described. Purposes of joint- has been no effort to make the railbus use of track arrangements in Japan and the adopt characteristics of light-rail vehicles, Pacific Rim include the following nor to create a low-floor version, nor to examples: operate them on tracks in paved streets with automotive traffic. Sapporo's use of

Chapter 8 — Page 20 8.3.1 To Eliminate Transfers ! By reducing terminal congestion of both passengers and trains. ! By offering a one-seat ride via central-city rapid transit lines instead ! By overlapping passenger-train of having to transfer from service both to conveniently commuter/suburban trains or distribute passengers and to enable interurban trains at the periphery. same-platform transferring from train This feature is demonstrated in to train. One transfer in any of multiple instances of reciprocal Tokyo's Asakusa Line subway running focused on the rapid transit stations, for example, allows networks of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, passengers from Yokosuka on the Kobe, and Fukuoka. Keihin interurban to continue on the Keisei interurban to Narita ! By offering a one-seat ride via feeder International Airport without two lines; Japan Rail reaches popular transfers using an intermediate destinations on tracks other than its subway train. own, such as from Tokyo to the Izu peninsula resorts over Izukyu ! By enabling special excursion interurban tracks beyond Ito, or the service; Nagoya Railway special rural Wakasa Railway's railbuses trains from Nagoya to Tateyama on over a Japan-Rail-West mainline to the opposite coast, using interurban reach the city of Tottori. trackage at both ends and a Japan Rail-Tokai mainline between. ! By running interurban trains over Japan Rail (without having to change 8.3.3 To Save Money or Better Use Existing trains) to alternative terminals not on Infrastructure Investment the interurban system, e.g., Odakyu interurbans running to Gotemba, the ! By obviating the huge investment eastern gateway to Mount Fuji, on needed for duplicative large-volume Japan Rail-East tracks. capacity.

! By allowing special train through ! By exploiting the large capacity of service such as school trippers so that city rapid transit subways (so that groups of students do not have to suburban trains can reach many in- transfer. city destinations without building redundant infrastructure). ! By running private branch line or suburban trains over Japan Rail track 8.3.4 To Extend Existing Services or Introduce New Services to reach a central city; Third-Sector ! By extending the service of an urban railways running direct to the core subway by using another railway's city instead of transferring tracks (such as employed by both of passengers to Japan Rail mainline Tokyo's central subway operators to trains. reach well into the suburbs without having to build extensive new 8.3.2 To Improve Service infrastructure). ! By reducing travel time through ! By enabling significant shortcuts for elimination of transfer and wait longer-distance trains by operating times. over sections of private railway or interurban companies.

