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Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

citylab.com

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Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#171

Post by canthonytucci »

mrob wrote: post #77
canthonytucci wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I follow. I understood it that they're keeping the station open solely for her and stopping the train to align with her schedule. They're not (to my knowledge) doing this for anyone else, so it seems to me like she's being given extra special treatment that has a net negative (albeit small) effect on the other users of the system and the environment. It made me smile though.

Being a high school student, presumably she didn't choose to live there. If the station closes it looks like she's being punished for something that wasn't her fault. It seems unfair/unequal because none of the other riders are being treated that way. The "unfairness" of making the other riders wait is much less salient because they were doing it already and it's only a short wait. Looking it at from a purely utilita…

I wonder if the train company just decided to keep the train running without consulting with the girl's family and proposing other options.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#172

Post by ohbleek »

hkmurakami wrote: post #26
TeMPOraL wrote: post #13

Lovely story. Hats off to Japan Railways. I'm also happy that The Atlantic/Citylab decided to publish this story. And thanks 'hudibras for submitting it here! They say that it's the money that makes the world turn, and love only keeps it together. It would be easy for the Railways to ignore that girl. There's no economical reason to keep that station open. It's a waste of time and resources. And yet, someone decided…

The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping each other out (but the trade off is that everyone sticks their nose in your business). Japan railways itself split into several separate companies upon privatization. This would never happen in Tokyo. As much as we think of the country as being monolithic (i…

Wow, Tokyo was nothing close to this for me. I only visited for two weeks but I was SURROUNDED by helpful people.

For example, on my second day there, right after getting off at my stop, I realized that I lost my phone on the bus. I waited at the stop and asked the bus driver on the next bus how I could retreive it. I speak zero japanese and he spoke no english. He asked over the speaker if anybody spoke english. A young girl came to the front and interpreted. He gave me a number to call. Then I gave the number to the woman at the front desk of our hotel. She said that the driver would DELIVER MY PHONE TO ME in the morning, and what time would I like to get it. I was flabberghasted. sure enough it was delivered the next morning.

That is only one example of the two weeks I spent in a city with the kindest and most helpful people I've ever met. I have so many examples of people going out of their way to help me in Tokyo.

I lived in Finland for years and your description sounds closer to their culture, but even then they were not as cold as you describe, but just very hesitant to help.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#173

Post by id »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #132
Joeri wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The rail operator will also send a large bill to the jumpers family. Isn't this the case in most countries? I suspect they do it to discourage other jumpers, since if you jump you know you're saddling your family with a debt. As a society we could avoid these things if we provided a legal path to requesting to be euthanised, a legal self-determination on the end of your own life. In my country you can request it, b…

> Isn't this the case in most countries? I don't think so. Personally, I only heard about it in Japan, because this particular method of suicide is so endemic there. About US, on the other hand, I read a different story. Gun-inflicted suicides are more common there, and there are reports that often, police officers purposefully misreport those as "gun-related accidents", so that the family can still get life insuranc…

Many if not most life insurances actually do pay out if the suicide occurs a certain time period (often it's 2 years) after the policy is purchased.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#174

Post by kbutler »

sien wrote: post #124
hkmurakami wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely (and unfortunately) agree. This population pattern manifests in so many countries. The United States would be in this situation if not for our immigration inflow. South Korea actually has an even lower birthrate than Japan. China has a smaller population base in its youth vs its middle aged segment as a result of their one child policy [1]. I wonder... will all developed nations engage in a war for produ…

The places where the immigrants are coming from are getting richer and their birth rates are dropping so there won't be enough immigrants to grow developed nations' populations. People will just have to learn to run countries with a stable population.

What suggests a stable population to you?

Developed countries are all dropping below replacement fertility rate, sustained only by immigration and the higher fertility rate associated with recent immigrants.

I haven't seen any evidence for a stable point of population - it looks like it will grow, until it begins to decline in the not-too-distant future. Then does it ever stop declining?

Does it stop declining at a point we can sustain a technological society, much less technological progress?

That's my vote for resolution of the Fermi paradox.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#175

Post by JoeAltmaier »

kbutler wrote: post #174
sien wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The places where the immigrants are coming from are getting richer and their birth rates are dropping so there won't be enough immigrants to grow developed nations' populations. People will just have to learn to run countries with a stable population.

