Shimonoseki Station
Shimonoseki Station is a railway station on the Sanyo Main Line, operated by West Japan Railway Company in Shimonoseki, Japan. Kyushu Railway Company and Japan Freight Railway Company services use this station; the company boundary between JR West and JR Kyushu is at the west end of this station where there is an entrance signal from Moji. West Japan Railway Company Sanyo Main Line Sanin Main Line Next station Hatabu is the terminal station of Sanin Line. All trains run to Shimonoseki through the Sanyo Main Line. Kyushu Railway Company Sanyo Main Line 27 May 1901: Opened as Bakan Station of San'yō Railway. Kanmon Renrakusen was started; the station was located about 700m east from today's location. 1 June 1902: Changed to Shimonoseki Station according to the change of the city name. 11 September 1905: San'yō Railway started Kanfu Renrakusen. 1 December 1906: San'yō Railway was nationarized. 20 December 1930: Kawasaki Ship started Kanrei Renrakusen. 27 November 1938: Sanyō Electric Tram Station was open in front of the station.
1 July 1942: Kanmon Tunnel was opened. 15 November 1942: Station was moved to today's location. May 1945: Kanrei Renrakusen stopped. Jun 1945: Kanfu Renrakusen stopped. 25 December 1946: Tram station was moved in front of the new station. 31 October 1964: Kanmon Renrakusen stopped. 7 February 1971: Tram stopped. 1 April 1987: Privatization of JNR, the station becomes part of the JR West network. 29 September 1999: Shimonoseki Station massacre, at least 5 deaths with 10 injuries. 7 January 2006: A main station building fire with collapsed, a 74-year-old man arrested of suspiction of arson. West Japan Railway █ Sanyō Main Line Shimonoseki - Hatabu Kyushu Railway Company █ Sanyō Main Line Moji - Shimonoseki ShopsSea Mall Shimonoseki Shimonoseki Daimaru Wedding Hall Buzenda Shopping Street Green Mall shopping street Nagato MarketSightseeingKaikyo Yume Tower Hiyoriyama ParkHotelsShimonoseki Tokyu Inn Via Inn Shimonoseki Shimonoseki Eki-nishi Washington Hotel Plaza Toyoko Inn Shimonoseki-eki Higashi-guchi Shimonoseki Station Hotel Green Hotel Shimonoseki Hotel Wing International Shimonoseki Hotel 38th Shimonoseki Prince Hotel ShimonosekiOthersShimonoseki Port Shimonoseki Port International Terminal Shimonoseki Fishing Port Shimonoseki Citizen hall ShopsSunLive Karato Karato shopping street Kamon Wharf SightseeingKaikyokan Mt. Hinoyama Karato Market Former British Consulate Former Akita Company Building Nabe-cho Post Office Akama Shrine Kameyama Hachimangu Shrine Kanmon Straits Dan-no-ura HotelsShimonoseki Grand Hotel Karato Central Hotel Kaikyo View Shimonoseki Shunpanro Tokyo Dai-ichi Hotel Shimonoseki Shimonoseki City Hinoyama Youth HostelOthersShimonoseki City Hall Arcaport development area The Kanpu ferry to Busan in South Korea regularly.
The Orient ferry to Qingdao in China regularly. The Orient ferry to Shanghai in China regularly. Bus company: Sanden Kohtsu Co. Ltd. Shimonoseki Station Bus Terminal: Intercity bus services go to the following destinations: Osaka, Fukuoka, Kitakyushu Airport, etc. Shin-Shimonoseki Station Shimonoseki Buzenda
Kitakyushu
Kitakyushu is one of two designated cities in Fukuoka Prefecture, together with Fukuoka, with a population of just under 1 million people. Kokura Prefecture was founded separately from Fukuoka Prefecture in 1871 when the clan system was abolished; the old wooden-built Kokura Prefectural Office is being restored. It is opposite Riverwalk Kitakyūshū. In 1876, Kokura Prefecture was absorbed by Fukuoka Prefecture; the city of Kokura was founded in 1900. Yahata in Kitakyushu was the target for the beginning of the US bombing raids on the home islands on June 16, 1944, when 75 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses flew out from mainland China. Kokura was the primary target of the nuclear weapon "Fat Man" on August 9, 1945. Major Charles Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually. All three attempts failed due to clouds and smoke from Yahata, only 7 km west of Kokura and had air raids on the previous day, preventing him from identifying the target clearly. Additionally, a smoke screen was created by industrial workers burning barrels of coal tar and/or electric plant workers releasing steam.
The bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, the secondary target, at 11:02 JST. The city of Kitakyushu was founded on February 10, 1963 and was designated on April 1, 1963 by government ordinance; the city was born from the merger of five municipalities centered around the ancient feudal city of Kokura. The city's symbol mark is a flower with the character "north" in the middle and five petals representing the towns that merged. Kitakyushu has seven wards: The city of Nakama, Fukuoka was to become the eighth ward of Kitakyushu in 2005. However, the merger was rejected on December 24, 2004 by Nakama's city council, despite having been initiated by Nakama City; as of 1 October 2018, the city had an estimated population of 945,595 and a total area of 491.95 km2. The average population density is 1,922 persons /km2, it is now the country's 15th most populated city. It has a much larger total area than that of Fukuoka, only 343.39 km2. The 1986 family movie Koneko Monogatari was filmed here; the English version of the film, the story of the friendship of a kitten and a pug dog, was released in America in 1989 as The Adventures of Milo and Otis.
The 1958 comedy Rickshaw Man is based on a local folk hero of Kokura called Muhomatsu or "Wild Pine" and has been called the Japanese "Desperado." He is celebrated in the Kokura Gion Yamagasa festival. Toshiro Mifune plays the taiko drum in this movie. Kitakyushu is featured in the late 2012 Call of Duty: Black Ops II game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision as a DLC map called Magma. In the map the city has been abandoned due to a volcanic eruption, parts of the city are covered in lava. There are festivals held in the summer in the city, including the Tobata Gion Yamagasa festival in Tobata-ku, Kitakyūshū. Kurosaki Gion It has been designated as an intangible cultural asset of Fukuoka Prefecture. People spin decorated “battle floats” as they pull them through the streets. Tobata Gion People carry yamagasa on their shoulders. Kokura Gion People pull. All the Gion festivals date back about 400 years, they were instituted to celebrate surviving an epidemic. Moji Minato Festival This port-city festival involves colorfully costumed people pulling floats through the streets.
Wakamatsu Minato Festival This port-city festival celebrates fire and kappa. Wasshoi Hyakuman Festival The Wasshoi Hyakuman Natsumatsuri brings all the festivals together for a grand parade and finale near City Hall in Kokura Kita ward. Kitakyushu was formed by the merging of Kokura, Wakamatsu and Tobata; as a result, the city began, on its tenth anniversary. On the 25th anniversary, it was renamed Wasshoi Hyakuman because the city population had reached one million. Green Park Flea Market There are over 200 shops; the Center for Contemporary Art opened in May 1997 and has shown works of internationally renowned artists, e.g. Maurizio Cattelan and Anri Sala. Kokura Castle was built by Hosokawa Tadaoki in 1602, it was the property of the Ogasawara clan between 1632 and 1860. The castle was burnt down in 1865 in the war between the Choshu clans. Hiraodai karst plateau and Mount Adachi in Kokura Minami ward and Mount Sarakura and Kawachi Dam in Yahata Higashi ward are noted walking areas with fine scenery.