Chapter 8 — Page 21 ! By bringing coordinated rail services conventional dual rail technology as a base. to major airports like Narita Those cities that have chosen International, New Kansai unconventional transit guideway systems International, Haneda Domestic, such as proprietary monorailway and Fukuoka International, and Miyazaki people-mover systems have, in doing so, International. (Chitose International forfeited opportunities for joint use. In Airport, serving Sapporo, is directly spite of two predominant track gauges, served by Japan Rail-Hokkaido extensive reciprocal running and joint use express electric suburban trains.) of track prevail in Japan. In spite of a wide variety of rolling stock and traction power 8.3.5 To Support Land Use and Economic options, Japanese transportation providers Development Initiatives enter into agreements for joint use and coordinated services. The attraction of ! By opening new territory for riders by the one-seat ride provided by development, both in metropolitan reciprocal running/joint use of track is areas by serving new-town sites, and superior to even the most convenient in a broader sense, to open heretofore transfer facilities. inaccessible interior regions. 8.4 PROBLEMS AND ISSUES THAT HAD ! By allowing continuation of local TO BE RESOLVED TO ACCOMMODATE passenger-train service on trackage JOINT USE taken into the high-speed Shinkansen network (such as on the newer To accomplish joint-use of track, one rail Yamagata Shinkansen and Akita operator (the tenant) has to conform with Shinkansen). another rail operator's (the host) physical and operating characteristics. In reciprocal The reciprocal-running practice has been running, two railroad entities negotiate spurred particularly by several recent mutually-agreeable terms, each yielding to developments. One is the growing need to the best characteristics drawn from both provide more suburban Tokyo and Osaka parties. The initial reciprocal running train service in order to keep abreast of operations in Japan caught the attention of growing population. Another is to restore railway managements and transportation some of the severed links resulting from planners. As joint use results have been the separation of the former government- positive, risk tolerable, and mutual benefits owned Japanese National Railway into apparent, negotiations to form new regional Japan Rail companies, and the partnerships or expand existing ones are resulting discontinuance of numerous not contentious. uneconomical (by JNR standards) branch In most instances, individual railways were lines. Several of these branch lines have built and rolling stock acquired without the been rescued by public-private Third- expectation of ever running on other Sector railway ventures. trackage. As shared track practice spreads, it encourages more standardized equipment This concentration of service resulting among participating carriers ordering from overlapping train service in Japan is replacement rolling stock. responsible in large measure for the popularity of the individual services. To initially implement reciprocal running in the major-city subways, the participating One lesson derived from Japan's operators agree on common standards such experience with joint-use of track/ as: reciprocal running, is that it requires

Chapter 8 — Page 22 ! rolling stock of compatible ! In metropolitan Tokyo for the eastern dimensions and performance end of the Tozai Line, Teito Rapid characteristics, Transit Authority rights (to do business) had to be extended into ! cars with identical signal/train- adjoining Saitama prefecture. control apparatus, ! Cost-sharing arrangements are ! coordinated work and operating negotiated. In the Tokyo rapid rules, transit situation, reciprocal-running operating entities using the Teito ! an integrated schedule, and Rapid Transit Authority rapid transit lines lease trains to each other on a ! divisions of responsibilities for set-fee basis, necessitating a complex operating and maintenance functions, accounting method. But the operating operating costs, and revenues. entities using the Tokyo Municipal Transport Bureau rapid transit lines Because the rapid transit configurations are work out arrangements of train runs more demanding and more restrictive than and distances designed to achieve other rail modes, they tend to prevail. 50:50 usage, and necessitate no Following are some of the ways found exchange of money. At joint stations throughout Japan to resolve problems and where two corporate entities meet, concerns that were encountered, or to the one with the greater amount of achieve compatibility. The subject of this business operates the station and the report's first four chapters and related key other pays a fee. Train crews issues appears here again, this time in a routinely change at these common Japanese context – institutional matters, points and do not run into each operating/labor practices, physical other's territory, as do the trains. facilities, motive power and rolling stock, Again, details of these arrangements and combined features: are set locally. ! The first of the joint-use ventures 8.4.1 Institutional Matters was negotiated for reciprocal running over the Teito Rapid Transit ! Japanese local government regulation Authority's Hibiya Line. It prescribed prevails over alignments and equal running lengths by through- operating rights in the same manner running trains among the three of local "public rights of convenience participating entities (Teito Rapid and necessity" in the U.S. For Transit Authority, Japan Rail-East, example, in order for a railway and Tokyo Express Electric Railway, company incorporated in one Tokyu) with no running permitted prefecture to extend into an adjoining over third-party tracks. This meant prefecture, it must alter its charter. that Japan Rail could run its Licensing had to be revised to enable commuter/suburban trains through connecting links to be built and to the central subway, but not onward allow railways to run over each over Tokyu tracks, and Tokyu could other's tracks in certain instances. run its interurban trains through the central subway, but not onward over Japan Rail tracks.

