Hokkaido Railway Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hokkaidō ryokaku tetsudō KK
engl. Hokkaido Railway Co.

logo
legal form Kabushiki-gaisha (joint stock company)
founding April 1, 1987
Seat Sapporo , Hokkaidō
Number of employees 6,797 (2018)
Branch traffic
Website jrhokkaido.co.jp

The Hokkaido Railway Company ( Japanese 北海道 旅客 鉄 道 株式会社 , Hokkaidō ryokaku tetsudō kabushiki-gaisha ) is one of the seven successors to the Japanese state railway, which was privatized in 1987 . Its short name is JR Hokkaido (Japanese JR 北海道 , Jeiāru Hokkaidō ). It operates the former state network on the island of Hokkaidō in the north . The company's headquarters are in Sapporo , with branches in Asahikawa , Hakodate and Kushiro .

JR Hokkaido is 100% owned by the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT), one in 2003 by the Japanese parliament created Independent Administrative Institution under the supervision of MLIT .

Overview

On April 1, 2019, JR Hokkaido operated a route network with a length of 2535.9 km. This includes:

408 train stations and stops are served, including:

  • 102 staffed
  • 306 unoccupied

The company has 6,787 employees. It has 401 electric multiple units, 463 diesel multiple units, 23 diesel locomotives, 20 Shinkansen trains and two steam locomotives for nostalgic journeys.

Route network

Route network

Shinkansen

Name of the line route length
Hokkaidō Shinkansen Shin-Aomori - Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto 148.9 km

Main lines

Name of the line route length
Chitose line Shiroishi - Numanohata 060.2 km
Minami-Chitose - New Chitose Airport 002.6 km
Hakodate main line Hakodate - Oshamambe - Otaru - Sapporo - Asahikawa 423.1 km
Ōnuma - Mori 035.3 km
Muroran main line Oshamambe - Higashi-Muroran - Oiwake - Iwamizawa 211.0 km
Higashi-Muroran - Muroran 007.0 km
Nemuro main line Takikawa - Obihiro - Nemuro 443.8 km
Sekishō line Minami-Chitose - Shintoku 132.4 km

Other lines

Tilting Super Hokuto diesel multiple unit on the Hakodate main line
Diesel multiple unit Super Sōya on the Sōya main line
Airport express train in Minami-Chitose station
Name of the line route length
Furano line Asahikawa - Furano 054.8 km
Hidaka main line Tomakomai - Samani 146.5 km
Sekihoku main line Shin-Asahikawa - Kitami - Abashiri 234.0 km
Kaikyō line Naka-Oguni - Kikonai 087.3 km
Rumoi main line Fukagawa - Rumoi 050.1 km
Sassho line Sōen - Hokkaidō-Iryōdaigaku 028.9 km
Senmō main line Higashi-Kushiro - Abashiri 166.2 km
Sōya main line Asahikawa - Nayoro - Wakkanai 259.4 km

Under construction

Name of the line route length opening
Hokkaidō Shinkansen Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto - Sapporo 211.3 km 2031

Earlier lines

Name of the line route length annotation
Chihoku line Ikeda - Kitami 140.0 km closed on June 4, 1989 to the Hokkaidō Chihoku Kōgen Tetsudō
on April 21, 2006
Esashi line Goryōkaku - Kikonai 037.8 km on March 26, 2016 to the Dōnan Isaribi Tetsudō
Kikonai - Esashi 042.1 km shut down on May 12, 2014
Horonai line Iwamizawa - Ikushumbetsu 018.1 km shut down on July 13, 1987
Mikasa - Horonai 002.7 km
Kamisunagawa branch line Sunagawa - Kami-Sunagawa 007.3 km shut down on May 16, 1994
Matsumae line Kikonai - Matsumae 050.8 km closed on February 1, 1988
Nayoro main line Nayoro - Engaru 138.1 km shut down on May 1, 1989
Naka-Yūbetsu - Yūbetsu 004.9 km
Rumoi main line Rumoi - Mashike 016.7 km shut down on December 5, 2016
Sassho line Hokkaidō-Iryōdaigaku - Shin-Totsukawa 047.6 km closed on April 17, 2020
Sekishō line Shin-Yūbari - Yūbari 016.1 km shut down on April 1, 2019
Shibetsu line Shibecha - Nemuro Shibetsu 069.4 km shut down on April 30, 1989
Nakashibetsu - Attoko 047.5 km
Shinmei line Fukagawa - Nayoro 121.8 km shut down on September 4, 1995
Tenpoku line Otoineppu - Minami-Wakkanai 148.9 km shut down on May 1, 1989
Utashinai line Sunagawa - Utashinai 014.5 km shut down on April 25, 1988

