Filed under: Blog Post | Tags: Japan Rail, mass transit, oil, shinkansen, transporation, transportation, Travel
The thing I took away from our travels the most was the ease of transportation in Japan. With the current gas crisis in America it makes sense to me that we should begin to look into deploying a mass transit system. During the Japan Rail presentation they said that 16 million people use their trains daily, this does not include the other Japan Rail companies or the subway systems. The ability to travel so freely in Japan not only made our trip easy but also allowed us to visit many cities in two weeks. The Shinkansen allowed us to travel from Osaka to Tokyo in 2 and half hours; this trip is around the distance from the base of Michigan to the bridge, a trip that takes 5 to 7 hours depending on traffic. If the train system had not been in place and we had to rely on a bus system to travel to our destinations, we would not have been able to fit so many visits in our two-week trip. After using this system for a week it became perfectly clear that we need this system in America, with the price of oil rising and the possibility that we may run out of oil; it makes sense that a statewide transportation network could solve these problems. After seeing how perfect the Japanese system worked, I feel that it could be the solution to our aging system of highways and personal vehicles.
Many times during our trips in the subway it would have been nice to know how far underground we actually went, many times it felt like we burrowed deeper and deeper until we finally found our train. With the space limitations in Tokyo it appears the city does not only reach to the sky, but also reaches toward the center of the earth. These train stations were not just simple train stops with tracks and platforms; they are elaborate shopping centers with stores and restaurants. Some of the Japan Rail stations were shopping malls with train stops hidden down corridors. This had the possibility to make an already large subway system even more confusing. Most of the time this was not the case, as in majority of common areas the signs were in English and quite helpful. This combination of train station and mall is a smart decision because it places shops were people visit daily. Not only does it dress up the train station but it also brings in money from busy commuters who do not have time to travel to the grocery store after work or see something they can’t live without on their way home. With the amount of people using the trains it makes sense to provide other services and for these people to purchase besides a train ticket.