Chapter 8 — Page 23 This restriction was subsequently forth. Train crews change at common discontinued as a requirement and stations. Station staff is comprised of not applied to subsequent Tokyo area the employees of the entity that owns reciprocal-running projects. the station. However, some reciprocal running agreements assign ! While common standards are agreed station staff according to dominant to by partners sharing track, every usage of the facility in terms of train arrangement is negotiated separately. runs or number of passengers. There are no commonly accepted Exceptions abound. For one model agreements. Decisions are example, Abukuma Railway negotiated locally. Any common interurban operators bring their trains terms, however, are carried from old into Fukushima over the tracks of agreements to new agreements Japan Rail-East and Fukushima among existing partners rather than Transport, possibly because of the revisiting already-settled matters. nuisance factor of changing crew twice over very short distances; but 8.4.2 Operating/Labor Practices at the north end of Abukuma Railway, the trains that continue Japan Rail had to revise some of its many miles to Sendai change crews operating regulations to permit joint use at the common junction station. with rapid transit, railbus, and interurban operators. The following are examples: 8.4.3 Physical Facilities

! Rolling stock can be outfitted for ! So as to obtain sufficient clearances some alternative uses to in height-restrictive structures; accommodate differing operations. direct-fixation track construction to For example, the Fukuoka rapid the tunnel floor is employed (except transit is operated wanman ["one- where a subway passes under man"]. But, its track-sharing partner buildings or residences). This is in Japan Rail-Kyushu trains employ a lieu of conventional track needing two-man crew (motorman and the added height of ballast and ties. conductor). Japan Rail conductors work through the "one-man" territory ! Low subway clearances brought into inasmuch as the rapid transit line extensive use overhead third-rail provides the only link with the city's (called "trolley bar") in lieu of major Japan Rail railroad station catenary, which required too much (Hakata) and operating headquarters. space. (See also "Motive Power and The organizations representing Rolling Stock," below.) railroad and rapid transit operating employees cooperated to reach this ! System-wide communications were arrangement. installed with two-way radio contact between train operators and ! A significant concern which has not dispatchers and an open public- been handled in any standard fashion address system to communicate with is the assignment of operating passengers in stations. employees. Generally, the employees of one entity do not venture onto the property of another, unlike the train consists which migrate back and

Chapter 8 — Page 24 ! When Ise Railway purchased 8.4.4 Motive Power and Rolling Stock railbuses to run over its own line, to reach the center of the city of ! In the least complex situation, it has Yokkaichi, Japan Rail-Tokai been adequate to revise rulebooks to required the railbuses to be outfitted include the signal practices of other with the wireless ATS (automatic railways over which a crew may train stop) that it has installed on its have to operate. But where newly-electrified Kansai Main Line. sophisticated systems prevail, it has been necessary for the newcomer ! Not formerly seen, but now quite partner to outfit its rolling stock for routine is the passing of city subway the higher-grade system, lest safety trains over suburban at-grade road be compromised. Around Tokyo, crossings. As a result, some rapid Osaka, and Nagoya, where the transit equipment has been retrofitted interurban companies operate with skirts, fenders, or "cow especially large fleets of cars, some catchers." Crossing safety experience economy has been achieved by ruling in Japan is remarkably good. On out the use of certain series of cars lines with several classes of trains, from running through on the city anticipators are used which provide subway tracks. This restriction the same warning time for slow encompasses the fleet extremes: the trains and fast trains. This serves to oldest cars, and the luxury limited discourage "beating the train to the express trains, which continue to crossing." Japanese traffic rules operate exclusively on the owning require automobiles, trucks, and railway's tracks. buses to stop at grade crossings even if the gates are up and the lights are ! Achieving compatible electrification not flashing. Driving in Japan is still schemes required that the railways regarded as a privilege. It is a costly design a double-sprung pantograph privilege that can be taken away for that exerts equal pressure on the infractions that might be regarded in contact wire at low height in North America as minor. If the subways and at high height out from Japanese do not obey the laws as a underground. matter of principle, they obey them to keep their licenses. ! Compatible couplers were needed in the event that one train must push ! For 1067mm- (3'6"-) gauge Odakyu another in emergency. In the case of Electric Railway Company Japan Rail-East running through interurbans from Shinjuku (Tokyo) Tokyo subways, these trains yielded to run into the mountains over the their railroad-type couplers in favor 1435mm- (4'8½"-) gauge Hakone of the rapid transit-type couplers. Mountain-Climbing Railway Japan Rail elsewhere uses knuckle- Company, it was necessary to lay a type couplers with flexible cables for third running rail from Odawara to trainlines and control. Rapid transit Hakone-Yumoto. On this dualgauge systems use transit-type couplers track with half the trains off center, with trainlines and control contacts. trains draw 1,500Vdc power from a common catenary contact wire, set within lateral tolerances of both company's pantographs.

