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> TOKYO -- East and West Japan Railway have both forecast record profits for the fiscal year ending March 2018, anticipating more bullet train passengers and hi

by kmlx 8y ago

> TOKYO -- East and West Japan Railway have both forecast record profits for the fiscal year ending March 2018, anticipating more bullet train passengers and higher income from real estate and other noncore operations. > West Japan Railway said Friday it expects a group net profit of 109 billion yen ($978 million) for the fiscal year through March 2018, up 19% on the year. Full article: https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Japan-Update/JR-East-West-on-track-for-record-profit https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Japan-Update/JR-East-... JR East annual report: https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/investor/ar/2018/pdf/ar_2018-all.pdf https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/investor/ar/2018/pdf/ar_2018-all....

skriticos2 8y ago
Yes, but Japan also has trice the population density of France and most of the people are focused in the gargantuan city landscapes like the greater Tokyo bay area. Makes it a lot easier to saturate the trains while maintaining a reasonable timetable.
adev_ 8y ago
JR rails makes an important part of its benefits from the huge commercial centers (Atrée & others) they run in their stations. That's a model that works in Japan, but cannot run everywhere. Not every country is a tiny island with such a dense urbanisation.
- Silhouette 8y ago
  I read an interesting article about this a while back. Something distinctive about the Japanese rail culture is that they build lots of communal facilities right next to their stations. For example, people routinely stop and do their shopping on the way home from work, even though they're getting home by train (though this idea isn't just about shops). Compare that to typical Western railway stations, where a huge amount of the prime real estate right next to the trains is used for giant car parks, and you can see that the success of their model is no accident. Of course, we couldn't trivially adopt the same strategy in the West. Unlike the Japanese, we haven't been designing our towns and cities around this principle for a long time, and as the parent comment notes, we also don't have the same density. That means we do need ways for people to get to the station from the surrounding area. Often good alternatives to the car are still lacking in the West, which then creates an unfortunate chicken and egg scenario. But that doesn't mean the Japanese model isn't potentially better than ours, if only we could find a viable path from one to the other.
  - magduf 8y ago
    It's not just Japan. German train stations are also mini-malls, frequently with grocery stores in them, along with restaurants, clothing stores, etc. (depending on the size of the station of course).

by kmlx 8y ago

skriticos2 8y ago

Yes, but Japan also has trice the population density of France and most of the people are focused in the gargantuan city landscapes like the greater Tokyo bay area. Makes it a lot easier to saturate the trains while maintaining a reasonable timetable.

adev_ 8y ago

JR rails makes an important part of its benefits from the huge commercial centers (Atrée & others) they run in their stations. That's a model that works in Japan, but cannot run everywhere. Not every country is a tiny island with such a dense urbanisation.

Silhouette 8y ago
I read an interesting article about this a while back. Something distinctive about the Japanese rail culture is that they build lots of communal facilities right next to their stations. For example, people routinely stop and do their shopping on the way home from work, even though they're getting home by train (though this idea isn't just about shops). Compare that to typical Western railway stations, where a huge amount of the prime real estate right next to the trains is used for giant car parks, and you can see that the success of their model is no accident. Of course, we couldn't trivially adopt the same strategy in the West. Unlike the Japanese, we haven't been designing our towns and cities around this principle for a long time, and as the parent comment notes, we also don't have the same density. That means we do need ways for people to get to the station from the surrounding area. Often good alternatives to the car are still lacking in the West, which then creates an unfortunate chicken and egg scenario. But that doesn't mean the Japanese model isn't potentially better than ours, if only we could find a viable path from one to the other.
- magduf 8y ago
  It's not just Japan. German train stations are also mini-malls, frequently with grocery stores in them, along with restaurants, clothing stores, etc. (depending on the size of the station of course).