Features and Economic and Social Effects of the Shinkansen Hiroshi Okada
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Features and Economic and Social Effects of The Shinkansen Hiroshi Okada The railway is deeply rooted in land 1.3 High annual precipitation railway transportation worldwide. and society. Therefore, it is developed Japan has high annual precipitation; However, because Japan is surrounded to match the nature and cultural cli- in the rainy season from June to July, by sea, because most large cities and mate of a nation. This paper describes south Honshu and southern areas have industrial areas are on the coastal the features of Japan and how they a great deal of rain. On the other hand, plains, and because the inland areas do characterise her shinkansen inter-city in winter, Hokkaido and the districts not yield great mineral resources, there transport system. It also describes the along the Sea of Japan have very high is almost no demand for mass long-dis- effects of the shinkansen on the railway snowfall. In summer and autumn, Ja- tance transportation, which is the best business and society. pan is often hit directly by typhoons ac- field for freight railway. companied by strong rain and high As a result, except during the war 1. Features of Japan wind. when domestic coal dominated energy The annual precipitation of Tokyo is resources, the Japanese railway has 1.1 Geographical conditions and 1405 mm (average from 1961 to 1990) never had a large share of the freight location of cities compared with London (753 mm), Paris transportation market. Nowadays, Japan has a large population (120 (648 mm), Berlin (584 mm), Moscow trucks dominate land freight transport, million) in a comparatively-small land (692 mm), New York (1069 mm), and coastal shipping continues to have area (377,000 square kilometers). The Beijing (578 mm). a very high share. centre of Japan is dominated by steep However, today, freight railway can mountains, and most of the large cities 2. Railway Development fully demonstrate its advantages of and industrial areas have developed punctuality and high speed by con- along the coastal plain (Figure 1). The Matching National Features tainer or piggyback transportation of ratio of habitable land to total land area This chapter explains how the fea- high-value, light goods. Thanks to tech- is only 20%, resulting in a high popula- tures described above characterise nological developments in both hard- tion density on habitable land. Japanese railways, as well as the tech- ware and software, Japanese freight The Japanese population is concen- niques developed to adapt to them. railway transportation is showing re- trated in cities, particularly in three markable growth. metropolitan areas. Approximately 30 2.1 Features of Japanese million, 16 million and 8.5 million transportation market 2) Active passenger railway people live within 50 km of central To- Most major cities in Japan are on the transportation kyo, Osaka and Nagoya, respectively. linear coastal plain. In addition, Japan Since most large cities are located al- is a long slender archipelago and there most linearly along the coastal plain 1.2 Young geology with frequent are no true inland areas. Furthermore, and the population density is very high, earthquakes Japan is poor in natural resources. these areas are perfect for passenger In general, the surface of the habit- These factors have greatly influenced railway transportation. Therefore, de- able plains is geologically weak and cov- the passenger and freight railway spite the remarkable development of ered mostly by thick alluvium. By con- transportation systems as well as their airlines and express highways, passen- trast, orogenic movement is active in technical development. ger railway transportation holds about mountainous regions, forming quite a 30% share of the increasing transpor- complicated strata. Since the Japanese 1) Low share of freight railway tation volume year after year. archipelago is located on the Pan-Pa- transportation Railways are dominated by inter-city cific Seismic Zone, strong earthquakes It is no exaggeration to say that passenger transportation centered on are very frequent. freight railway transport dominates the shinkansen and by urban commut- ing in metropolitan areas such as Tokyo and Osaka. Table 1 Population Density (per square km habitable land) Japan Former West Germany France England USA 1500 360 160 260 50 Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994 9 SPECIAL FEATURE – 30 YEARS OF HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS Figure 1 The Location of Main Cities and the Shinakansen Network in Japan Legend 8 Million 3 Million 1 Million 0.5 Million 0.3 Million 2.2 Technical features of achieved such high-frequency as far as 2) Feeder service network shinkansen inter-city transportation is concerned. It is very important for high-speed in- In addition, many core cities are lo- tercity railways to be served by well-de- 1) High frequency, short station- cated close to each other on the route, veloped