Chapter 8 — Page 25 ! Throughout Japan, high-station suburban trains could abide by the platforms and level boarding prevail rapid transit system's short station for all rail passenger modes except dwell times and maintain joint street railways. When reciprocal schedules on the shared trackage. running is introduced, the Dwell times at stations are a major participants have to agree to a concern of scheduling trains on short uniform car-floor level and a headways. common station platform height. When one of the pair of shared ! Cars are equipped with end doors for facilities is built anew, this matter is evacuation in subways and tunnels. taken into account during design. In Many subway car end doors hinge other more common instances where outward and down, forming steps. two existing facilities are connected, This feature ruled out the through small variances are tolerated. There operation of interurban streamliners is no ADA-type minimum gap with tapered or rounded car ends requirement or height deviation for (although newer models have been wheelchairs, although the railways designed with disguised end doors). voluntarily do the best they can to (An American example from the past accommodate wheelchairs is instructive: When the Lehigh economically. Valley Transit Company (LVT) put modern second-hand high-speed cars ! A common carbody width at sill from Ohio and Indiana interurban level was necessary for joint use. lines into use on its Liberty Bell With few exceptions, all stations in Limited run, which used the third-rail- Japan have high platforms. For electrified tracks of the Philadelphia narrower cars, this necessitated & Western Railway (P&W) to reach welding a plate at each door to span Philadelphia, P&W required LVT to the gap to the platform of the wider install end doors in the rear of the cars rapid transit clearance line. In the for emergency evacuation. Although case of Nagoya Railway's light-rail no subway was involved, P&W's long transit lines radiating from Gifu, new viaduct over the valley of the LRVs were outfitted with a Schuylkill River had a catwalk on retractable plate so that they would only one side; passengers exiting a not be in the way during boarding side door on the blind side would and alighting at level boarding have dropped directly into the River. platforms. Accordingly, it was necessary to ! Though uncommon, some rolling move the emergency doors on LVT's stock in Japan is capable of loading second-hand interurbans from the passengers at high (car-floor-level) sides to the rear ends.) station platforms and low (curb- level) platforms, as is done with ! The extensive use of diesel railbuses rotating, folding, or retractable steps has been introduced as a key means in North America at Buffalo, of introducing joint use of track Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. and/or reciprocal running. In the Karlsruhe, Germany, metropolitan ! In instances of reciprocal running area, after permitting the operation using rapid transit lines, it has been of urban dual-voltage light-rail necessary for the non-rapid transit vehicles on the Deutsche Bahn AG rolling stock to have additional (DBAG) tracks, the host DBAG multiple side doors to assure that the bought a fleet of its own lower-

