Features and Economic and Social Effects of the Shinkansen Hiroshi Okada

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

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 habitable 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

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; commercial areas comprise 30%. In other 5) Why shinkansen requires high a. Too many tunnels words, the noise level is limited below construction cost Because high mountains are common 75 dB (A) over 86% of the total length. Compared with rapid-transit rail- in Japan, the ratio of tunnel sections to The noise emitted by a train comes ways in Europe, the construction cost the total length of the shinkansen tends from various sources, such as the per kilometer for the shinkansen is very to be high. The total tunnel length of wheels rolling on the rail, and the pan- high. Why? the existing four shinkansen lines is tograph sliding on the trolley line. In general, rapid-transit railways re- 30.8% of the total length of the lines. Noise increases rapidly as train speed quire a large investment in electrical- increases. Shinkansen speed increases related construction, including signal- b. Few sections can use economic have been achieved by continuous ling and safety systems, power systems banking technological developments to keep and communication systems. However, Frequent earthquakes, heavy rain below the noise limit: track structure the civil-engineering costs, such as and deep weak ground on the plains do and current-collecting equipment banking, bridges and tunnels, still not suit the economic banking method have been improved, interference-type dominate taking approximately 70%. and few sections can use it. Elevated sound barriers have been developed, The shinkansen requires higher civil- track (including site acquisition cost) car weight has been reduced, and rail and wheel tread cutting methods have Table 2 Noise Level Limit for Shinkansen been developed. However, at speeds over 300 km/h, Land type along line Limit noise level dB (A) the noise energy increases in proportion to the 6th to 8th power of the speed, Residential area 70 max. making technological development to Commercial area 75 max. reduce noise much harder.

12 Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994 Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved. costs about four times that of banking. stations have large-scale urban hotels able than conventional inter-city rail- with large conference rooms. ways. c. High environmental costs To meet the strict environmental 3.2 Relatively-small increase in 3.4 Concrete effects of shinkansen standards, cost for sound barriers and expenses on railway business ballast mats, etc., tend to be high. We tend to think that the costs of a When the Japanese National Rail- railway increase as transport volume ways (JNR) was divided and privatised d. Short station-station distance and speed increase. However, in reality, in March 1987, the shinkansen oper- The distance from station to station is many factors are really not related to ated on four sections (Tokaido, Sanyo, too short (30 to 40 km) to achieve ratio- transport volume and speed. These fac- Tohoku and Joetsu), and the total ser- nal transportation compared with Eu- tors cannot be neglected. For example, vice length was 1835 km. The ropean rapid-transit railways. Station the construction and maintenance costs shinkansen network had run well even construction requires higher costs, rais- of elevated track, banking and tunnels in the JNR era. At the division and ing the total construction cost. hardly change with transport volume privatisation, the government, consid- In comparing the vehicle cost per and speed. In addition, despite high ering the high profitability, leased the seat, Japanese shinkansen is cheaper unit cost, high-speed rolling stock has a shinkansen facilities at the replace- than rapid-transit railways in other high operating efficiency due to high ment price (¥ 8.5 trillion) or 1.5 times countries, and the maintenance cost of speed, resulting in a smaller number of the book value (¥ 5.7 trillion) to the pas- VVVF-controlled cars is very low. rolling stock required for the same senger railway companies. The differ- transport volume. ence (¥ 2.8 trillion) helped reduce the 3. Effects of Shinkansen on Table 4 shows how the main expenses huge long-term debt left by JNR. change with speed and transport vol- Because the shinkansen business re- Railway Business ume. sults continued to be favorable after the 3.1 High revenue privatisation, the JRs decided to pur- 3.3 High profitability chase the shinkansen facilities for a to- 1) Strong competitive power— What about the economy of the tal ¥ 9.2 trillion or approximately ¥ 700 increased transport volume shinkansen from the railway business billion more than the appraised value The shinkansen provides fast, safe viewpoint, namely, the relationship be- at the JNR division and privatisation. and punctual transportation with good tween the income and expenses per unit The difference was appropriated as connections to auxiliary transport. Con- transport volume? part of the Railway Reinforcement sequently, the shinkansen is very com- As explained above, the income per Funds for constructing new shinkansen petitive against other means of trans- unit transport volume (fare including lines, increasing the speed of conven- port, such as cars and airlines. express charges) of the shinkansen is tional lines, and reinforcing the com- In addition, the shinkansen has ex- large. And additional income from re- muter transport capacity. cellent ride comfort, interiors and lated enterprises can also be expected. The Tokaido Shinkansen is only 25% onboard facilities. Thanks to these ad- As far as the expenses are concerned, of the total service kilometers of JR vantages, the shinkansen attracts they consist of various factors. Al- Central but dominates the total income many passengers and takes a large though some increase with speed in- (85%). Thus, the Tokaido Shinkansen is share of inter-city passenger transport. crease, there are other factors that do the backbone of JR Central. not significantly increase with trans- These examples clearly show how 2) High fares port volume (for example, construction helpful the shinkansen is in railway Due to the high-quality service, in- cost of bridges or tunnels). In this con- business. cluding short arrival time, and strong text, the unit cost of very high-speed competitive power, shinkansen fares railways can be expected to be less than can be set at comparatively-high levels. 4. Effects of Shinkansen on that of conventional line thanks to the large traffic volume induced by high- External Economy 3) Additional income from related speed service. business The shinkansen has diverse effects Therefore, for lines with high de- Since passengers visit shinkansen on the external economy including the mand, the shinkansen is more profit- stations for various purposes, such as spillover effect of construction expendi- business trips and sightseeing, related businesses such as department stores Table 3 Comparison of Fares between Tokyo and Osaka and hotels can be run using the station site to get additional income. For ex- Category Fare yen Remarks ample, of 18 stations on the Tohoku Shinkansen 13,480 Unreserved ordinary seat Shinkansen connecting Tokyo with Conventional line 10,080 Ordinary seat express car Morioka, seven stations have large- scale department stores and other re- Airline 14,600 lated businesses. Three of these seven Highway 9,800 Toll for 1 passenger car

