(2)Fulfillment of Services in Response to New Needs
(a)Diversification of Trains
Nowadays, travel is not to enjoy time only at the destination, but is becoming increasingly important to enjoy the trip to the destination as much as possible.
In response to such peoples' needs, various types of cars have been introduced. Especially for long distance trains, luxurious sleeping cars and private sleeping cars to protect privacy of women travelers in special, and salons intending to improve living-space qualities, and fulfillment of free space such as observation cars is being introduced.
Furthermore, the "ozashiki" train (Japanese tatami-floor type cars); "karaoke" train, and disco trains are introduced in response to various needs of trains for large passenger groups and events.
(b)Improvement of Nighttime Transportation Service
Caused by the trend of recently increased night time activities in cities, in order to answer to the expanded need of nighttime transportation demands in large cities, changes have been made with the aim to improve transits at terminals during the night, and the extension of the last train departure and increasing the number of trains has been conducted.
7 Promotion of Railway Improvement
(1) Basic Direction for Railway Improvement
As we approach the 21st century, it is becoming important to aim for a balanced development of the national land and to enhance and strengthen social infrastructure related to transport, in order to create a society in which people may experience true affluence in readiness for the fully-fledged arrival of the aged society. In particular, railways are a form of social infrastructure oil which the national way of life is founded, and there is a strong wish on the part of the nation with regard to enhancing railway services, such as easing congestion at peak school and work commuting times and increasing the speed of intercity travel. In addition, much is also expected of railways from the point of view of building up a transport system that places a low burden on the environment, coping with problems such as road congestion and traffic accidents, etc.
In response to such social demands, we have been promoting issues such as increased transportation capacity of urban railways and higher speed of Shinkansen railways. However, railway improvement is something that requires increasingly massive capital and long-term gestation periods in view of factors such as increased construction costs and the difficulty of locating land, and the investment risks for railway companies are now greater. Therefore, we must aim to promote this gradually from a medium-long term position, while devising requisite measures for financial support.
With regard to the trunk railways that provide links from city to city, at present most of their rated speeds are between 60 and 90 kph, while the average rated speed of major nationwide trunk routes including the Shinkansen is just under 100 kph.
With a view to a balanced development of national land and regional vitaiization, it is important that we improve and upgrade the high-speed railway network, starting with the improved Shinkansen. Thus, as well as increasing the average rated speed of major nationwide trunk railways to the 120 kph range, we need to promote issues such as through-routing of existing lines to Shinkansen lines, improving route formats in order to increase speed, and developing new format carriages with regard to existing line sectors. At the same time, in areas that have railway characteristics, we need to promote the improvement of the Shinkansen, with a target of linking Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, or Sapporo to provincial centre cities (cities with a population of more than 200,000 and prefectural capital cities) in at least around the 3 hour range.
With regard to urban railways, meanwhile, the average congestion rate in major line sections in the Tokyo capital region remains as ever at a high level at nearly 200%, and the congestion during school and work commuting rush hours has become a serious problem, with some sections in which the congestion rate exceeds 250%.
Therefore, with the target of reducing the congestion rate to 150% at rush hours in major conurbations (or 180%, provisionally, in the Tokyo capital region), we need to promote
