Folks, this is a master timetable for JR Group and various third sector railways.pic.twitter.com/ylFb8rqW1y
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And yet, compare them to the USA: a city like Houston gets 3 trips per direction per WEEK.
From here in Springfield to Boston, there is 1 trip per direction every day. Ditto for Springfield to Northampton.
At that sort of frequency rail service is virtually useless. You can't make a round trip in one day--you need somewhere to spend the night.
As it stands, 5 trips per day, like you see on the Sanko Line, is very low--and indeed, JR West is planning to close that line in 2 years.
This is because JR West--unlike its predecessor, JNR--is a for-profit company. It is only interested in running services that people use.
This doesn't mean that every line pays for itself--but that profitable lines must cover the shortfalls on unprofitable ones...
...or in other words, the countryside gets as much service as the cities can afford to support.
It may sound harsh, but it meshes pretty well with Japan's broader demographic trends--rural areas like the land around the Sanko Line...
...have seen steep population declines in the wake of economic stagnation. Most young people leave for the cities to make a living.
The best opportunities for scenic rural railways are to be found in the outer hinterlands of major cities, too far for commuters...
...to suburbanize them, but near enough to benefit from city technology and capital. This ties in directly to what Jacobs discusses...
...in Cities and the Wealth of Nations.
Epilogue: with all this in mind, let me be clear about what my intentions for transit in greater New England would mean...
This network is maximum buildout--what would actually materialize would be whatever parts of this Boston, NYC, Montreal could support.pic.twitter.com/Ocnt0sF8sy
And by "support" I do not mean with tax revenue, propping up unproductive lines in stagnating regions...
...I mean what the surplus revenue from urban *ridership* could support--the way it works in Japan. This means that the core of the plan...
...is about improving transit *in those major cities.* Perhaps if a city like Moncton starts booming, it could join the club.
But, I wouldn't hold my breath. Further discussions in this vein will focus less on the train side, more on the econ side.
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