JR Freight- Hokkaido Potato/Onion freights to be reduced

[bikkuri bahn]

Starting in the 2010 season(Aug 2010-April 2011), the seasonal freight trains that run from the Kitami area to Sapporo, hauling onions and potatoes harvested in eastern Hokkaido, will be reduced from the current 3 round trips a day to 2 a day, JR Freight (Tokyo) announced.  The service currently loses approx. 1 billion yen (10 million USD) mainly due to the imbalance of traffic- heavy loads of produce outbound, but inbound trips are much smaller loads of used batteries destined for disposal/reprocessing.  Also high operational costs are cited due to the grades on the Sekihoku Line as well as the need to reverse at stub end Engaru Station, necessitating locomotives on both ends of the train.  Finally, the DD51 locomotives used on this train are getting old, as well as the flatcars and containers used for this service.  It is estimated it will cost 3 billion yen (30 million USD) to replace this equipment.  Kitami city officials have appealed to JR Freight as well the Hokkaido Prefectural Govt. to maintain this service, but as of now JR Freight is keeping mum about whether the trains will run in the following 2011 season- the possibility remains that they will be reduced further, or even eliminated.

 

*(summarized from the 4/28 edition of the Hokkaido Shinbun, no online article currently available)

[stevenh]

Sounds like the grain season in Australia... Recently we've been coming back from drought and the crops are booming, but of course, our major freight player Pacific National had reduced grain trains to next-to-nothing and then scurried around to get the services going again.

 

The government has now provided 3rd parties with locomotives + rakes of freight cars to get the stuff moving, all on a 'lease' agreement.

Unfortunately, recently Victoria has suffered a locust invasion and so next seasons crops are looking down again.

 

Seems vegetables around the world are crying out for love.

 

Meanwhile, it's great to get an inside view into the workings of freight in Hokkaido. I thought each branch of JR had their own freight department? I take it that's not true and JRE run Hokkaido too?

[bikkuri bahn]

Yes, JR Freight is nationwide, the other JR Group Companies are passenger rail companies only (though they may have non-rail revenue producing subsidiaries).

[Mudkip Orange]

Why can't they just, oh, I dunno, jack up the prices?

 

Seriously, even a 2x increase in rail fares is probably still cheaper than trucking it out in a bunch of cab-over FUSOs.

[Nick_Burman]

The article shows an interesting detail, of how a load which pre-1984 would have moved by boxcar now moves by container. Another seldom noticed detail about container traffic in Japan is that container cars don't necessarily move only between container terminals (as it is in the US and Europe), but also can move between a customer's siding and a container terminal (or v.v.), provided the flow is large enough to justify it. One example is the Gakunan Railway, where containers are "stuffed" at the paper mill and then taken to be interchanged with JRF at Yoshiwara. JRF then collects the container cars (together with the empty tanks and loaded WaMu cars) and takes them to a terminal. There the containers might be separated to be reloaded onto other trains. From a logistics point of view this system is quite intelligent.

 

Cheers NB

[Nick_Burman]

Looking at the map I noticed something...if Engaru and the grades on the Sekihoku line hamper the service, why not route it the long way round, via Abashiri and Kushiro? Or is this route just as bad?

 

Cheers NB

[bikkuri bahn]

Another seldom noticed detail about container traffic in Japan is that container cars don't necessarily move only between container terminals (as it is in the US and Europe), but also can move between a customer's siding and a container terminal (or v.v.), provided the flow is large enough to justify it.

 

Yes, I think one reason Japanese containers were built to a compact size was to enable door to door delivery on smaller trucks.  In fact, I have seen JRF containers being used as moving containers for people being relocated by their companies.

 

Looking at the map I noticed something...if Engaru and the grades on the Sekihoku line hamper the service, why not route it the long way round, via Abashiri and Kushiro? Or is this route just as bad?

 

I think the cost savings would be minimal or non-existent on such a circuitous route, and the distances are substantially more, including a mountain crossing on the Sekisho Line.  Interestingly, the Abashiri/Kitami to Sapporo route has always been problematic.  Before the Sekihoku Line was opened, trains would get to the Kitami area on the JNR Chihoku Line via Ikeda.  The Chihoku Line was later turned over to the third sector Chihoku Kogen Railway, which was abandoned a few years ago.