Folks let's briefly examine the JR Group (excluding freight--for now, at least)
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JR West had been in second until the 2005 disaster, it is now a comfortable third: 11.2% profit, 64% from transport, 51% of which is HSR
So, the JR companies on Honshu (except freight) are doing well...the ones on the islands are having trouble.
JR Hokkaido is in the worst shape--3.2% operating profit (negative net profit!), 52.9% from transportation, no HSR when stats were recorded
JR Shikoku is in a similar bind--4.4% profit, no HSR...but it has a smaller network to maintain, and gets a better transport share (61.5%)
Both JR Hokkaido and JR Shikoku will not be able to continue in their current state--they will either close down or get new backers...
...either from local government or from their more successful JR neighbors--East for Hokkaido, West for Shikoku.
JR Kyushu is doing the best among these three--8.5% profit--but even they aren't getting blood from a stone...look at the transport share...
...it's only 47.9%, less than half. JR Kyushu is managing to operate a railway in a rural setting with declining population...
...because it is getting more than half of its revenue from related (non-transport) business. And what about its transport side?
For starters, they have HSR in Kyushu, connecting to the rest of Japan--this is over a third of their passenger business, too.
Furthermore, JR Kyushu has made an extraordinary effort to distinguish itself on the basis of luxurypic.twitter.com/9104gAbY2U
The upshot of which is that many trains in Kyushu are tourist attractions in their own right, so visitors make up a huge share of ridership
All that--side businesses, luxury trains, and HSR connections to busier places--is what it takes for a rural rail company to stay solvent
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