Uzui Station (built 1975) is about 100 ft in the air, only accessible by concrete staircase. 4 trips per direction, 0 passengers per day.pic.twitter.com/CVoCy09m7Z
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Next: Tazu (7 riders), Iwami Kawagoe (9 riders), Shikaga (3 riders), and Imbara (4 riders)pic.twitter.com/TcvcW4W6f9
Iwami Kawamoto (23), Kirohara (1), Take (1), Ombara (3)pic.twitter.com/baYfYHpSbi
Iwami Yanaze (7), Akatsuka (2), Kasubuchi (23), Hamahara (8) On the one hand, the low frequency (4 trips per day) depresses ridership...pic.twitter.com/4vAtKMCTeK
...but on the other, very few people live here to begin with Sawadani (1), Ushio (0), Iwami Matsubara (2), Iwami Tsuga (3)pic.twitter.com/gdhaQUafDh
Next is Uzui, which we already saw--then Ikawashi (0), Kuchiba (3), Gobira (0), Sakugiguchi (9)pic.twitter.com/RxUMQR9eZr
Koyodo has no information on ridership whatsoever...then Shikijiki (12), Nobuki (0), Tokogori (1)pic.twitter.com/suHP8qUeq9
Sorry, that's "Tokorogi" in prev tweet--then Funasa (2), Nagatani (no data), Awaya (no data), and Ozekiyama (no data)pic.twitter.com/fpmH3hjpTk
...and with that, the line finally reaches its terminal at Miyoshi, which sees 585 riders per daypic.twitter.com/JcBwKs2uNj
It should be clear from these figures that most ridership at Gotsu and Miyoshi is from *other* lines at those stations...not the Sanko Line
It should also be clear that maintaining the Sanko Line's stations and track is impossible to accomplish with its meagre fare revenue
The line is run by JR West, which makes plenty of money operating the Sanyo Shinkansen and commuter lines in Greater Osaka...
...and this is the only thing keeping the line around. Since neither the locals nor the far-off patrons in Osaka really show up to use it...
...it makes no sense to keep the route open any longer. The money spent maintaining it would be better used in Osaka, where it comes from.
If JR West were taxpayer instead of customer supported, than locals on this route would still be paying for it *after* it closed...
...and indeed, taxpayer pressure is what prompted the then-nationalized JNR to build the line in the first place!
Now, *local* tax revenue never covered the line's costs even then--but locals were paying for rail either way, and wanted something for it.
After privatization, locals stopped paying taxes for it--but far off urbanites, who had already covered most of its cost through their taxes
...continued to pay for its upkeep through their fares. Its closure reflects the fact that they don't see any point in paying for it either.
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