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I don't know if I'm "trapped" but switching between lines was trivial and the price differences being so marginal it didn't even matter. I don't care that I'm s

• lmm 5y ago
  It's often far from marginal. E.g. Shinanomachi to Shin-Okubo: one change on the same company's trains, JPY160. Shinanomachi to Nishi-Shinjuku: similar distance, one change again, but you're changing to a different company's train so it's JPY310, about twice as much.
• masklinn 5y ago
  > I don't know if I'm "trapped" but switching between lines was trivial That’s the trap, it’s extremely easy to change networks. > the price differences being so marginal it didn't even matter. I don't care that I'm spending 30 yen (roughly $0.30) extra for a more direct route. That was not my experience at all. The price difference was routinely 100% or more, especially for cross-city trips where the “direct” route would have multiple network swaps, whereas a slightly less direct route (adding maybe 1/10th the trip length or less) would have 0~1 network changes. In fact, just looking at the fare structures you can’t be correct: they start at 170~180Y, and reach double the initial fare at something like 40km. I would expect JR to be similar. The entry fare is an outsized component of the total, and will be the vast majority of it unless you travel very long distances. Even more so if you network switch as the “distance counter” resets on every network change. So if you make a single trip with one network change you’ll be paying 350Y minimum, versus under 200 if you remain in-network and the distance traveled is below 10km or so.