saya suka tulisan ini: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/10/why-tokyos-privately-owned-rail-systems-work-so-well/389/
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There are megacities, and then there's Tokyo. With a metro-wide
population of 35 million, it's the undisputed king of megacities,
comfortably beating even the closest competitors in mainland Asia and
the Americas. For Americans, the term "megacity" conjures up images of
crowded slums in cities like Mumbai or São Paulo, with bare bones
infrastructure and roads made impassible by the sheer mass of traffic.
But in Tokyo, people move quite efficiently. Tallying up exactly how
many people ride trains in the greater Tokyo region is difficult due to
the proliferation of independent railways, but it's safe to say that the
number rivals the total population of many mid-sized megacities.
Though crowded during rush hour, the rail networks of Japan's three
largest metropolitan areas – Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka – are perhaps the
most efficient in the world. The country's flagship high-speed line, the
Tokaido Shinkansen, has operated for almost half a century without a
single derailment or collision, and in 2007, its average departure delay
was a mere 18 seconds along its 320-mile route. But high-speed rail
only scratches the surface. The real marvel lies in the mesmerizing
tangle of workaday metro and commuter lines, which no Osakan or Tokyoite
would think of trying to cram all onto one map (here's what happens if you try).
Beyond the astonishing size and quality of the networks, Japan's three
major metropolitan areas, sometimes called the Tokaido megalopolis
after its Edo-era road,
are also home to a vibrant free market in transportation. Singapore and
Hong Kong also have private companies, but competition is weak compared
to Japan's dizzying array of independent firms. Japan has by no means a
completely free transportation market – even the private companies
receive low-interest construction loans and are subject to price
controls and rolling stock protectionism – but at the moment, it's the
closest thing this planet has.
Japan followed a similar path as the West before World War II, but
afterwards diverged. As in the West, railroading started out very
laissez-faire in the 19th century, but came under state control in the
beginning of the 20th. But after World War II, while nearly all railways
and intracity buses in Europe and North America were nationalized,
Japan stayed its pre-war course, with the railway industry retaining its
sizable minority of private firms.
The country also maintained a much more urban character, a necessary
complement to a healthy mass transit network. Sotaro Yukawa, a research
associate at the University of Shiga Precture, notes that Japanese urban
planners fed on the same anti-urban ideas as the West, but the
devastation of the war hindered their ability to carry out their plans.
Rail lost ground to buses and later cars in all parts of Japan, but not
to the extent of the United States, or even Europe. And even today, in
regional areas of Japan where fewer than one in ten use transit,
residential neighborhoods are almost always walkable.
As the post-war years marched on, the private railways proved to be
more efficient than those run by the state, which were hemorrhaging
cash. It was understandable that lines outside the big cities might need
subsidies, but there was no excuse for operating losses in the dense
Tokaido megalopolis. So in 1987, the government privatized the Japanese
National Railways (JNR), which operated every type of transit except
trams and inner-city metros. JR East, JR Central, and JR West, the three
spin-offs operating around Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka,
respectively, emerged healthy and profitable. They were able to pay back
their construction debt and make capital improvements to their
networks, reversing the stagnation and decline that JNR had seen over
the previous decade.
Privatization was later applied to Tokyo Metro, the largest subway
network in the city. And according to Tatsuhiko Suga, who has been
active in Japanese railways for decades and now leads Japan's Foundation
for Transport Publications, the city's other metro network, Toei, may
also be thrown into the mix by the time the process is complete.
(Privatization in Japan has been nothing if not slow, a strategy which
seems to have paid off.) All railways now strive to emulate the private
firms, but metro systems outside of Tokyo have not attempted
privatization.
While JNR privatization was a success in the three large metropolitan
regions, and especially Tokyo, the smaller cities and regional areas are
another story. When JNR was broken up in 1987, the networks outside of
Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka were not fully privatized, and the longer lines are
still owned by the national government in the form of smaller "JR"
companies. Shorter lines, called "third-sector" railways, have been
devolved to local governments and private investors. Profit-making
private firms exist outside of the three metropolitan areas just as
there are third-sector railways within, but they are the exception to
the norm. Many third-sector railways outside of the Tokaido megalopolis
are now in peril as their stabilization funds dwindle and further
subsidies become unsustainable.
In this way, the railroad finances reveal a deeper Japanese
demographic trend: the countryside and many regional cities are emptying
out. As are, for that matter, Osaka and Nagoya – something which is
perhaps reflected in the fact that their metro systems are not
considered to have profit-making potential. But unlike in America,
barebones mass transit networks are expected public services, even in
rural Japan, with its aging population. Access will never disappear
completely, but fewer subsidies will force some regional lines to
convert to bus operation, and others will shut down entirely.
The country's centralization in the Tokaido megalopolis, and more
recently in the Tokyo metropolis, has been resisted for decades, but to
no avail. Public works projects and subsidies, from bridges to nuclear power plants to
rice subsidies, were lavished on Japan's rural areas in boom times, but
these supports are becoming unsustainable. The Tohoku earthquake and
tsunami and the reversal of Japanese nuclear policy after the Fukushima
meltdowns are the latest blow, but Tohoku and regions like it were in
decline even before the March disasters. At this point, it seems that
the best that Japan's small towns and villages can hope for is that the
elderly who stay behind are looked after.
Privatization was a boon to railways in Japan's dense metropolises,
and especially Tokyo, but it's revealed weaknesses elsewhere. As America
also learned during its post-war urban exodus, declining population and
rising car ownership are a recipe for disaster for private railways,
and the government must step in if service is to be maintained. But for
healthy cities like Tokyo, comprehensive privatization has proven to be a
successful agent of revitalization for moribund public systems. Who
knows – maybe if America's urban renaissance advances far enough, the
United States will one day return its rails to their free market roots.
Stephen Smith blogs about the politics, economics, and history of urbanism for MarketUrbanism.com. He's also written for Reason and National Review.
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