Editorial
Grand plan for transportation system needed before making all expressways free
The presidents of seven companies belonging to the Japan Railways (JR) group have jointly urged Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Seiji Maehara to reconsider the government's plan to make expressway tolls free. They claim that the measure would cause their earnings to decline by a total of over 75 billion yen a year.
Of these companies, Hokkaido Railway Co. (JR Hokkaido), Shikoku Railway Co. (JR Shikoku) and Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) would run into the red if the government goes ahead with the plan. Hardest hit will be JR Shikoku.
When the state-run Japanese National Railways (JNR) was split into JR companies in April 1987, a 200-billion-yen fund was set up to make up for the anticipated deficit of JR Shikoku, all of whose lines were in the red.
The total extension of expressways on Shikoku Island, which was only 11 kilometers when JR Shikoku was inaugurated, had increased to more than 450 kilometers by April this year. There is particularly keen competition between JR Shikoku lines and expressways because expressways have been built along railway lines due to the island's geographical restrictions.
JR Hokkaido and JR Kyushu have lucrative urban railway networks in Sapporo and Fukuoka, respectively. Moreover, these two companies intend to rely heavily on Shinkansen lines for their income; JR Kyushu has partially opened its Kyushu Shinkansen Line and JR Hokkaido has begun to construct part of its Hokkaido Shinkansen Line. However, JR Shikoku has no such profitable lines at all.
JR Shikoku's annual earnings from railway fares, which peaked at 37 billion yen, have declined to 25 billion yen. Investment profit from the 200 billion yen deficit-covering fund, which initially stood at about 15 billion yen a year, has more than halved to about 7 billion yen because of low interest rates.
The company has managed to avoid running into the red by desperately slashing its workforce and expenses. It is viewed as extremely difficult for the company to make up for the steep decline in its annual earnings as a result of making expressway tolls free, which is estimated at 4.4 billion yen annually.
Railways are now highly valued by people in the world as means of transportation that emits less greenhouse gases than cars and aircraft, and are indispensable for elderly people and schoolchildren who cannot drive cars.
Making tolls free requires the use of taxpayers' money to cover maintenance costs of expressways. To compete with toll-free expressways, some experts have pointed to the need to use public funds to maintain railway tracks and signaling systems to allow railway operators to concentrate on operating trains.
The administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said it will consider the impact of free expressway tolls on other means of transportation. However, the current measure to lower expressway tolls to 1,000 yen on weekends has already adversely affected other means of transportation, forcing some ferry operators to close their businesses.
The government is urged to quickly show how to solve problems caused by the reckless construction of expressways, Shinkansen lines and airports for many years without working out a grand design for the entire transportation system.
Attention should be focused on the future of JR Shikoku, which should be regarded as a litmus test for making expressway tolls free.
(Mainichi Japan) November 4, 2009