These books are updated monthly, and cost around $7 to buy. Extremely useful if you're traveling with a rail pass.
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.
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This is because JR West--unlike its predecessor, JNR--is a for-profit company. It is only interested in running services that people use.
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This doesn't mean that every line pays for itself--but that profitable lines must cover the shortfalls on unprofitable ones...
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...or in other words, the countryside gets as much service as the cities can afford to support.
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It may sound harsh, but it meshes pretty well with Japan's broader demographic trends--rural areas like the land around the Sanko Line...
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...have seen steep population declines in the wake of economic stagnation. Most young people leave for the cities to make a living.
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The best opportunities for scenic rural railways are to be found in the outer hinterlands of major cities, too far for commuters...
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...to suburbanize them, but near enough to benefit from city technology and capital. This ties in directly to what Jacobs discusses...
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...in Cities and the Wealth of Nations.
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Epilogue: with all this in mind, let me be clear about what my intentions for transit in greater New England would mean...
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This network is maximum buildout--what would actually materialize would be whatever parts of this Boston, NYC, Montreal could support.pic.twitter.com/Ocnt0sF8sy
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And by "support" I do not mean with tax revenue, propping up unproductive lines in stagnating regions...
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...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...
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...is about improving transit *in those major cities.* Perhaps if a city like Moncton starts booming, it could join the club.
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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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