Table 4 Change in Expenses with Speed and Transport Volume

Item Change with speed Change with transport volume Construction investment Almost no change (bridge, tunnel, etc.) Almost no change (bridge, tunnel, etc.) Structure maintenance cost Almost no change (bridge, tunnel, etc.) Almost change (bridge, tunnel, etc.) Track maintenance cost Increase Increase Trolley line maintenance cost Increase Increase

Car unit cost increases, but the number of cars Rolling stock investment Increase decreases due to increased operation efficiency. Small increase (partly decreased by increased Rolling stock maintenance cost Increase operation efficiency)

Power cost Increase Increase

Decrease (due to increased productivity Crew cost Increase from speed increase)

ture during construction (short-term), 4.2 Example of urban A. Increase in employment and reduction in travel times, introduction redevelopment near industrial shipments of private investment and creation of shinkansen station Table 5 shows the change in employ- employment due to influx of new indus- ment and production in industrial tries and enterprises in areas along 1) Redevelopment of Kakegawa City fields, while Table 6 shows the change lines, and increased sightseeing and on Tokaido Shinkansen in employment and sales in commercial recreation demands. Thus, the Kakegawa is a medium-size city on fields. After the station opened, produc- shinkansen contributes to the develop- the Tokaido Shinkansen with a population and sales show a remarkable in- ment of local economies. Studies are in tion of 72,000. It is in western crease. progress to quantify these effects. The Shizuoka, about 230 km west of Tokyo, following sections give some concrete and approximately 50 km west of B. Increase in number of tourists and examples. Shizuoka, the prefectural seat. conferences When the Tokaido Shinkansen was Two city hotels and three business ho- 4.1 Benefits due reduced travel opened in 1964, trains passed behind tels have already opened around the sta- time Kakegawa Station on the conventional tion to accommodate the ever-increasing The method used most often to quan- Tokaido Line, and the city enjoyed no number of tourists visiting nearby golf tify the effect of rapid transport on the benefit. courses and other recreational facilities. social economy is to convert the time Because the distance between the ad- Another advantage of Kakegawa City is saving compared with conventional jacent shinkansen stations (Shizuoka its mid-way location between Tokyo and transport into money. Station and Hamamatsu Station) was Osaka. This makes it a convenient site for If 85% of the total passengers on the 71.5 km, the longest in Japan, and be- national symposiums and conferences present four shinkansen lines shifted cause local lines branch from the con- which are greatly changing the outlook of from conventional lines, the annual ventional Tokaido Line at Kakegawa the citizens. time saving calculated from the differ- Station, the local people believed that ence in schedule times between the stopping shinkansen trains at C. Culture shinkansen and conventional lines is Kakegawa Station would surely Before the opening of the shinkansen approximately 400 million hours. By revitalise both Kakegawa City and all station, the citizens of Kakegawa City calculating the value of the time per the areas along the conventional had hardly any chance to experience hour from the GDP per capita, the Tokaido Line and local lines. Conse- the culture of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and value of the time saving is approxi- quently, a new station was built in 1988 other metropolises. Now, the mately ¥ 500 billion per year. with the total construction cost paid by shinkansen offers them easy access to the prefecture, Kakegawa City (funds concerts, exhibitions, theaters, etc., en- mostly raised by the citizens) and adja- abling them to lead fuller lives. cent cities, towns and villages. The new shinkansen station has had a great ef- 2) Change around station due to fect on the economy, lifestyle and cul- opening of shinkansen ture of Kakegawa City, as shown below. Some examples of the change around a station due to the opening of shinkansen are shown below.