Chapter 8 — Page 26 operating-cost LRVs to replace some multiple-unit coupler as Japan Rail-East's of its locomotive-hauled suburban fleet of EMUs. The railbuses of the Kita- trains. Similarly, after the railbuses Kinki Tango Railway are equipped with proved their reliability on new the same multiple-unit couplers as the Japanese Third-Sector railways, Japan high-speed diesel trainsets operated non- Rail became the owner/operator of the stop over this Third-Sector railway's tracks largest fleet of railbuses on its own by Japan Rail-West. There are places services. Under these businesses where incompatible rolling stock comes circumstances, issues of rolling stock nose-to-nose, such as the end of catenary compatibility become moot for the on the Aizu Railway, where Yagan operator as long as their decisions fit Railway electric interurbans with multiple- within a flexible regulatory standard. unit couplers meet Aizu's railbuses with knuckle couplers. Ordinarily, the two ! Diesel railcars run beneath catenary, railways trade passengers at the rural end- even in one of Nagoya's downtown of-wire Aizu-kogen station, by arriving and subways. departing from the different sides of an What appears not to have become an issue island platform. However, although the in Japan is incompatible crashworthiness interurbans cannot venture onto the of rail transit and railroad rolling stock. sanscatenary diesel section, the railbuses Over time, as life-expired rolling stock is can and do run under the catenary in the replaced, the rolling stock of the partners in interurban's territory. joint use becomes similar or identical – thereby reducing or overcoming any safety 8.4.5 Combined Features or risk concerns. Rather than rolling stock ! To bring Nagoya Railway (Nagoya evolving to a crashworthiness or some Tetsudo) suburban light-rail vehicles other national standard, joint use partners into downtown Gifu on one of the evolve their car designs toward uniformity company's interurban line's private and compatibility with the unique right-of-way instead of the slower infrastructure and market that they share. street railway, it was necessary to The Japanese reliance on employee purchase dual-voltage rolling stock discipline and in sophisticated signal/train capable of operating on two catenary control systems is applied to crash contact voltages: the 600vDC of the avoidance. As an example of Japanese suburban trolley line and the practitioner attitudes, the use of anti- 1,500vDC of the interurban railway. climbers is not prevalent on newer rolling It was also necessary to equip these stock. The impact-vulnerable couplers are cars with folding steps so they can expected to serve an attenuation and load passengers from the trolley override function. No other explanation is line's low platforms and from the offered by the Japanese joint-use carriers interurban's high platforms. surveyed by this research team. New Japan Rail railbuses are compatible ! In another through-running instance, with their larger brethren DMUs and often Nagoya Railway light-rail vehicles operate multiple-unit with them, even with are equipped with both folding steps their different buffing and design strengths. and retractable gap fillers in order to Railbuses on rural lines that run on Japan run on an urban street railway line Rail rails to reach major cities are equipped and a rural interurban line with high with conventional railroad-type knuckle platforms. couplers. The Abukuma Railway interurbans are equipped with the same

Chapter 8 — Page 27 Hiroshima Electric Railway solved unwelcome without end doors and other this same problem by rebuilding each safety modifications. Japan Rail likewise suburban station with a high section operates unique trains of attractive styling and a low section connected by on its own parallel tracks. As might be stairs. expected in any evolution of this sort, the city rapid transit trains are taking on a 8.4.6 Unusual Results more modern appearance inherited from Ordinarily, reciprocal running depends the more-style-aggressive interurban upon compatible infrastructure and rolling companies. stock. But implementation throughout Japan has resulted in some unusually While not a commonly regarded attribute diverse features. The Tokyo rapid transit of joint running in Japan, selective network alone contains an unusual variety standardization has evolved on Japanese of features. Represented are: railways which share facilities and rolling stock. ! three track gages: 1435mm (4'8½"), 1372mm (4"6"), and 1067mm (3'6"); 8.5. CASE STUDY SELECTION

