JR Shikoku failed to repair 50 railway bridges found defective three years ago

[cteno4]

looks like maintenance is getting the magnifying glass now. good the usual cycle of slacking off for profits until something happens to you or you get the microscope from another event...

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/28/national/jr-shikoku-failed-to-repair-50-railway-bridges-found-defective-three-years-ago/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jr-shikoku-failed-to-repair-50-railway-bridges-found-defective-three-years-ago#.UkcOb-BAd9k

[Densha]

"Some of the defects date back 23 years."

Lol. So actually some defects date from the JNR era?? :P

[Sacto1985]

I personally think the problem with JR Hokkaido and JR Shikoku is that they think having less traffic on many of their rail lines, they could defer maintenance on rail lines and bridges. What do they think they are, post 1980 Southern Pacific? 

 

I do know that JR West has been way more diligent in line maintenance. They've been doing a lot of repairs lately on the San'in Main Line west of Izumoshi Station and (i believe) the Yamaguchi Line after the recent torrential rains to get them back into service.

[bronzeonion]

It's a shame that JR's name becomes tarnished by the bad efforts of Hokkaido and Shikoku whilst JR East and West are truly excellent world class railway companies.

[westfalen]

Is it possible that at the creation of JR all the best people with JNR were in Tokyo or Osaka and JR East and West inherited them while the rest had to make do and hire new people who didn't have experience running and maintaining a railway, and it's only just now starting to catch up with them, and of course once you don't have the resources of JNR to call on you have to start trying to make ends meet somehow as well.  The same thing has happened elsewhere but maybe in Japan the railways were in such good shape to start with that it's taken longer to show up.

[bikkuri bahn]

Much of the problem is labor-related.  With the breakup of JNR, there was much less hiring done by the "island" JR companies, who naturally had less funding to pay for personnel.  With the mass retirement of the old hand ex-JNR employees the past several years (baby-boomers), there is a deficit of experienced employees in their 40's who can show the younger staff the ropes, and keep an eye on things. Of course, rich railways like JR East and JR Tokai have no problems with hiring, having the funds, as well as the cachet (these railways tend to be among the most desirable companies to work for among recent college grads).  JR West is especially careful about safety, due to the Fukuchiyama crash.  You go to any JR West station, and you will see posters everywhere on the safety steps and improvements they are doing- quite informative, if you have the time to read them.

[Sacto1985]

Interestingly, JR Kyushu has done well lately, mostly because of the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen, the building of the Nagasaki Shinkansen line, and the fact JR Kyushu was very diligent to repair the rail lines near Mt. Aso damaged by the torrential rains in 2012 (which was important because a number of popular tourist trains used those lines).

[bikkuri bahn]

Kyushu also has the luxury of high population density (land area the size of Switzerland with nearly double the population), and large cities located at various points on the island, something that Hokkaido and Shikoku lack.

[KenS]

Money is also a problem, beyond the labor aspect.  JR West has the Tokaido Shinkansen, which appears to be a real earner for them (mostly because the government ended up owning its construction debt, I believe) and JR East has the Kanto plain and all its commuter traffic. The other JRs lost the big government subsidies of the JNR era, and didn't have anything to replace them with.

 

You need money to fix things. Deferred maintenance, while never a good idea long-term, is one of those attractive "make it someone else's problem later" fixes that companies short on cash always wind up inflicting on themselves.

[Sacto1985]

Kyushu also has the luxury of high population density (land area the size of Switzerland with nearly double the population), and large cities located at various points on the island, something that Hokkaido and Shikoku lack.

 

True. Especially along the Kyushu Shinkansen line from Hakata (Fukuoka) to Kagoshima via Kumamoto, the population density is high enough to support plentiful Shinkansen traffic. And JR Kyushu have masterfully marketed many tourist trains on the island, including the new Seven Stars in Kyushu luxury train service (sold out till June 2014!). And JR Kyushu cashed in big-time with the rebuilding of Hakata Station with its big shopping complex right next to the station.

[keitaro]

to be fair though they are of the poorer jr part.

 

It`s easy to say JR east etc have world class blah blah blah and shikoku/hokkaido are tarnishing their rep ....

 

but i the end of the day they have only a fraction of the passengers that those larger ones do.

 

yet have to maintain lines that are just as long as any regular jr east/west line with a fraction of the passengers traveling.

 

I also believe i read that the revenue has dropped a fair bit. i think in 2008 it was about 3 billion yen. but it`s dropped much from that

 

compared to jr east`s 2003, Operating income increased 17.5% to ¥270.0 billion. so yeah you can kind of see why jr Shikoku and Hokkaido would be lacking in many areas.

 

Just think of the money hokkaido would have to spend in winter keeping the lines open as much as possible...

 

 

in fact some people may find this interesting.

 

its a little old now but i don`t think the decline has changed much.

http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr49/pdf/f38_Shi.pdf

 

there are a lot of closed ports and businesses in Shikoku too, the whole area is hit pretty hard by the never ending recession.