Sapporo Subway

[Mudkip Orange]

It's kinda like an AGT, but it's also kind of like a monorail. It's elevated above ground, and yet it's in a tunnel.

 

It's the genre-defying Sapporo Municipal Subway.

 

[cteno4]

rubber tire system like Montreal (and others), but uses bumpers on the center rail instead of two outside rails, more like the airport agt systems do.

 

im guessing the covered elevated section is to keep snow off as i expect a tire system would be much more prone to problems with just a little snow than a traditional rail system.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

this got me curious what AGT/PTS systems do that use rubber wheels on concrete and metal pathways when there is snow!

 

looks like they heat the roadways with embedded heating pipes to keep them clear and ice free! seems like it could take a lot of energy to do this on a longer system so i wonder if the aboveground tunnel was a simpler way of dealing with this and keeping noise in a crowded area to a minimum?

 

jeff

[to2leo]

I hear a big money sucking sound.

 

Being where it is, Sapporo should have never used this technology of rubber tires, heated roads and protective tunnels in a snowy climate.

 

I think the technology chosen is 99.99% politics.

[bikkuri bahn]

I hear a big money sucking sound.

 

Being where it is, Sapporo should have never used this technology of rubber tires, heated roads and protective tunnels in a snowy climate.

 

I think the technology chosen is 99.99% politics.

 

You may be right (frankly I don't know the actual reason).  It must be noted the original line (Namboku [North-South] Line) depicted here was built for the Winter Olympics held in 1972, so city officials may have been looking for a "gee whiz" appeal, something an "old fashioned" steel wheel on rail system would not have.  Remember, in the early seventies, many Hokkaido trains were still steam hauled, and people, when taking a train, said they were taking the kisha ,"loco-hauled train", rather than the more common expression densha, "electric (EMU) train" used in other parts of Japan. This usage still lingers today, believe it or not.

 

Though I use these trains every day, I don't particularly like them, they make an awful screeching sound on starting due to the rubber tyre on steel pathway contact.  Also, the incompatible, proprietary technology prevents any kind of run-through operation on, say JR lines serving outer suburbs, not to mention the lack of all-weather, self-cleaning track.

[Guest ___]

It is a little different than most guided busway systems in that there are actually two guide rails that the tired cars follow.

[Mudkip Orange]

This usage still lingers today, believe it or not.

Is that really too far-fetched though? Hokkaido isn't really electrified outside of the Sapporo commuter lines; the southern halves of the Hakodate and Muroran lines are non-electric, and the entire Nemuro line and all associated connecting lines are likewise diesel.

[bikkuri bahn]

Other than the sleeper trains(4), there are no loco hauled passenger trains left, but the usage persists.  Recently a young child from Sapporo visiting Yokohama embarrassed her mother when shouting "where does this kisha go?", referring to a K-T line E233 series they were riding on.

[Mudkip Orange]

So what's the term for a DMU like Super Ozora? My little pocket guide distinctly lists densha as electric train, and Google translates it the same way.

[Guest ___]

Densha can refer to any train, electric or diesel according to to my friend Yumiko (who I'm in skype with at the moment).

[bikkuri bahn]

Yes, densha has become a generic term for train, probably because electric trains are the most common trains by far for the bulk of the Japanese population (i.e. those living in the Kanto and Kansai regions).  However, up here in Hokkaido, where there are no private railways, people refer to the train as "going by JR", or "kisha" if you want to be pigeonholed as hopelessly provincial.

 

* a good neutral term for "train" that won't pin you as a country bumpkin or earn looks of consternation from nit picking railfans would be "ressha", by the way...