School Train

[Nick_Burman]

Hi all,

 

Riding the train to school in Japan is a daily fact for schoolchildren right from a very tender age. Given the extent and scope of the Japanese rail system most schoochildren ride ordinary trains, however I would like to know if any rail operator (JNR or private) ever ran a dedicated school train?

 

 

Cheers NB

[Kabutoni]

Railway companies in Japan run/ran dedicated school trains in the sense of hired trains. Wikipedia Article. I don't know about daily runs though, but I presume commuter runs and extra morning/mid-day trains are ran for just that purpose.

[bikkuri bahn]

JNR once had a fleet of dedicated school trip trains (typically orange and cream in color), which ran on the Tokaido Line, among others.  They ran on a scheduled service between Shinagawa Station and the Kansai area, at least during the peak school trip season.  With the advent of the shinkansen, cheaper air travel and widebody airliners, and schools ranging farther out on their school trips (Okinawa, overseas), these trains were discontinued.  However, nowadays charter trains (rinji ressha) are still used to carry schoolchildren to camp, on school trips, etc.

[Mudkip Orange]

Do all the other trains out on the express tracks have to stop while the school train is parked in a local station? You know, "unlawful to pass when red lights flash" and all that jazz...

[gmat]

Posted earlier:

 

183 used for school trips. Possibly to Nikko. This one was returning in the afternoon.

 

Sometimes the same train runs as an Out of Service train.

 

 

 

It seems to run in the Fall. Haven't seen it with the school trip sign since after Sept. Saw a chartered 183 run once during this Golden Week at an hour earlier than usual.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[scott]

[quote author=gmat link=topic=4870.msg50531#msg50531 date=

183 used for school trips. Possibly to Nikko.

 

That looks like so much more fun than a school bus or tour bus.

[Nick_Burman]

JNR once had a fleet of dedicated school trip trains (typically orange and cream in color), which ran on the Tokaido Line, among others.  They ran on a scheduled service between Shinagawa Station and the Kansai area, at least during the peak school trip season.  With the advent of the shinkansen, cheaper air travel and widebody airliners, and schools ranging farther out on their school trips (Okinawa, overseas), these trains were discontinued.  However, nowadays charter trains (rinji ressha) are still used to carry schoolchildren to camp, on school trips, etc.

 

Thanks everybody for the answers, however I was thinking more in the line of trains contracted by school districts/schools which would run to collect/deliver schoolkids at the nearest stop to their homes and take them to/from the nearest stop to the school. Several private railways in Germany do that, but I bet that in Japan kids just ride the regular trains...

 

Cheers NB

[bikkuri bahn]

In Japan, the public school districts are set up so that primary and junior high schools are located close enough to the majority of residences that students can walk or ride a bicycle to school.  High school students, however, often take regular buses and trains to school.  It is only with private schools that serve a larger student catchment area that the school will charter buses (not trains) to ferry students, though in some more remote or depopulated areas even public schools may do this.