The limestone outcroppings on Hiraodai are said to resemble grazing sheep, so the plateau, the highest in Kyushu at 400–600 meters, is known as the Yogun Plain. Some of the limestone caverns are open to the public; the area contains the Nanae Waterfalls. Sugao is about 20 meters. Nanae means "seven stages." Nippon Steel Corporation is a major employer, but the Yahata and Tobata plants are much reduced from their heyday of the 1960s. The Zenrin company known for its mapping and navigation software is based here and so is Toto Ltd. and Yaskawa Electric Corporation. StarFlyer, an airline, is headquartered on the grounds of Kitakyushu Airport in Kokuraminami-ku, Kitakyūshū; the airline's headquarters were in the Shin Kokura Building in Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyūshū. A smaller scale shopping center known as Cha Cha Town, next to the Sunatsu
Japan Railways Group
The Japan Railways Group, more known as JR Group, consists of seven for-profit companies that took over most of the assets and operations of the government-owned Japanese National Railways on April 1, 1987. Most of the liability of the JNR was assumed by the JNR Settlement Corporation; the JR Group lies at the heart of Japan's railway network, operating a large proportion of intercity rail service and commuter rail service. Despite JR East, JR Central, JR West and JR Kyushu now having full private ownership, Japanese people talk about "private railways" as if none of the JR Group companies is part of them, since they are successors of Japanese National Railways Maps always denoted JR and private railways differently, as does JR itself; the group consists of seven operating companies and two other companies that do not provide rail service. The operating companies are organized into six passenger operators and a nationwide freight operator. Unlike some other groups of companies, the JR Group is made up of independent companies, it does not have group headquarters or a holding company to set the overall business policy.
The six passenger railways of the JR Group are separated by region. Nearly all their services are within the prescribed geographic area. However, some long-distance operations extend beyond the boundaries; the Shirasagi train service between Nagoya and Toyama, for instance, uses JR West rolling stock but the segment of track between Nagoya and Maibara is owned by JR Central, whose crew manage the train on that section. Japan Freight Railway Company operates all freight service on the network owned by JNR. In addition, the group includes two non-operating companies; these are Railway Information Systems Co. Ltd.. To cover various non-railway business areas, each regional operator in the JR Group has its own group of subsidiary companies with names like "JR East Group" and "JR Shikoku Group." JR maintains a nationwide railway network as well as common ticketing rules that it inherited from JNR. Passengers may travel across several JR companies without changing trains and without purchasing separate tickets.
However, trains running across the boundaries of JR companies have been reduced. JR maintains the same ticketing rules based on the JNR rules and has an integrated reservation system known as MARS; some types of tickets, such as Japan Rail Pass and Seishun 18 Ticket, are issued as "valid for all JR lines" and accepted by all passenger JR companies. In 1987, the government of Japan took steps to divide and privatize JNR. While division of operations began in April of that year, privatization was not immediate: the government retained ownership of the companies. Privatization of some of the companies began in the early 1990s. By 2006, all of the shares of JR East, JR Central and JR West had been offered to the market and they are now publicly traded. On the other hand, all of the shares of JR Hokkaido, JR Shikoku, JR Kyushu and JR Freight are still owned by Japan Railway Construction and Technology Agency, an independent administrative institution of the state; the demise of the government-owned system came after charges of serious management inefficiencies, profit losses, fraud.
By the early 1980s, passenger and freight business had declined, fare increases had failed to keep up with higher labor costs. What remained of the debt-ridden Japanese National Railways after its 1987 breakup was named the Japanese National Railways Settlement Corporation, its purpose was to dispose of assets and debts not absorbed by the successor companies and to execute other activities relating to the breakup, such as outplacement of former personnel. The new companies introduced competition, cut their staffing, made reform efforts. Initial public reaction to these moves was good: the combined passenger travel on the Japan Railways Group passenger companies in 1987 was 204.7 billion passenger-kilometers, up 3.2% from 1986, while the passenger sector had been stagnant since 1975. The growth in passenger transport of private railways in 1987 was 2.6%, which meant that the Japan Railways Group's rate of increase was above that of the private-sector railways for the first time since 1974. Demand for rail transport improved, although it still accounted for only 28% of passenger transportation and only 5% of cargo transportation in 1990.