Photo 2 Shin-Yokohama Shinkansen Station • • • and Today Under Construction (from Author's collection)

A. Shinkansen station constructed in Table 5 Trend in Employment and Sales in Commercial Fields existing station on conventional (Kakegawa City) line (Photo 1 Nagoya Station) Year 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 The shinkansen station was constructed at the back of the existing Employment 96.0 98.6 96.8 100.0 101.5 103.5 103.2 108.1 Tokaido Line station. Production 100.1 96.0 98.1 100.0 105.2 110.4 109.5 137.6

B. New shinkansen station Table 6 Trend in Employment and Production in Industrial Fields (Photo 2 Shin-Yokohama Station) (Kakegawa City) The shinkansen station was constructed on a branch line about 8 km Year 1985 1988 1991 from Yokohama Station on the conven- 88.8 100.0 106.9 tional Tokaido Line. Employment Sales 85.4 100.0 139.2 4.3 Energy efficiency Table 7 shows the trend in energy Table 7 Oil Consumption (million kiloliter) consumption categorized by three fields: industrial, non-industrial and 1973 1990 transportation. In 1990, the transpor- Industrial 187 65% 183 53% tation share formed about 25% of the total energy consumption of Japan. Non-industrial 52 18% 85 24% Compared with 1973, the industrial Transportation 47 16% 80 23% field has greatly reduced energy consumption due to changes in the indus- Total 286 100% 348 100% trial structure and energy-saving ef- forts, despite great increases in ship- Table 8 Comparison of Energy Consumption per 100 Million Passenger-Kilometers (*) ments. On the other hand, the trans- Shinkansen Automobile Aeroplane portation field has greatly increased Energy consumption energy consumption by about 170%. 136 631 714 Transportation depends largely (kcal/100 million passenger-km) (about 98%) on oil. (Japan average: Ratio 100 464 525 61%). Therefore, energy saving in *Akiyama, et al., "Re-evaluation of The Shinkansen", JREA 1990, Vol. 33, No.2 transportation is very urgent. Table 8 compares travel from Tokyo Table 9 Emission of CO2 Per Capita by Transportation between to Osaka by shinkansen, airline and Tokyo and Osaka (*) passenger car in terms of energy consumption per capita. The shinkansen Shinkansen Automobile Aeroplane is much more energy efficient. Index 100 547 631 If the Tokaido Shinkansen had not been constructed, an additional 360 *"1993 White Paper on Transport", the Ministry of Transport million liters of oil would have been

consumed in 1985 by transport. This more CO2 would have been emitted in fluenced by Japanese geography and corresponds to the total oil consump- 1985. This corresponds to the annual society. It has also had a great effect on

tion of 1.08 million families. amount of CO2 emitted by industry in Japan's business, economy, society, en- and around Tokyo. vironment and culture. 4.4 Air pollution and shinkansen These effects result from the superi- Compared with other means of trans- Conclusion ority of the shinkansen over other port, the shinkansen hardly emits any means of transportation in terms of The shinkansen has been greatly in- I CO2, NOx and other harmful gases. Al- speed, safety, punctuality, etc. though the shinkansen has an 80% share of the total transportation vol- Hiroshi Okada ume between Tokyo and Osaka, the Dr Okada was born in 1930 and studied civil engineering at the University of Tokyo. He joined JNR in 1953 amount of CO2 per unit transport volume produced directly by the and worked on various projects including construction of the shinkansen network. From 1979 to 1980, he shinkansen is only about 16% that of a visited in Ohio, USA, giving advice on high-speed rail development. He became Director General of JNR's passenger car (Table 9). Civil Engineering Department in 1982, Board Member in 1983 and Vice President/Engineering in 1986. He If the Tokaido Shinkansen had not was Vice President and President of the Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation from 1987 to 1992, and he currently serves as President of Japan Railway Technical Service (JARTS), representing been constructed, about 15,000 tons Japanese railway engineers to the rest of the world.