What suggests a stable population to you? Developed countries are all dropping below replacement fertility rate, sustained only by immigration and the higher fertility rate associated with recent immigrants. I haven't seen any evidence for a stable point of population - it looks like it will grow, until it begins to decline in the not-too-distant future. Then does it ever stop declining? Does it stop declining at a p…

I blame young women, who don't want to get married and don't want to have children. Sigh. It may be that western culture will collapse on its own when it reaches a certain point.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#176

Post by aaronchall »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #13

Lovely story. Hats off to Japan Railways. I'm also happy that The Atlantic/Citylab decided to publish this story. And thanks 'hudibras for submitting it here! They say that it's the money that makes the world turn, and love only keeps it together. It would be easy for the Railways to ignore that girl. There's no economical reason to keep that station open. It's a waste of time and resources. And yet, someone decided…

"And that girl, she will have one hell of a story to tell to her future friends." - No, she would be too embarrassed to mention it. "They ran a train twice a day just for me, I was the only rider, it was my personal limo-train."

"Random acts of kindness like that are happening every day around us." - It's not a random act of kindness, it's an example of the agency cost of bureaucracies who are more focused on image than the needs of all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, taxpayers, employees, and riders on other lines who are subsidizing the operation of the disused line.

It probably costs in the millions to keep that line running.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#177

Post by JoeAltmaier »

aaronchall wrote: post #176
TeMPOraL wrote: post #13

Lovely story. Hats off to Japan Railways. I'm also happy that The Atlantic/Citylab decided to publish this story. And thanks 'hudibras for submitting it here! They say that it's the money that makes the world turn, and love only keeps it together. It would be easy for the Railways to ignore that girl. There's no economical reason to keep that station open. It's a waste of time and resources. And yet, someone decided…

"And that girl, she will have one hell of a story to tell to her future friends." - No, she would be too embarrassed to mention it. "They ran a train twice a day just for me, I was the only rider, it was my personal limo-train." "Random acts of kindness like that are happening every day around us." - It's not a random act of kindness, it's an example of the agency cost of bureaucracies who are more focused on image t…

Confused: wasn't it just keeping a stop on the schedule, and not actually running a line for one person? Total cost would then be in time spent stopping/restarting.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#178

Post by icebraining »

aianus wrote: post #127
hkmurakami wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping each other out (but the trade off is that everyone sticks their nose in your business). Japan railways itself split into several separate companies upon privatization. This would never happen in Tokyo. As much as we think of the country as being monolithic (i…

> It's a place where young mothers with strollers are given stinkeye on public transit. This happens everywhere. It's extremely rude (especially at rush hour) to take up 5x the space of everyone else just cause you have a kid. Either the kid is small enough to carry or big enough to stand.

I don't agree. A 10 to 14-months old baby weights 8-10kg on average, and often can't stand reliably. For many people, carrying that kind of weight for any significant time can cause health issues, especially if they're older and/or the ride is long.

As a son of a women with scoliosis (a chronic problem which affects 2-3% of the US population), I with people weren't so prone to assume laziness or selfishness.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#179

Post by TeMPOraL »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #177
aaronchall wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"And that girl, she will have one hell of a story to tell to her future friends." - No, she would be too embarrassed to mention it. "They ran a train twice a day just for me, I was the only rider, it was my personal limo-train." "Random acts of kindness like that are happening every day around us." - It's not a random act of kindness, it's an example of the agency cost of bureaucracies who are more focused on image t…

Confused: wasn't it just keeping a stop on the schedule, and not actually running a line for one person? Total cost would then be in time spent stopping/restarting.

It's 'aaronchall that is confused. They were supposed to decommission a particular station on the train route, but they decided to wait a few years for that lone girl to finish her school. They reduced the amount of times the train stops at that station to twice a day, and adjusted them to the girl's schedule. The line itself is working normally, carrying many passengers between other stations. The issue was only with a single stop on the train's route.

So, as you say, the total cost (or rather, the amount they didn't save by decommissioning the station earlier) is just the train stopping and starting twice a day + whatever maintenance costs are required to keep the station in proper shape.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#180

Post by A_COMPUTER »

evmar wrote: post #57
hkmurakami wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping each other out (but the trade off is that everyone sticks their nose in your business). Japan railways itself split into several separate companies upon privatization. This would never happen in Tokyo. As much as we think of the country as being monolithic (i…

I was in Tokyo (Shibuya) meeting a friend and asked in Japanese a random kid (maybe 17) to help me find the Hachiko statue. He got really excited, ditched his friends, and escorted me all the way there. Similar story once when getting a train from Tokyo out to somewhere more remote -- the lady in the ticket booth said the train was coming soon, took me by the hand, and ran in her high heels to guide me to the proper…

This story reminds me of many interactions I had with Japanese as a lost and confused foreigner in Japanese cities big and small.
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