Rail passenger transportation was superior to automobiles in terms of energy efficiency and of speed in long distance transportation. The six companies had 18,800 km of routes in use in the late 1980s. About 25% of the routes were in double-track and multitrack sections, the rest were single-track. In 1988 about 51% of the six companies' 1,000 locomotives were diesel, the rest were electric. Japan Freight Railway Company owns its locomotives, rolling stock and stations, but hires track from the six passenger companies, it runs fewer trains on less track than Japanese National Railways freight service did before its demise, but at increased revenues and higher productivity. The Shinkansen Property Corporation leased Shinkansen railway facilities, including 2,100 km of 1,435 mm gauge high-speed track, to the passenger companies on Honshū. In 1991, the SPC was reorganized into the Railway Development Fund and the three operators bought their lines on 60-year loans; some of the Shinkansen electric-powered
Horie Station
Horie Station is a railway station on the Yosan Line in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR Shikoku and has the station number "Y52"; the station is served by the JR Shikoku Yosan Line and is located 184.9 km from the beginning of the line at Takamatsu. Only Yosan Line local trains stop at the station and they only serve the sector between Iyo-Saijō and Matsuyama. Connections with other local or limited express trains are needed to travel further east or west along the line; the station, unstaffed, consists of two opposed side platforms serving two tracks. A disused freight car has been set up next to the tracks and converted into a waiting room in the same style as at Minoura. Access to the opposite platform is by means of a footbridge. A siding branches off leads to the traces of a disused freight platform; the station opened on 3 April 1927 as an intermediate stop when the Sanyo Line was extended from Iyo-Hōjō to Matsuyama. At that time the station was operated by Japanese Government Railways becoming Japanese National Railways.
With the privatization of JNR on 1 April 1987, control of the station passed to JR Shikoku. List of Railway Stations in Japan
National Diet
The National Diet is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house called the House of Representatives, an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under parallel voting systems. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally responsible for selecting the Prime Minister; the Diet was first convened as the Imperial Diet in 1889 as a result of adopting the Meiji Constitution. The Diet took its current form in 1947 upon the adoption of the post-war constitution, which considers it the highest organ of state power; the National Diet Building is in Nagatachō, Tokyo. The houses of the Diet are both elected under parallel voting systems; this means that the seats to be filled in any given election are divided into two groups, each elected by a different method. Voters are asked to cast two votes: one for an individual candidate in a constituency, one for a party list. Any national of Japan at least 18 years of age may vote in these elections.
The age of 18 replaced 20 in 2016. Japan's parallel voting system is not to be confused with the Additional Member System used in many other nations; the Constitution of Japan does not specify the number of members of each house of the Diet, the voting system, or the necessary qualifications of those who may vote or be returned in parliamentary elections, thus allowing all of these things to be determined by law. However it does guarantee universal adult suffrage and a secret ballot, it insists that the electoral law must not discriminate in terms of "race, sex, social status, family origin, property or income". The election of Diet members is controlled by statutes passed by the Diet; this is a source of contention concerning re-apportionment of prefectures' seats in response to changes of population distribution. For example, the Liberal Democratic Party had controlled Japan for most of its post-war history, it gained much of its support from rural areas. During the post-war era, large numbers of people were relocating to the urban centers in the seeking of wealth.
The Supreme Court of Japan began exercising judicial review of apportionment laws following the Kurokawa decision of 1976, invalidating an election in which one district in Hyōgo Prefecture received five times the representation of another district in Osaka Prefecture. The Supreme Court has since indicated that the highest electoral imbalance permissible under Japanese law is 3:1, that any greater imbalance between any two districts is a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. In recent elections the malapportionment ratio amounted to 4.8 in the House of Councillors and 2.3 in the House of Representatives. Candidates for the lower house must be 25 years old or older and 30 years or older for the upper house. All candidates must be Japanese nationals. Under Article 49 of Japan's Constitution, Diet members are paid about ¥1.3 million a month in salary. Each lawmaker is entitled to employ three secretaries with taxpayer funds, free Shinkansen tickets, four round-trip airplane tickets a month to enable them to travel back and forth to their home districts.