! two electrification contact voltages: Purpose: "To arrive at the few best and 600Vdc and 1,500Vdc; most applicable (to North America) examples of joint use in Japan, compile ! three means of power distribution to matrices identifying such factors as: track trains: track-level third rail, overhead gauge compatible with freight service; third-rail (on Eidan underground), national, private/municipal, or joint and overhead catenary; and ownership; whether modern installation, wholesale rebuilt, or recently outfitted with ! four car widths ranging from 2600mm new rolling stock; electric or diesel (8'6.4") to 2865mm (9'4.9"). propulsion, or in transition; whether urban, One observed result of widespread joint rural or intercity; and other pertinent use of track/reciprocal running in Japan's information. ..." A multi-step process is larger urban regions is diminishing used. This activity was carried out numbers of distinctive designs, sizes, and separately for Japan and for the remainder shapes of commuter/suburban-rail, rapid of the Pacific Rim. It proved instructive for transit, and interurban trains. In developing the research investigators to inventory and more common characteristics for classify these rail operators and it is compatible joint operation, the operators of therefore being appended to this report in commuter trains and interurbans have Appendices K1a, b, and c. tended to favor rapid transit rolling stock 8.5.1 Japan characteristics (though not necessarily standards). Except for color schemes, Starting with a complete list of all the logos, and some leeway in styling, the railways operating in Japan, a process of trains look increasingly similar. Outside elimination was followed. It was believed the city rapid transit territory, however, useful to have a relatively few that would shared trackage still carries a broad variety represent individually or in combinations of rolling stock. The interurban companies the following circumstances or still run unique streamliners side-by-side characteristics: electric propulsion, diesel with the rapid-transit-like trains, using their propulsion, a facility in transition (e.g., original terminals instead of running diesel to electric), light rail transit, through the subways, where they are interurban (country cousin of LRT), heavy

Chapter 8 — Page 28 rapid transit, commuter rail, private 8.5.2 Pacific Rim Outside Japan railway, Third-Sector railway, urban setting, short-intercity setting, rural setting, This research scope was extended into the and at least one example in each of Japan's principal cities of eastern Russia, South major conurbations (Kanto, Kansai, and and North Korea, eastern China (including Nagoya). Brief descriptions for review Hong Kong and New Territories), were prepared for the resulting set of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, examples, with a goal of reducing the Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, T'ai-wan, examples to six. Lastly, a modification was The Philippines, and the Pacific islands. made in order to include an example Thirty-four cities were found to have been encompassing the operation of rail vehicles constructing or planning urban rail or other in paved city streets. fixed-guideway systems. Appendix K-c included with this chapter shows this Following is the final choice of joint starting list. Initial screening reduced the use/reciprocal running examples which are 34 down to 18 places that were examined described in the next section of this for any indication of trackage rights, joint chapter: use of track, or reciprocal running. Examination revealed that only two places Gakunan Railway in the Kanto region (a had true joint use/reciprocal running light rail also operating heavy freight trains examples, but that seven other places have under common track ownership and features worth brief mention: management); Anshan+Liaoyang (China), Djakarta (Indonesia), Hanoi (Vietnam), Kuala Hankyu Electric Railway in the Kansai Lumpur (Malaysia), Shenyang+ Fushun region with multiple examples (a diverse (China), T'ai-pei (T'ai-wan), and Wuhan enterprise whose interurban trains link two (China). major cities while sharing tracks with rapid transit operators at both ends); Following is the final choice of joint use/reciprocal running examples which are Ise Railway in the Nagoya region (a pre- described in the "Other Pacific Rim electrification, third sector railway as a key Examples" section of this chapter: link with operating reciprocity with Japan Rail); Hong Kong and New Territories (Victoria and Kowloon), China Nagoya Railway at Gifu (high- and low- platform LRVs and interurbans operating Seoul and Inch'ön, South Korea jointly in a variety of track and urban environments including on-street trackage);

Sanriku Railway in the Kamaishi and Miyako urban areas (a rural railbus third sector railway owner/operator having reciprocal running with Japan Rail); and

Tozai Line in the Kanto region (a public rapid transit authority combined with Japan Rail and a public/private suburban railway to extend rapid transit quickly and provide CBD distribution through reciprocal running).

Chapter 8 — Page 29 Japan shared Track Case Studies - Figure 8-1

JAPAN - SHARED TRACK CASE STUDIES Locations of Selected Examples of Joint Use of Track

G. Thompson 5-98

Chapter 8 — Page 30