Delivering Tobu 50090

[bill937ca]

 

Factory, EF66 and seaside sequences.

[miyakoji]

Great vid. I like the footage at Okayama around 7'22".

 

Does anyone know how the railways decide who is going to build rolling stock?  Being Japan, I suspect there's a little more to it than simple bidding, but I don't see any info on Tobu being part of the Hitachi keiretsu (if there is one).  The Japanese Wikipedia page on Tobu lists the manufacturers of their rolling stock, they seem to buy from all over.  It sure is a long ride from Yamaguchi-ken for these 50090 cars, that's gotta cost something.

[bill937ca]

Some railways have long running relationships with specific builders.  I believe Keihin Electric Express Railway splits each order between Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Nippon Sharyo.  There may be a link between Kinki Sharyo and the Kinki Nippon Railway (Kintetsu).  Meitetsu long purchased most of its equipment from Nippon Sharyo.  All Tokyu equipment comes from the Tokyu Car Corporation, of course!! 

 

Shinkansen orders are split between several builders probably at the direction of the Ministry of Land,  Infrastructure, Transport and  Tourism.  Japan is one of the world's most centrally controlled economies.  So much so that economic text books on Japan have replaced economic texts on the Soviet Union since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

[marknewton]

Yes Bill, Kinki Sharyo is part of the Kintetsu empire. I don't know when the company became part of the Kintetsu group, as it was originally the Tanaka rolling stock works.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[bikkuri bahn]

Japan is one of the world's most centrally controlled economies.  So much so that economic text books on Japan have replaced economic texts on the Soviet Union since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

I assume you are jesting when making those comments.  Japan is a capitalist democratic nation where small and medium size private businesses (the "mom and pop" firms you often see from your train window-including many model train makers) that are far from the influence of Kasumigaseki bureaucrats- make up most of the economy-something like 70~80% of it I believe.  A true example of a "centrally controlled" economy would be China, or in the case of a capitalist democratic nation, perhaps South Korea, by the fact that giant Samsung Corp. makes up 30~40% of that nation's GDP alone.  As for companies being "guided" or aided by the government, it is done by all countries- the USA with its massive defense industry, not to mention Governmen...err, General Motors (or Chrysler), or France with firms like Alstom in the nuclear power or transport industries, or western Europe in general with Airbus.

 

Anyway, back to the topic of rolling stock makers and their relationship with private railways.  Many railway firms order based simply on the fact that the builders are nearby or on line.  Thus you have Meitetsu ordering from Aichi pref.-based maker (Toyokawa) Nippon Sharyo, or Keihin Kyuko from Tokyu, who have their factory right next to Keikyu tracks at Kanazawa Hakkei, Yokohama.

[westfalen]

An old Lonely Planet guide I have describes Japan as more a nation of shopkeepers than Britain referring to the amount of small businesses.

 

While I was in Japan there was a TV program on one night that showed the delivery of a Keisei Skyliner trainset the logistics involved including the final delivery down some narrow winding streets must cost a fortune.

 

All Queensland Rail's EMU's since the first in 1979 and the majority of locomotives in recent years have come from the same builder to keep jobs and votes in the relatively small country town where the manufacturer is located.

[bill937ca]

Japan is one of the world's most centrally controlled economies.  So much so that economic text books on Japan have replaced economic texts on the Soviet Union since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

I assume you are jesting when making those comments.  

 

A final comment in the Introduction to The Japanese Economy by David Flath published by Oxford University Press:

 

"Courses on the centrally planned economies of the Soviet Bloc were once a regular fixture of the economics curriculum at American colleges and universities...  Courses on the Japanese economy can and should, fill that void in the curriculum."

 

I do not find Japan that restrictive, but apparently some academics view it that way.

[miyakoji]

I assume you are jesting when making those comments.

To be honest I didn't think he was kidding.  You have a good point about the US and its military industry, but Japan seems to have been so much more successful with the MITI/METI.  Anyway...

 

Many railway firms order based simply on the fact that the builders are nearby or on line.  Thus you have Meitetsu ordering from Aichi pref.-based maker (Toyokawa) Nippon Sharyo, or Keihin Kyuko from Tokyu, who have their factory right next to Keikyu tracks at Kanazawa Hakkei, Yokohama.

I can also think of instances like this Tobu rolling stock coming from Yamaguchi-ken, I think some recent JR Hokkaido 735 cars came from there too (what a haul), and the new Keisei Skyliners were from Nippon Sharyo, and pulled to Keisei property on JR track on temporary 3'6" trucks.  I think Nankai always buys from TokyuI asked my original question above just because I figured it must cost a lot to haul new equipment such a long way.  Are some builders really able to undercut others enough to offset that, or are these 'relationships' worth that much?  I guess the answer is yes.

[Mudkip Orange]

Meanwhile here in Houston we tried to bring our trains all the way over from Spain, but the feds pulled a major party foul and harshed our buzz.

 

Will the feds force us to buy more Avantos instead? Who knows. But I'd definitely contest the idea that railcar procurement in Japan is inherently more political than it is here.