Article 41 of the Constitution describes the National Diet as "the highest organ of State power" and "the sole law-making organ of the State". This statement is in forceful contrast to the Meiji Constitution, which described the Emperor as the one who exercised legislative power with the consent of the Diet; the Diet's responsibilities include not only the making of laws but the approval of the annual national budget that the government submits and the ratification of treaties. It can initiate draft constitutional amendments, which, if approved, must be presented to the people in a referendum; the Diet may conduct "investigations in relation to government". The Prime Minister must be designated by Diet resolution, establishing the principle of legislative supremacy over executive government agencies; the government can be dissolved by the Diet if it passes a motion of no confidence introduced by fifty members of the House of Representatives. Government officials, including the Prime Minister and Cabinet members, are required to appear before Diet investigative committees and answer inquiries.
The Diet has the power to impeach judges convicted of criminal or irregular conduct. In most circumstances, in order to become law a bill must be first passed by both houses of the Diet and promulgated by the Emperor; this role of the Emperor is similar to the Royal Assent in some other nations. The House of Representatives is the more powerful chamber of the Diet. While the House of Representatives cannot overrule the House of Councillors on a bill, the House of Councillors can only delay the adoption of a budget or a treaty, approved by the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors has no power at all to prevent the lower house from selecting any Prime Minister it wishes. Furthermore, once appointed it is the confidence of the House of Representatives alone that the Prime Minister must enjoy in order to continue in office; the House of Representatives can overrule the upper house in the following circumstances: If a bill is adopted by the House of Representatives and either rejected, amended or not approved within 60 days by th
3 ft 6 in gauge railways
Railways with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in / 1,067 mm were first constructed as horse-drawn wagonways. From the mid-nineteenth century, the 3 ft 6 in gauge became widespread in the British Empire, was adopted as a standard in Japan and Taiwan. There are 112,000 kilometres of 1,067 mm gauge track in the world. 1795 One of the first railways to use 3 ft 6 in gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, constructed as a horse-drawn wagonway in 1795. Other 3 ft 6 in gauge wagonways in England and Wales were built in the early nineteenth century. 1862 In 1862 the Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Norway, the Røros Line. 1865 In 1865 the Queensland Railways were constructed. Its 3 ft 6 in gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon and consulting engineer Charles Fox. 1867 In 1867, the construction of the railroad from the Castillo de Buitrón mine to the pier of San Juan del Puerto, Spain, began. The width was 3 ft 6 in. 1868 In 1868 Charles Fox asks civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a 3 ft 6 in railway in Costa Rica.
1871 In 1871 the Canadian Toronto and Bruce Railway and the Toronto and Nipissing Railway were opened, promoted by Pihl and Fitzgibbon and surveyed by Wragge as an engineer of Fox. 1872 In January 1872 Robert Fairlie advocated the use of 3 ft 6 in gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways: Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. 1872 saw the opening of the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Japan, proposed by the British civil engineer Edmund Morel based on his experience of building railways in New Zealand. 1873 On 1 January 1873, the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and broad gauge railways were soon converted to the narrower gauge. In 1873 the Cape Colony adopted the 3 ft 6 in gauge. After conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges.
Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. 1876 Natal converted its short 10 kilometres long Durban network from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the entire colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, the Rhodesias and Angola, were constructed in 3 ft 6 in gauge during that time. After 1876 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous 3 ft 6 in gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge. An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, which adopted it in 1873; the term Cape Gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape.
