Some things about Japan’s commuter railways

This article was originally published on Zhihu: /question/33880712/answer/57488455

It was converted into simplified Chinese characters at the request of some readers and is published here. The picture is abbreviated and there are some changes at the beginning.

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Answer:

The construction and operation level of suburban commuter railways.

Just look at a few circuit diagrams to find out.

Let’s take a look at Kansai’s Hankyu, chocolate-colored Hankyu. Most of the more than 100 kilometers of lines connecting the three major Kansai cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe were completed before World War II.

Hankyu is located in the north of Osaka. To the south of Osaka, the Nankai Main Line from Namba to Wakayama City, more than 60 kilometers of line, was completed in 1903, the entire line was electrified in 1911, and the entire line was double-tracked in 1922. The Takaya Line next to it was also fully opened to traffic before the 1930s.

Nankai and Hankyu are both large private companies in Kansai. How is the performance of National Railways? The framework of Tokyo National Railways, that is, the circular Yamanote Line, and other lines extending to the southeast, northwest, and south were already formed in the 1930s.

Let’s not look at the densely populated metropolitan area and Kansai, but instead look at Fukuoka in Kyushu. Half of the West Japan Railway's Tenjin-Omuta Line was opened to traffic in 1924, and the remaining half was completed in 1939. This line is entirely located in Fukuoka Prefecture, and the county's current population is only more than five million. Many areas along the line are still large areas of farmland.

At present, there are no decent suburban railways in China. When traveling by rail transit, you either have to take the subway, which has slow travel speeds, or the national railway, which has few stops and few trains. The gap between the two cannot be filled.

The lack of suburban railways is not because China has done anything wrong. To blame, we can only blame China for urbanizing too late and not catching up with the rise of automobiles (so please pour dirty water on the Qing court). In countries like Japan and the United Kingdom, urbanization predates the popularization of automobiles. Developing cities are hungry for transportation systems. At that time, automobiles were still in their infancy, and railways were their only option. Therefore, both Britain in the 19th century and Japan in the early 20th century regarded railway as the first choice for passenger transportation. As China's economy develops, automobile technology has matured, and railways are no longer the only option for passenger transportation. It can be said that China, as well as all countries that developed after World War II, have missed the best opportunity for railway construction. Today, making up for the foundation laid by Japan and Western Europe a hundred years ago is an expensive and slow undertaking.

China's big cities failed to establish good commuter rail systems in the early stages. Once the cities are formed, a big city may have a population of millions or tens of millions, and it will be even more difficult to build a transportation system. There is scarce space in the city and there is already a road network. New railways often have to go through viaducts or drill tunnels. Land is expensive and demolition is troublesome. Underground lines must avoid building pile foundations, and above-ground lines must withstand complaints from surrounding residents. Various reasons are compounded. As a result, the cost of new lines remains high, and the wiring is also subject to many restrictions, which may not necessarily achieve maximum efficiency.

In contrast, many of Japan's early railways were built in areas that had not yet been fully developed. Land prices were low and there were few obstacles, so they could be built on the ground to form a "straight line". The railway construction that I personally hope for is "The railway has been built there, let's go buy a house there!" Unfortunately, with China's current backward railway construction, many times people's thinking is: "I built it a long time ago." I bought a house here, please build me a subway quickly!”

I wrote a related answer before, here: Why is Japan’s rail transit so developed? - Zhihu user's answer

If the slowness and lack of line construction are caused by economic factors, then the low operating level is due to people's conceptual issues. An example in this regard is Shanghai's Line 16: the total length is nearly 60 kilometers, and the train's top speed is 120 kilometers per hour, both of which are close to the Nanhai Electric Railway Nanhai Main Line mentioned earlier. When Line 16 started operating, there were distinctions between express and local trains, but this was later canceled due to passenger dissatisfaction. In Nanjing, not far from Shanghai, the S1 and S8 lines are both suburban lines with one end in the suburbs and the other on the edge of the city. However, neither line has considered running express trains, which is a pity.

In Japan, the two private railways in Kansai mentioned earlier have launched high-quality trains that only stop at some stations. Hankyu began operating the so-called "Super Limited Express" in 1930, which usually only makes one stop along the way, reducing the travel time between Kyoto and Osaka to 34 minutes. The Nanhai Main Line began operating express trains with luxurious equipment in 1924. Keihan Electric Railway in Kansai started operating rapid trains at the same price as ordinary trains in 1914, making it the first in Japan. A hundred years later, on China's newly built commuter railway lines, there are few trains of different types running. Most of them are stationary and running slowly. All stations are treated equally regardless of the number of passengers.

The domestic concept of commuter railways may be as follows: express trains are not considered in planning and operation, so passengers are not familiar with the ride method of express trains, so if there are lines with express trains (such as Shanghai) Line 16), passengers will be dissatisfied with it, so fast and slow trains will not be considered in planning and operation, so passengers will be even less familiar with it, creating a vicious cycle. Defects in the hardware foundation may be filled bit by bit with steel and concrete, but if planners, operators and riders don’t make up for the operational thinking, then they will never be able to catch up with others.