Feature New Urban Transit Systems New Urban Transit Systems Reconsidered A Better Transport Environment for the Next Century Akira Nehashi Today, as we enter the new millenium, the • Financing issues must be solved be- Introduction changing economic and technical back- cause the days when the costs of build- ground are creating a need for new trans- ing a transport system can be covered Travelling was a hazardous undertaking port systems. Therefore, it is appropriate by profits from fares and tariffs are long in ancient times. Nevertheless, people to reconsider the issue of AGTs and other over. travelled no matter how perilous, costly, modern urban transit systems from the or time-consuming the journey. With the viewpoint of transport infrastructure as Poor accessibility and links progress of civilization, transport systems part of social capital, and making the best Japanese railways, airlines, and harbours have grown to cover the world and are use of current transport systems. are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry even looking space-wards. Not only is of Transport, while the cities, roads, riv- transport an essential part of business, it ers, etc., are under the Ministry of Con- also offers a vital means for people to Urban Transport Issues struction. (It appears that these two meet, make friends, and enjoy nature. ministries will be combined as one new Although telecommunications, comput- Key problems ministry called the National Land and ers, and the Internet are rapidly making Many cities throughout the world have Transport Ministry in 2001 as part of the the world smaller, permitting instanta- tried to improve their urban transport over- government’s rationalization plans.) neous exchange of information, they all. Some advanced western countries At present, when a railway is planned over cannot transport people or goods. This have simply magnificent urban transport or under a road or land, complex formali- communications explosion is making environments compared to the congested ties are required because more than one people want to travel to see other coun- environment in Japan. They have city ministry has jurisdiction. The different tries and cultures, in turn creating a need planning, citizen participation in decision- viewpoints of the two ministries and trans- for advanced transport systems. making, financing from public funds, etc. port operators have discouraged efforts to This article describes public transport sys- On the other hand, many cities in devel- solve the problems. tems in cities from ecological methods like oping countries still lack sufficient public The light rail transit (LRT) systems, mono- walking and using bicycles to shinkansen. transport facilities. For example, in some rails, AGTs, and other new transit systems Although inter-city and international trans- SE Asian countries, rapid concentration of discussed later, have not been exempted port are important major fields, they are populations in cities and increasing use from this red tape. In Japan, these new not covered here. of private vehicles raise serious concerns. urban transit systems are often built using The concept of automated guideway tran- We should all be concerned about these publicly-owned roads, putting them un- sit (AGT) systems was first discussed around issues and their global impact on the der the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Con- 1970, becoming a hot topic at an interna- earth’s environment. struction. Consequently, since they are tional transport exhibition held near Wash- operated by different bodies and are not ington D.C., USA, in 1972. Subsequently, Major issues in Japan seen as true railways, there have been many new urban transit systems have be- There are four major issues concerning the problems coordinating direct links with come reality in various countries of the construction of urban transit systems in railways. Moreover, the railways them- world. At the same time, there have been Japan: selves are notorious for not creating good remarkable improvements and innovations • The transportation environment must links between existing lines, not to men- to traditional transport systems. be improved to deal with issues of tion the new entrants. The issue of so-called ‘transport gaps’, or congestion, safety, environmental con- Even though the many kinds of new tran- missing links in urban transport facilities, servation, comfort, and access for physi- sit system offer great advantages for the was first raised by G. Bouladon in 19671, cally-handicapped passengers. city by easing road congestion around sta- which was published in Japan as Inno- • Construction of transport infrastructure tions, pollution, etc., it is difficult to imag- vating Urban Transport: New Urban Tran- must be coordinated with city planning ine that priority will be given to public 2 sit Systems . In 1975, a Japan National using a master plan and must be ex- convenience, satisfaction and comfort, Railways (JNR) working group published ecuted in a timely fashion. under the present circumstances. a report on AGTs called New Transport • The public must be involved in the de- 3 Systems , which was the most detailed cision-making processes to smooth con- Awareness of feeder service and easy-to-understand work on this tentious issues of land procurement and Feeder transport to railway stations is cur- popular topic at that time. ease construction. rently served by buses, taxis, and private 4 Japan Railway & Transport Review 16 • June 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. automobiles, causing problems of road Buses and LRT systems zontal axis. Some show the transport traffic congestion, unreliability, and pol- These services can carry several thousands speed too. lution. Providing a monorail or AGT sys- of people each hour over relatively short Figure 1 gives an image of Japanese trans- tem as a feeder service for railways may distances of up to 10 km. In the past, their port modes in an effort to find the ideal be too costly and unprofitable. In the main role was to feed the metropolitan borderline separating mass and individual West, LRT systems are being reconsidered commuter train networks. In local core short-distance transport modes. The trans- for this role and there are many good ex- cities, they serve as the key transport port modes in the grey area are the new amples such as dedicated LRT lanes, di- mode. urban transit systems discussed here. rect connections with existing railways, However, the worsening traffic congestion Shinkansen travelling a relatively short etc. To be successful, the chosen feeder in cities has adversely affected speed and distance of less than 100 km, and high- system must first match demand. When regularity, resulting in lost passengers and way express buses are included in this cat- making the selection, it is imperative to forcing cuts in operation frequency or egory. These medium-load transit systems understand the features and advantages even closure of unprofitable routes. The are relatively new developments designed or disadvantages of all candidate medium- lost passengers have turned to automo- to meet the intermediate demand between capacity systems, including case studies biles, aggravating city traffic congestion, mass transit railways and small-capacity from various countries. pollution, etc. buses. Some are already in operation. Two years ago, the Japan Railway Con- These problems, coupled with the high They include LRT systems, monorails, struction Public Corporation (JRCC) cost of building underground railways, AGTs, linear-motor metros, high-speed formed a study group to discuss urban could be solved through use of lower-cost surface transport (HSST) systems, and ur- transit systems. The findings on the tech- new urban transit systems. ban aerial cable-car systems, and a new nical advantages and transport abilities bus transit system, an innovation of con- were summarized in New Urban Transit Transport gaps ventional bus services. 4 Systems . The rest of this article discusses Various figures that describe existing trans- the issues in achieving a better transpor- port modes based on operation range, tation environment for the next millenium. help identify transport gaps and visualize New Urban Transit Systems new transit systems. They usually show the transport density or capacity on the The features and specifications of new Urban Transit Systems vertical axis and the distance on the hori- urban transit systems are outlined in Subways and existing railways These transit systems meet the needs of Figure 1 Different Urban Transport Modes, and Transport Gaps in Japan many commuters, providing rapid mass transport at an average speed of 30 km/h No. of persons/ km • day (one way) in large cities. Subways Urban railways Suburban railways Automobiles Linear-motor metros Railways Automobiles are a common, versatile and 10,000 New urban transit systems Shinkansen convenient door-to-door transport mode. Monorails HSSTs AGTs LRTs Depending on road conditions, it is pos- Walking Aerial cable cars sible to travel long distances quickly but 4,000 (Moving walkways) Mass they are inefficient in terms of capacity transport Buses and speed compared to public transport. Transport density Highway buses 2,000 Bicycles and walking (Taxis) Bicycles Private automobiles Individual Wider sidewalks and more moving walk- transport ways, cycle paths and bicycle parking would allow many people to move easily 1 2 5 10 50 100 km Distance over distances of up to about 2 km. Transport gaps Copyright © 1998 EJRCF.