Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by Mendenhall » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:09 AM UTC

hkmurakami wrote: post #48

TeMPOraL wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the gray reality strikes again :). I understand what you're saying and I agree. I am definitely not going to define the entire country by this single act. And you're right - I think that keeping the station open for this girl was only possible because it was a rural area and not a large city. Villages generally tend to be more laid-back, there is a lot more of space to introduce little inefficiencies without caus…

Upon reflection, I want to apologize for the overly pessimistic and harsh tone I chose to use. Japan is almost always presented to the West from a unbalanced, exaggerated perspective (which has irked me in the past), and upon reading your post, gleaming with optimism, I instinctively reacted by adopting an exaggeratedly grave perspective to attempt to balance it out -- which in retrospect was simply uncalled for. Tha…

I really likes this post for a few reasons. Having retrospect alone is great and then just posting to express it is even better. So thanks for posting your thoughts, I very much appreciate it. It makes me question my own words and how I express them. May you have a wonderful year!

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

#62

Post by mrob » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:11 AM UTC

hngiszmo wrote: post #30

Heart-warming story but too much praise for the government for my taste. What are the opportunity costs of not shutting down this platform years ago? And of getting the train delayed by 40s twice a day for who knows how many passengers plus some minor costs like acceleration, meetings to change the schedule etc. Considering all this it would almost certainly be cheaper to provide her with a taxi at the train cost, ma…

Social equality has value. Other people might be resentful if she were given cash or a taxi. Keeping the station open is a strong signal of support for treating people equally. People who approve of this will have an improved opinion of Japan Railways, and that goodwill has value too.

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

#63

Post by TeMPOraL » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:12 AM UTC

hkmurakami wrote: post #48

TeMPOraL wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the gray reality strikes again :). I understand what you're saying and I agree. I am definitely not going to define the entire country by this single act. And you're right - I think that keeping the station open for this girl was only possible because it was a rural area and not a large city. Villages generally tend to be more laid-back, there is a lot more of space to introduce little inefficiencies without caus…

Upon reflection, I want to apologize for the overly pessimistic and harsh tone I chose to use. Japan is almost always presented to the West from a unbalanced, exaggerated perspective (which has irked me in the past), and upon reading your post, gleaming with optimism, I instinctively reacted by adopting an exaggeratedly grave perspective to attempt to balance it out -- which in retrospect was simply uncalled for. Tha…

> Upon reflection, I want to apologize for the overly pessimistic and harsh tone I chose to use.

No worries. Your points were fair and your tone wasn't harsh.

> Thanks for your optimism and hope for the good in all of us. I could use some of that too.

I try. And it's hard, too. But I think we need to do it, we need to learn to refocus on positive things, because our own attitudes on individual and social level form a feedback loop that drive our outlook.

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

#64

Post by verroq » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:12 AM UTC

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…

It is great irony that it is posted on CCTV's Facebook page. Given that 99% of their audience can't access Facebook.

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

#65

Post by canthonytucci » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:19 AM UTC

c3534l wrote: post #14

Wouldn't it be both cheaper, and friendlier to the environment to hire a person chauffeur for her? This is outrageously inefficient. Public transport only becomes worth it when it achieves relatively high ridership.

I had a very similar thought.

I'm surprised how many people are calling this "beautiful" and getting all misty eyed, this feels like an inelegant solution.

I would love to be wrong and hear that someone did the math and found that stopping the train wasn't any more wasteful than just sending this girl a taxi or something, but I have some doubts.

I am unfamiliar with trains, but seeing how cars are tuning themselves off at stop lights now to conserve energy and avoid pollution it really sounds very wasteful stop a whole train for one person. I have to assume that it requires a lot of energy to slow and accelerate a train weighing in at least the tens and likely the hundreds of tons.

It's a sweet idea, but it really does feel misguided to me.

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

#66

Post by hkmurakami » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:22 AM UTC

jobu wrote: post #53

hkmurakami wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, the population of Japan is going down and the population of the Greater Tokyo area is going up. Once youth hits college or working age, they disproportionately head for the capitol. But then there's a small counter current where younger (say, 30's) are moving back to their original prefectures as they realize that they might be able to afford a better QoL making less money but also paying much les…

With the country’s record-low birthrate, aging population, and the threat of losing a third of its population by 2060, Japan faces a number of crises... It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few decades. Many European countries have similar problems with low fertility rates, but Japan has the additional disadvantage of being extremely xenophobic. While other countries may be able to bolster the…

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 productive immigrants in order to prevent a population pyramid based collapse of their economies?

[1] http://www.indexmundi.com/graphs/population-pyramids/china-p...

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

#67

Post by baldajan » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:22 AM UTC

This story, like many, brings warm feelings to me. I lived in Japan for 5 mo during a student exchange (Kyoto) and I can say, that even though there was at least 3-4 different train lines operated by different companies in Kyoto alone, it was still a joy to use (even though I did complain at why so many train cos on the region from time to time).

It's also a nice change of tone of the eminent doom of Japan written by so many. Like so many countries, Japan has its faults, but it also has a very bright side.

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

#68

Post by mback00 » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:34 AM UTC

Political connections - nufsed.

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

#69

Post by canthonytucci » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:34 AM UTC

hkmurakami wrote: post #4

CydeWeys wrote: post #2

Well it's not that much different from a school bus that only picks up a single student at a particular bus stop, right?

That's a really good analogy. No one's manning the station and the structure already exists so the marginal cost is pretty low.

Monetary cost, sure. What about the cost on the environment to slow the train down and bring it back up to speed?

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

#70

Post by toomanybeersies » Sat, Jan 09, 2016, 6:35 AM UTC

c3534l wrote: post #14

Wouldn't it be both cheaper, and friendlier to the environment to hire a person chauffeur for her? This is outrageously inefficient. Public transport only becomes worth it when it achieves relatively high ridership.

There is a little used passenger train service here in NZ from Hamilton to Auckland, which is about ~150 km or so. It runs twice a day (Hamilton to Auckland in the morning, and back in the evening).

I remember reading a while ago that someone crunched the numbers, and they figured that it would've actually been cheaper to fly everyone up each day in a helicopter or two than it cost to run the train.