An Ode to Japanese Railways

In case you haven't been able to tell, I like trains, alot.

More than trains though, what fascinates me more is the transportation web and logistical capabilities that trains often bring. The busiest train station in the world, Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, serves approximately 3.5 million commuters a day. In our digital age, it can be difficult to put that number into perspective, but thats nearly the population of Berlin Germany! Just imagine the logistics of it all. In this page, im gonna provide a very brief overview of railways present around where I used to live in Japan, the Keihanshin metropolitan area which includes Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Sakai and other smaller cities too.

In case you're not familiar with Japan's railway system, the railway system is partly government owned. In 1987, the government of Japan dissolved the state-owned Japanese National Railways into several regional companies, collectively known as Japan Railroads or JR. The government still retained control over the companies but in practice, the companies acted much like private corporations. There are 6 major passenger JR companies as outlined in the map below. The hope was that by splitting up the company, each respective company could increase efficiency in their service area as much as possible.

The privatization worked incredibly well. Safety incidents nearly halved, and the companies turned a profit for the first time in several decades. As a result of the privatization, the 3 largest JR (Japanese Railway) companies, JR West, Central, and East turned a profit within 10 years of their privatization.

For our purposes, we will be looking at JR West, as this is the railroad that served my area. In addition to the large JR company, there are 4 other smaller minor companies: Hankyu, Keihan, Nankai and Kintetsu. The station depcited here on my website is operated by Hankyu. JR-West's market share in the Keihanshin region is roughly equal to the 4 smaller companies put together. In addition to these companies, there are also relatively small underground metros that run through the cities. Note that in this case "relatively small" is approximately 400,000 commuters/dayThough they are competing companies, it is difficult to understate how intertwined and codependent these companies are to each other. They often position their train stations right across the street from each other to make it easier for commuters to change lines! A prime example can be seen near JR Osaka station, with 6 seperate train stations operated by 4 seperate companies (technically Hankyu and Hanshin are the same company but they aren't completely consolidated) all within 5 minutes of walking distance from each other.Transferring between these stations can be incredibly confusing, and even creepy. There are many many times that I've become lost trying to piece my way from one station to the next.

TO BE CONTINUED

Im putting this video of the irl station this website is based off here because I dont have anywhere else right now

also u should sign my guestbook

Buttons Galore! (8 to be exact)