33 ms·
> Mass transportation has always lost money Most passenger rail in Japan is private, and profitable, including both capital and operating expenses. In the yea
by snogglethorpe 13y ago
> Mass transportation has always lost money
Most passenger rail in Japan is private, and profitable, including both capital and operating expenses.
In the years leading up to WWII, and during it, the Japanese government nationalized many rail lines (although many stayed private as well) to form JNR, and JNR proved to be too inefficient, and built up a lot of debt. That then of course lead to the privatization of JNR in the 1980s (which included transferring JNR's debt to the new private JR companies), which was highly successful.
> In Japan, they over-invested in trains and it produced a huge drag on the economy
Japan has invested a lot in rail, but it certainly isn't a "drag on the economy". Indeed, it's arguably a boon to the economy as it's a much more efficient transit system than private vehicles on roads, and given the business model of Japanese railroads (which builds retail and housing around railroad nodes, and builds railroads to support new retail and housing), directly contributes to much more efficient urban organization.
The rail lines in Japan that lose money are rural ones in sparsely populated areas. However these account for a very small proportion of rail usage.
- JDDunn9 13y ago"Pettis likens it to the US railroad boom in late the 1800s. “Most of it was very, very wasteful and the companies eventually went bankrupt. The railroads shifted to new owners who bought at a significant discount. That meant they could lower prices immediately,” he tells Quartz. “That’s painful, but it’s economically very efficient.” That never happened in Japan. In fact, this is why Japan’s GDP appears not to have grown in so long, says Pettis—wasteful government spending in the 1980s meant GDP “was significantly overstated.”" http://qz.com/94692/abenomics-will-fail-if-japan-doesnt-address-its-debt-problem-heres-one-way-it-should-start-doing-that/ http://qz.com/94692/abenomics-will-fail-if-japan-doesnt-addr...
- snogglethorpe 13y agoJapan has many issues... but its railroads are not one of them. Indeed, note that your article points to the JNR privatization as the model to follow...
- ojii 13y agoAs a matter of fact, mass transport is financially viable enough that JR Tokai plans to finance their 9 trillion JPY Chuo Shinkansen maglev line without government money [1]. [1] http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/30/reference/maglev-challenge-both-technical-financial/ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/30/reference/maglev...