Riding the Rails

📸 | Central Japan Railway Company

My eight-year-old son is riding the Shinkansen alone for the first time, returning from visiting friends in Kyoto. A friend had put him on the train, and I am waiting at the Shin-Yokohama station for his arrival.

This is Japan, so I know the platform number, and I know to the minute when his super-express will pull in. Right on time, the train does pull in. The doors hiss. My friend has told me which car Taiyo will be in. And … and … he doesn’t get off.

The conductor announces the train’s imminent departure, and I run alongside car 14, looking through the portholes. Ah, there he is. Another victim of an over-large “ekiben” (station lunch box) and an overheated train car. On any Japanese train 70 percent of passengers will be reading, playing video games or watching movies or TV shows, and the other 30 percent will be sleeping. Taiyo is in the latter category.

I hop aboard, shake him awake and collect his bag, but … the doors have shut and we are on our way to the next station. Eleven minutes to Shinagawa. Wait for a return train. Eleven minutes back. A couple of Turkish guys standing at the end of the car with us, waiting to get off in Shinagawa, smile at Taiyo’s embarrassment.

I’m told that in America, I could be arrested for “free-range parenting”, i.e. allowing my kids to try to do things on their own, but in Japan, the rules are different. Primary school students regularly ride the trains on their own, and although the trains can be uncomfortably crowded, they are for the most part extremely safe, and extremely reliable.

Japan ’s post-war coming out party
The years following World War II were difficult in Japan, as they were in Europe. The economy had been devastated, and much of the country’s infrastructure had been destroyed. Tokyo had been chosen to host the 1940 Olympic Games, but those were shifted to Helsinki when Japan invaded China in 1937, then canceled by the outbreak of war in Europe.

After the war, Helsinki got the 1952 Olympics, and Tokyo was awarded the 1964 Games, which Japan hoped would serve as its post-war coming out party.

On October 1, 1964, nine days before the opening ceremonies, the first Shinkansen arrived in Shin-Osaka Station from Tokyo, having cut travel time between Japan’s two largest cities from six hours 40 minutes to only four hours.

Since the late 19th century, railway companies in Europe and the United States had been developing high-speed services, and in some cases, operating them on a limited scale, but Japan’s “bullet train” brought high-speed rail to the masses. Within three years the Shinkansen had served over 100 million passengers, and nine years after that, the one-billion passenger mark had been surpassed.

In the 1950s Japan had begun investing heavily in high-speed rail transport as an alternative to air travel, which was starting to boom worldwide. Trains provided a practical transportation solution for a country that imported nearly all its fossil fuels and saw the majority of its population concentrated on the Pacific coastal plain.

Today the Shinkansen, dubbed “the bullet train” for its aerodynamic shape, has served nearly 15 billion passengers while maintaining an enviable on-time record. In 2014, the average Shinkansen finished its run within 54 seconds of its scheduled arrival time. In 1997, trains ran within 18 seconds of schedule. One reason the service is so efficient is hinted at in the translation of “shinkansen”, which means “new trunk line”; because the Shinkansen runs on dedicated track, slower traffic is not an issue.

Dedicated track also contributes to operational safety. In 57 years, Japan’s Shinkansen has recorded only operations-related fatality (though several other deaths have been recorded due to suicide and other passenger misadventure). Japan’s Shinkansen operators have also pioneered many of the technological developments that have driven the growth of high-speed rail transportation around the world, addressing issues such as aerodynamics, noise, vibration, earthquake safety and energy consumption.

I feel the need … the need for speed
Today, the fastest Shinkansen travel time between Tokyo and Osaka is two hours and 22 minutes, but construction and testing are underway for a next-generation magnetically levitated (maglev) train that will cover the distance in one hour and seven minutes. Don’t expect there to be much of a view, however; about 90 percent of the 286-kilometer Tokyo-Nagoya route – the first phase of the project – will be underground or in tunnels through the mountains.

A few years ago I had a chance to visit the Yamanashi Maglev Test Track, where the Central Japan Railway Company is testing its maglev technology and in April 2015 recorded a world record top speed of 603 kilometres/hour (375 miles/hour). Blink and you miss it.

Tokyo to Nagoya maglev service was originally expected to start in 2027, and to continue to Osaka in 2037, but a political dispute with Shizuoka has delayed construction on the 14.5-kilometre section that passes through that prefecture.

Meanwhile, costs – unsurprisingly – continue to climb; The project budget, estimated at 5.1 trillion yen in 2007, had doubled to over 10.5 trillion yen (USD71.6 bn) by 2021. The good news is that JR Central estimates maglev ticket prices will be only slightly more expensive than for its existing Shinkansen service.

Billions and billions served
The Shinkansen is Japan’s preferred method for long-distance travel, but the country relies even more on short-haul trains, which carry nearly 10 billion passengers a year, mostly to and from work.

As an example, Tokyo’s Yamanote Line, which circles the city in a 29-station loop, carries 3.68 million passengers per day. In comparison, London’s entire Underground carries 3.36 million passengers per day on 12 lines serving 275 stations. New York City’s subway system carries 5.08 million passengers per day riding on 26 lines serving 469 stations.

But Japan’s railway system is a hodgepodge of different companies, mostly privately owned and operated. In Tokyo alone, 48 companies operate 158 lines, and serve around 40 million passengers a day. Indeed, 46 of the world's 50 busiest railway stations are in Japan, with Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station by far the busiest, serving 3.64 million passengers a day.

The world’s highest passenger volumes demand precisely coordinated scheduling, and indeed, the (somewhat exaggerated) reputation of Japanese trains for adherence to schedule was the key to one of Japan’s most famous modern novels. Police detectives in Seicho Matsumoto’s Points and Lines solve a double murder by plotting the victims’ travels exactly via railway timetables.

Trains on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line run 2.5 minutes apart during rush hours, and white-gloved railway employees are on occasion required to shove passengers inside like pork (and herbs) into sausage casings. Shinkansen service between Tokyo and Osaka runs almost as often, with 13 departures an hour – trains carry over 1,300 passengers – during peak periods.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a country where trains play an important role in many people’s lives, nearly 20 years ago the country was swept by “Train Man” fever. A novel, manga, television series and movie were produced to tell the purportedly true story of a 23-year old otaku who found love by protecting a young woman on a train from harassment by a drunken salaryman.

In gratitude for his gallantry, the woman took the young man’s address and later sent him an expensive present. The geeky young man, never having had a girlfriend, and indeed, never having been on a date, turned to the Internet (of course!) for advice, and with thousands of supporters offering tips on what to wear, and where to go for dinner, he eventually declared his love for the woman, who reciprocated.

The happy couple presumably rode off into the sunset by train. A train that left the station on time.