feeder networks, because pas- station distance resulting in short station-station dis- sengers must be able to access the high- The shinkansen is characterised by tance (approximately 35 km) compared speed rail station easily by other means high frequency and short station-sta- with European rapid-transit railways. of transport, such as suburban railway, tion distance; these characters are at- When station-station distance is subway, bus, taxi, and bicycle at the tributable to the high population den- short, schedule speed drops if all trains trip origin and destination. In general, sity and the location of cities along the stop at each station, lowering the sig- because Japanese railways were built lines. nificance of a rapid-transit railway. To before or during the development of The Tokaido Shinkansen is a typical avoid this, various trains are operated modern cities and also because rail- example. Its daily average transport to meet the diversified needs of passen- ways were the only means of modern density (annual passenger km/route gers; the Nozomi stops at almost no in- transport for a long time, the major rail- km/365) in 1992 reached 220,000 pas- termediate stations, the Hikari stops way stations are located at the hearts of sengers. In rush hours, shinkansen only at major intermediate stations and the cities. In other words, urban devel- trains depart Tokyo Station at inter- the Kodama stops at each station (Fig- opment of major cities took place from vals of 6 minutes or less, carrying ure 5). the major railway stations. 23,000 passengers per hour one way. As a result, various city transport No other rapid-transit railway has systems converge on the main railway 10 Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994 Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved. stations, making it easy to access the Figure 2 Trend in Modal Split of Various Means of Freight Transportation station from every part of the city. This (Percentage in ton-km for goods traffic) is why shinkansen stations were 100% planned and constructed in existing stations. 90% 80% Ships 3) Adoption of multiple unit system 70% To achive the above-mentioned high- frequency, high-speed railway trans- 60% port with short station interval, the 50% multiple unit system, or electric rail 40% cars, were adopted, although this sys- Railways tem had hardly never been used before 30% in long-distance railways worldwide. 20% Automobiles Until 1950 in Japan, electric railcars 10% were used only for short-distance urban or suburban railways, while long-dis- 0% 1950 1955 1960 1965 19701975 1980 1985 1990 tance, high-speed express trains were hauled by locomotive. In 1950, electric railcars with excellent acceleration were used for distances up to 120 km or Figure 3 Trend in Modal Split of Various Means of Passenger Transportation longer to increase the almost saturated (percentage in number-km for passenger traffic) capacity on the conventional Tokaido Line. Subsequent technological devel- Ships Airlines opment led to introduction of the super- 100% express electric railcar to connect Tokyo and Osaka more rapidly. This electric 80% railcar became the model for the shinkansen. An electric railcar with many driven Railways 60% wheels has high acceleration/decelera- tion and the transport capacity can be increased easily, making it suitable for 40% high-frequency, short station-station Automobiles distance transportation. 20% For super-high speed railways, this type of train has smooth and efficient braking performance because each mo- 0% tor works as an electric brake solving 1950 1955 1960 1965 19701975 1980 1985 1990 the problem of disc brakes being ap- plied at very high speeds. The distributed power system has an- Figure 4 Share of Shinkansen in Various Long-Distance Transportation Modes other advantage over the centralised 100% power system; the maximum axle load can be reduced for the same train weight, which is very advantageous on 80% Airlines Automobiles weak ground. 60% 4) Strict environmental standards The high population density on hab- itable land means that the population 40% Shinkansen density along shinkansen lines is also high. When you ride a shinkansen train for the first time, you are sur- 20% Conventional prised by the rows of houses continu- railways ing without break except at tunnel sec- 0% tions. 0200 400 600800 1000 1200 Therefore, strict regulations were es- (km) tablished for noise and vibration for the Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994 11 SPECIAL FEATURE – 30 YEARS OF HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS Figure 5 Train Diagram of Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo (Top) to Shin-Osaka (Bottom) Stations shinkansen. It is no exaggeration to say that the engineering costs than European rapid- Residential areas comprise 56% of greatest problem hindering shinkansen transit railways for the following rea- the 513 km of the Tokaido Shinkansen speed increase is noise emission. sons. connecting Tokyo with Osaka; commer- cial areas comprise 30%.