Why Japan has such good railways • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#191

Post by CharlieDigital » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #166

Freedom2 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes see the US referred to as a "post-rail" society, meaning that it has outgrown the need for rail for the more intimate, personal transportation methods we see today. I submit that, like other HN commenters say, the US doesn't need rail due to this society. How will US citizens help their friends move or do their large (in terms of volume) Costco grocery shopping without large trucks and only using rail?

I’m probably a top 5% train nerd for the U.S. I took trains to work primarily from 2012-2020, in NYC, Philly, Baltimore, and DC. I used to ride Amtrak from Baltimore to DC every morning. I love Tokyo’s train system. I go there every year and I always take the train. But when I went there with my wife and three kids, I took a lot of Ubers! You can’t fit our double stroller with big America bags of toys and snacks on a…

    > We’d have to give our kids independence to take the train themselves, instead of spending every saturday driving them around to 3 different far flung activities.

The shock! The horror!

    > The idea of just accepting whatever brand of hamburger buns they have at the store...

How could a family possibly survive! Imagine having to eat a different brand of hamburger buns! Truly, America is a shining beacon of modernity and convenience where I can get the exact, precise, industrially mass produced hamburger bun.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#192

Post by kjkjadksj » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #5

amazingamazing wrote: post #3

the railways are excellent, but it's funny. I was just in Kyoto and saw flyers seemingly at every single temple opposing the Hokuriku Shinkansen extension. apparently this type of opposition has always existed (I looked at the history of trains in Japan and originally most Japanese did NOT want it at all because they thought it looked really ugly), like nimbys in USA, but such decisions are apparently federalized acc…

I’m not American, so only have an outsider perspective, but I’m not convinced that’s possible in the US to do the same, because the country has a completely different perspective on individual rights. Land ownership seems to be seen as something sacred that cannot be infringed in any way, meaning a small group of people who own some parts of the land can block any development that would benefit the public at large

Eminent domain is designed for this. People are compelled to sell.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#193

Post by ghaff » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

titzer wrote: post #67

dgellow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not American, so only have an outsider perspective, but I’m not convinced that’s possible in the US to do the same, because the country has a completely different perspective on individual rights. Land ownership seems to be seen as something sacred that cannot be infringed in any way, meaning a small group of people who own some parts of the land can block any development that would benefit the public at large

This is mostly true until it's time to build an interstate.

Good luck building a bunch of new interstates today. Opposition was already coming in at the end of the interstate system buildout. Drill down and you'll find various odd connections (or lack thereof) throughout the system that resulted from community opposition.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#194

Post by kjkjadksj » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

xyzelement wrote: post #29

testing22321 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can’t work in the US, because it’s not a society that works together for the collective good, or to raise everyone’s quality of life. It’s a bunch of individuals in a dog eat dog situation who happen to live nearby.

I think this is not a smart read of the situation. The US has built a tremendous amount of rail and other transit (eg NYC subway) back when it was an even more individualistic society than today. In fact they country was clearly able to come together for the public good many times throughout their history. You could consider other causes.

Most all of that old rail was done by private companies seeking to make a profit. Just like Japan. Look at nyc subway building rates after it was publicly owned. Almost zero expansion. Contractions even.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#195

Post by twodave » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

Freedom2 wrote: post #153

CharlieDigital wrote: post #132

> "I think that though we are a railway company, we consider ourselves a city-shaping company. In Europe for instance, railway companies simply connect cities through their terminals. That is a pretty normal way of operating in this industry, whereas what we do is completely different: we create cities and then, as a utility facility, we add the stations and the railways to connect them one with another." I think thi…

I sometimes see the US referred to as a "post-rail" society, meaning that it has outgrown the need for rail for the more intimate, personal transportation methods we see today. I submit that, like other HN commenters say, the US doesn't need rail due to this society. How will US citizens help their friends move or do their large (in terms of volume) Costco grocery shopping without large trucks and only using rail?