After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as 1,065 mm instead of 1067 mm. The gauge name. In Australia the imperial term 3 foot 6 inch is used. In some Australian publications the term medium gauge is used, while in Australian states where 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in is the norm, 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as narrow gauge. In Japan 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as kyōki, it is defined in metric units. Similar, but incompatible without wheelset adjustment, rail gauges in respect of aspects such as cost of construction, practical minimum radius curves and the maximum physical dimensions of rolling stock are: 1,100 mm, 1,093 mm, 1,055 mm, 1,050 mm, 1,000 mm metre gauge. Cape Government Railways Heritage railway List of track gauges South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia Why Did Japan Choose the 3'6" Narrow Gauge
Narrow-gauge railway
A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard 1,435 mm. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 1,067 mm. Since narrow-gauge railways are built with tighter curves, smaller structure gauges, lighter rails, they can be less costly to build and operate than standard- or broad-gauge railways. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are built to serve industries and communities where the traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard- or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railways have specialized use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge, they have more general applications. Non-industrial, narrow-gauge mountain railways are common in the Rocky Mountains of the United States and the Pacific Cordillera of Canada, Switzerland, the former Yugoslavia and Costa Rica. In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard. Narrow-gauge trams metre-gauge, are common in Europe. In general, a narrow-gauge railway is narrower than 1,435 mm.
Because of historical and local circumstances, the definition of a narrow-gauge railway varies. The earliest recorded railway appears in Georgius Agricola's 1556 De re metallica, which shows a mine in Bohemia with a railway of about 2 ft gauge. During the 16th century, railways were restricted to hand-pushed, narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe. In the 17th century, mine railways were extended to provide transportation above ground; these lines were industrial. These railways were built to the same narrow gauge as the mine railways from which they developed; the world's first steam locomotive, built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, ran on a 3 ft plateway. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray's Salamanca built in 1812 for the 4 ft 1 in Middleton Railway in Leeds. Salamanca was the first rack-and-pinion locomotive. During the 1820s and 1830s, a number of industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom used steam locomotives.
In 1842, the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive outside the UK was built for the 1,100 mm -gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium. The first use of steam locomotives on a public, passenger-carrying narrow-gauge railway was in 1865, when the Ffestiniog Railway introduced passenger service after receiving its first locomotives two years earlier. Many narrow-gauge railways were part of industrial enterprises and served as industrial railways, rather than general carriers. Common uses for these industrial narrow-gauge railways included mining, construction, tunnelling and conveying agricultural products. Extensive narrow-gauge networks were constructed in many parts of the world. Significant sugarcane railways still operate in Cuba, Java, the Philippines, Queensland, narrow-gauge railway equipment remains in common use for building tunnels; the first use of an internal combustion engine to power a narrow-gauge locomotive was in 1902. F. C. Blake built a 7hp petrol locomotive for the Richmond Main Sewerage Board sewage plant at Mortlake.
This 2 ft 9 in gauge locomotive was the third petrol-engined locomotive built. Extensive narrow-gauge rail systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in World War I, they were a short-lived military application, after the war the surplus equipment created a small boom in European narrow-gauge railway building. Narrow-gauge railways cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, smaller bridges and tunnels, tighter curves. Narrow gauge is used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial, it is used in sparsely populated areas where the potential demand is too low for broad-gauge railways to be economically viable. This is the case in parts of Australia and most of Southern Africa, where poor soils have led to population densities too low for standard gauge to be viable. For temporary railways which will be removed after short-term use, such as logging, mining or large-scale construction projects, a narrow-gauge railway is cheaper and easier to install and remove.
Such railways have vanished, due to the capabilities of modern trucks. In many countries, narrow-gauge railways were built as branch lines to feed traffic to standard-gauge lines due to lower construction costs; the choice was not between a narrow- and standard-gauge railway, but between a narrow-gauge railway and none at all. Narrow-gauge railways cannot interchange rolling stock with the standard- or broad-gauge railways with which they link, the transfer of passengers and freight require time-consuming manual labour or substantial capital expenditure; some bulk commodities, such as coal and gravel, can be mechanically transshipped, but this is time-consuming, the equipment required for the transfer is complex to maintain. If rail lines with other gauges coexist in a network, in times of peak demand i
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JR Hokkaido
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