Any train experts around

[MapisM]

I just boarded a Hakutaka Shinkansen in Tokyo (for the first time in my life!), and I couldn't help thinking:
How hard can it be to load the top managers of all the EU railways (bar NONE, i.e. including, heaven forbid, Switzerland) on a plane, send them here, and don't let them come back home till they will have understood how a railway system should really work?
Astonishing doesn't begin describing how impressive the service is!

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

I believe they had a rather "aggressive" compulsory purchase order for the route.

 

[Andy Bav]

I just boarded a Hakutaka Shinkansen in Tokyo (for the first time in my life!), and I couldn't help thinking:
How hard can it be to load the top managers of all the EU railways (bar NONE, i.e. including, heaven forbid, Switzerland) on a plane, send them here, and don't let them come back home till they will have understood how a railway system should really work?
Astonishing doesn't begin describing how impressive the service is!

+1

I work for a Japanese Bank, and in Tokyo a “sorry I am late, train delays” excuse is only accepted if it’s backed up by a letter from the train company apologising for it ..

 

[Bigplumbs]

Not a good culture to follow...… Don't they have one of the highest Suicide rates in the world amongst young people because of the pressure this sort of thing creates.


Being late is no shame


Follow the Greek way far better

 

[sorabain]

https://mishayurchenko.me/2018/10/15/12-myths-about-japan/

"Japanese trains are always on time.
The statistics you see on extremely punctual trains are usually in reference to the high-speed bullet train — the Shinkansen. It’s almost always on time. But bullet trains only make up a small fraction of trains in Japan. Tickets are expensive and they’re often very long distance, so incentives to be on time are greater. The rest of the train system in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, has a serious congestion problem. In fact, Japanese trains are late all the time…The government finally started tracking these numbers and found that trains in Tokyo on the Chuo-Sobu Line were late an average of 19.1 days a month in 2017 — so most days. Half of these trains were late under ten minutes and the other half 10 minutes – 30 minutes or more. "

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2...-highlights-frequency-rush-hour-delays-tokyo/

I'm not familiar with the Shinkansen timetabling. I wonder if it runs under capacity and some extra allowances in the diagram so that any slight delays can be made up between stops. Much harder on any line run to capacity where any delay has knock on effects and not tractable to re-schedule dynamically.

 

[bedouin]

A major factor in why the Japanese railways work so well is that they are very simple routes. Mostly simply A to B with very few junctions, crossings etc. The timetables are very simple so there is less chance of knock on problems

 

[rafiki_]

https://mishayurchenko.me/2018/10/15/12-myths-about-japan/

"Japanese trains are always on time.
The statistics you see on extremely punctual trains are usually in reference to the high-speed bullet train — the Shinkansen. It’s almost always on time. But bullet trains only make up a small fraction of trains in Japan. Tickets are expensive and they’re often very long distance, so incentives to be on time are greater. The rest of the train system in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, has a serious congestion problem. In fact, Japanese trains are late all the time…The government finally started tracking these numbers and found that trains in Tokyo on the Chuo-Sobu Line were late an average of 19.1 days a month in 2017 — so most days. Half of these trains were late under ten minutes and the other half 10 minutes – 30 minutes or more. "

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2...-highlights-frequency-rush-hour-delays-tokyo/

I'm not familiar with the Shinkansen timetabling. I wonder if it runs under capacity and some extra allowances in the diagram so that any slight delays can be made up between stops. Much harder on any line run to capacity where any delay has knock on effects and not tractable to re-schedule dynamically.

Not my experience. In our Nagoya office we warned visiting Brits to check very closely the time on the ticket. Not much English signage, but the time is displayed on the ticket. If it says 15.37, don’t get on the train at 15.35. It will be the wrong one!
Shinkansen works superbly, but a major difference between Japanese and UK rail is that much of the system there was built after the war, funded by the Septics. Ours is 100 years older. And feels it.
We were 8 mins late getting into Hiroshima from Nagoya once. The driver came down the train apologising to everyone. It transpired that there had been “1 under” on route.

 

[MapisM]

It transpired that there had been “1 under” on route.

Blimey P, I'm struggling to understand what these folks mean when they make their best efforts to speak EN, and you are able to get what "transpires" from their speeches?
Did you possibly spend 20 years in this Country...?

 

[MapisM]

Back to the main point, it ain't just punctuality which is beyond belief.
It's the overall organization of this Shinkansen business that is amazing - quite an experience in itself!
I will post a few more details asap, I'm on my mobile atm, and I just hate typing on it - stay tuned...

 

[MapisM]

Ok, just to follow up on my previous statement, in case anyone is interested.

First of all, just to put the punctuality in perspective, this is what I experienced.
There is a scheduled departure time. The train arrives at the station 2 minutes earlier, people go orderly onboard and after 2 minutes the train leave - as simple as that.
BUT, when I say 2 minutes, it's not like it can be 3, or 4.
It's 120 seconds, and seconds is also the measurement unit required to track deviations - if any.
The only drawback of this is that if you realize that you reached your destination after the train stopped, and you start grabbing your luggage and putting on your coat only by then, chances are that the doors will be shut before you know...

But as I said, there's more.

The whole line is dedicated to these trains, and the platforms are marked with the position of each coach, in order to form an orderly queue exactly in front of the position where the door of your coach will stop.
In Ueno station in Tokyo, where there are many trains for different destinations, constantly arriving and leaving from just two platforms, there are actually two marks in front of each coach door: one is for the queue of the first incoming train, and the other one is for the second. As soon as the first incoming train leaves, people on the "second" mark move one step sideway to the "first" mark, and the "second" queue begins to be populated again, and so on.
I kid you not.

In another station, I've seen a long set of hoses spraying water on both sides of the incoming and leaving trains, to wash them on the fly, so to speak.
Again, no kidding.

The train crew don't make any ticket check, because (aside from the fact that maybe they don't consider it necessary for cultural reasons...) the entrance/exit system is completely automated: you just put your ticket in the gate to open it both when entering the departure and leaving the arrival stations.

Disabled access is fine everywhere, both in stations and trains.

Dynamic electronic displays are always well understandable anywhere, again both in stations and trains.

Free wi-fi connection is available, though if I should be fussy I must say that it's a bit annoying when the connection goes off in long tunnels...

I could go on with other details, like absolute cleanliness everywhere (loos included), crew kindliness, etc.
But the final result, even if I'm far from pretending to be a train expert (in fact, actually I use trains very rarely), is that the experience is light years ahead compared to anything else I tried in EU: TGV in F, ICE in D, Italo in IT, EC in CH, AVE in E.
This Shinkansen thingie is quite simply in another league. Chapeau.

 

[MapisM]

The rest of the train system in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, has a serious congestion problem. In fact, Japanese trains are late all the time…

I spent just 4 days in Tokyo, but I used the public transports a fair bit, and aside from the fact that both underground and surface trains become noticeably more crowded in peak hours, they always did the job of bringing me from A to B as I expected.
But that did normally happen also in London, Paris, Milan, whatever.
It's just the Shinkansen experience which impressed me.