Rail for the US has always been more about moving goods than people. For overland long-haul freight it is significantly cheaper than trucking. Rail allows us to ship goods to places where we don’t have ports or river access. A place like Japan can make such good use of rail simply because it is so densely populated.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#196

Post by xyzelement » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

Fricken wrote: post #50

xyzelement wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is not a smart read of the situation. The US has built a tremendous amount of rail and other transit (eg NYC subway) back when it was an even more individualistic society than today. In fact they country was clearly able to come together for the public good many times throughout their history. You could consider other causes.

Francis Fukuyama is now arguing that the US in now a substantiantively lower trust society than it was in 1995 when he published his second book "Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity." >In it I argued that trust is among the most precious of social qualities, because it is the basis for human cooperation. In the economy, trust is like a lubricant that facilitates the workings of firms, transaction…

I didn't realize the link but I agree with the decline in trust.

One obvious axis is that in 1995 (I came to the US right around then) the country had a high church attendance rate, racial homogeneity, % of people who are parents, and % of people who were born here.

In the 30 years that passed all of these numbers had become significantly lower and obviously each factor on its own contributed to a decline in societal trust.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#197

Post by magnio » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 5:07 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #166

Freedom2 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes see the US referred to as a "post-rail" society, meaning that it has outgrown the need for rail for the more intimate, personal transportation methods we see today. I submit that, like other HN commenters say, the US doesn't need rail due to this society. How will US citizens help their friends move or do their large (in terms of volume) Costco grocery shopping without large trucks and only using rail?

I’m probably a top 5% train nerd for the U.S. I took trains to work primarily from 2012-2020, in NYC, Philly, Baltimore, and DC. I used to ride Amtrak from Baltimore to DC every morning. I love Tokyo’s train system. I go there every year and I always take the train. But when I went there with my wife and three kids, I took a lot of Ubers! You can’t fit our double stroller with big America bags of toys and snacks on a…

Damn, we get it, USA is a dystopia. No need to keep scaring us with those stories.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#198

Post by ghaff » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 5:07 PM UTC

the__alchemist wrote: post #88

delecti wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WRT the west coast, mostly. It's about as long as Japan, but only about half the population. It's certainly populated enough that it's not justifiable that rail travel is so slow. Less so for the east coast though. From roughly DC to Boston is decently connected with rail, but is not nearly as direct of a corridor as Japan.

The east coast ("Amtrak") rail blows. Expensive, and slow.

Really? Take it all the time going to NYC even though it's not really very convenient for me to get to a northern station. Amtrak is priced to make it a good idea to book tickets in advance. Shinkansen isn't cheap either, especially if you don't have a pass--not sure of current details.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#199

Post by rayiner » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

CharlieDigital wrote: post #191

rayiner wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m probably a top 5% train nerd for the U.S. I took trains to work primarily from 2012-2020, in NYC, Philly, Baltimore, and DC. I used to ride Amtrak from Baltimore to DC every morning. I love Tokyo’s train system. I go there every year and I always take the train. But when I went there with my wife and three kids, I took a lot of Ubers! You can’t fit our double stroller with big America bags of toys and snacks on a…

> We’d have to give our kids independence to take the train themselves, instead of spending every saturday driving them around to 3 different far flung activities. The shock! The horror! > The idea of just accepting whatever brand of hamburger buns they have at the store... How could a family possibly survive! Imagine having to eat a different brand of hamburger buns ! Truly, America is a shining beacon of modernity…

You’re preaching to the choir. I loved working at a company with a company cafeteria because I hated going out into midtown manhattan every day to choose lunch. But convincing americans that all their “choice” is illusory isn’t a matter of transit policy, it’s something much harder.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#200

Post by thaumasiotes » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

vantassell wrote: post #174

> Japan is one of the only countries to have privatized parking. In Europe and North America, vast quantities of parking space is socialized: municipalities own the streets and allow people to park on them at low or zero cost. Initially with the intention of encouraging the provision of more parking spaces, Japan made it illegal to park on public roads or pavements without special permission. Before someone buys a ca…

> Before someone buys a car, they must prove that they have a reserved night-time space on private land, either owned or leased.

> This is got to be a huge factor.

If the USA implemented that exact rule, it would change almost nothing. People already need nighttime parking for non-legal reasons.