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Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

theguardian.com

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Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#91

Post by postalrat »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74
maxglute wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and they were still packed. Sometimes I wonder if society will figure out a way to stagger business hours and holidays... somehow... to decongest rush hour. Something like X areacode business hours have to +/- 1 hour every other month.

Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.

If work from home is as productive as in the office it will grow. If now it will shrink.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#93

Post by nxobject »

Avicebron wrote: post #26
bobthepanda wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JNR failed mostly because it was struggling from high construction debts of Shinkansen and urban rail projects. One important part of the privatization was that the government took on this debt load to unshackle the newly private companies. Also this hasn’t happened evenly. Of the seven private JRs, one (Kyushu) is treading water and three are losing money (Hokkaido, Shikoku and Freight)

> One important part of the privatization was that the government took on this debt load to unshackle the newly private companies. Which certainly in some accounting systems be seen as a bailout or form of government support for these newly privatized companies, which the government probably wouldn't do if they didn't see these rail lines as a form of public good (or at least necessity). I think another user mentione…

Not a comment, but a request for clarification: I'm losing the thread of the conversation here: is the choice between free transit and non-free transit?

(I think that guess is wrong, which is why I'm asking... "free vs non-free" is a useless dichotomy when there are plenty of ways to charge people fares, some more profit-extracting than other, and when I live in a town with a paid system where homeless people surf in the buses all day because it's the only way to get to the few places to use the bathroom...)

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#94

Post by antisthenes »

postalrat wrote: post #91
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.

If work from home is as productive as in the office it will grow. If now it will shrink.

That's not it at all.

Leadership can either set up remote work for failure or for success through top-down policy.

You're also assuming some kind of perfect instantaneous feedback mechanism exists to measure productivity and adjust the remote/office work on the fly. It doesn't and never will.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#95

Post by postalrat »

antisthenes wrote: post #94
postalrat wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If work from home is as productive as in the office it will grow. If now it will shrink.

That's not it at all. Leadership can either set up remote work for failure or for success through top-down policy. You're also assuming some kind of perfect instantaneous feedback mechanism exists to measure productivity and adjust the remote/office work on the fly. It doesn't and never will.

Over time trends will be visible and used to make decisions. It's not instantaneous at all.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#96

Post by ayuhito »

mym1990 wrote: post #28

Wholly unrelated but one thing that struck me about the photos here is that almost all the people in them are looking at phones. This was a little crazy to me in the times I have visited, when I would get on the train and there was this eerie silence as almost every person was looking at their phone. No real point to my anecdote, just an observation. Also the stained glass(maybe just acrylic or something) at Mejiro S…

As someone who has to regularly commute one of these lines… doing “nothing” does become very dull after a while.

I think this thread is a little overblown. Some people will do nothing, read a book, listen to music, or nap. But the easiest thing to fall back to is your phone, especially for a monotonous daily commute.

I do at least try to be productive when using the phone, such as practicing my Japanese. But I think it’s totally normal to stare at the ground and listen to music etc.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#97

Post by seanmcdirmid »

postalrat wrote: post #91
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.

If work from home is as productive as in the office it will grow. If now it will shrink.

Ideally yes, practically speaking many human bosses aren’t great at measuring productivity and want to see butts in seats.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#98

Post by seanmcdirmid »

SapporoChris wrote: post #77
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/remote-work-statisti... "As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home", this appears to be data for USA only. Certainly that percentage can be increased, but not all jobs can be worked remotely. It will help congestion but won't eliminate it. Also, fun fact, not all traffic during rush hour is from commuting to work.

A large number of tech workers go in only 3 days a week, which would help congestion if it wasn’t all the same 3 days for everyone.

I spent more money on a house next to schools so I wouldn’t need to be a part of the rush hour commute, except now we have a summer camp to go to in the next town over, well at least it’s summer and school traffic is gone.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#99

Post by soruly »

darknavi wrote: post #2

If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…

> Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes

actually 2 trains every ~2 minutes on the east side of the yamanote loop, it runs in parallel with keihin tohoku line every station from tabata to sinagawa. The platforms are arranged side by side, so if you miss one train, the next train is probably right behind you. it's fun to see trains racing right next to each other. Other than that there are also rapid lines running in parallel that takes you straight to major stations by skipping some smaller ones.

Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures

#100

Post by kjkjadksj »

SapporoChris wrote: post #77
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/remote-work-statisti... "As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home", this appears to be data for USA only. Certainly that percentage can be increased, but not all jobs can be worked remotely. It will help congestion but won't eliminate it. Also, fun fact, not all traffic during rush hour is from commuting to work.

People say “not all jobs” but a great deal of them certainly can be remote. I think we all remember 2020 when hourly workers still had to show up to their job, office workers didn’t and this was sufficient to clear all the roads and even affect local air quality.
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