Until March 13, 1988, the company also operated the Seikan ferry between Hakodate and Aomori .

history

Map of Japan with the areas of the successor companies of the Japanese State Railways

The Japanese State Railways was privatized on April 1, 1987 by splitting up into the seven successor companies of the JR Group . JR Hokkaido took over the passenger traffic on the island of Hokkaidō , while the goods traffic is carried out as in the rest of Japan by the Japan Freight Railway Company . From the beginning, JR Hokkaido had the most difficult conditions of all JR companies: a harsh climate, low population density, increasing concentration of population and companies in the capital Sapporo and a stagnating economy after the burst of the speculative bubble .

In the early 1980s, the state railroad began to shut down unprofitable branch lines. JR Hokkaido continued this seamlessly, so that the once more than 4000 km long rail network has shrunk by more than a third to this day. It all started in 1987 with the Horonai line ; In 1988 the Matsumae line and the Utashinai line followed , in 1989 the Nayoro main line , the Shibetsu line and the Tenpoku line . Also in 1989, the Chihoku line was transferred to a new company supported by communities and private investors and was given the new name Furusato Ginga Line. The measure was unsuccessful, however, because in 2006 this line also had to finally close due to steadily falling passenger numbers. After a few years of hiatus, the shrinking process continued in 1994 when the Kamisunagawa branch line was shut down. In 1995 it was the turn of the Shinmei line ; it had been spared so far, as there was no suitable road connection for a bus replacement service.

JR Hokkaido expanded its range in some places. A milestone was in particular the opening of the 53.85 km long Seikan tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait on March 13, 1988, which connects the rail network on Hokkaidō and the Japanese main island of Honshū . The tunnel, which was built for 24 years, is particularly important for freight traffic. On the other hand, it only plays a subordinate role for passenger transport: in the 2000s, 90% of the volume of passenger transport between the two islands was still accounted for by air traffic, as the railroad was neither competitive in terms of time nor costs. The introduction of sleeper trains did little to change that.

The rail network in the greater Sapporo area was originally not designed for suburban traffic. In 1986, the state railway began to respond by opening new stations and allowing more trains to run. The Sapporo Station , which had previously been a bottleneck, has been converted to 1988 and expanded as JR Hokkaido added in order to increase capacity of existing lines in urban areas with additional tracks. In 1992, New Chitose Airport, southeast of Sapporo, was given a 2.6 km long underground connection to the rail network. This connection, which was planned in collaboration with the Danish State Railways , became the most profitable part of the JR Hokkaido network. On the rest of the network, it was possible to significantly reduce travel times in some cases by eliminating speed restrictions and introducing tilting trains . For example, the time saved between Sapporo and Kushiro is 50 minutes, while the flight connections between Sapporo and Hakodate have been suspended.

In the early 2010s, JR Hokkaido was hit by a series of serious incidents. On May 27, 2011, an express train on the Sekishō line derailed and caught fire in a tunnel. All 240 passengers were evacuated, but 39 of them suffered smoke inhalation and minor burns. The then Chairman Naotoshi Nakajima committed suicide four months later. On February 16, 2012, a freight train derailed on the same route and crashed into a protective snow wall. Another derailment of a freight train occurred on September 19, 2013 at Ōnuma station on the Hakodate main line. JR Hokkaido announced that the track was 25 mm wider than required (a maximum deviation of 19 mm is permitted, which must be eliminated within two weeks). A follow-up inspection ordered by the Japanese Railway Safety Authority showed a deviation of 39 mm; it was also found that the test data had been tampered with. In February 2014, at the request of the government, the Hokkaido Police opened a criminal investigation into the company after it admitted data falsification had occurred in 33 maintenance sections (representing 16% of the total rail network); a total of 129 employees were involved in the fraud. In December 2015, the public prosecutor brought charges of gross negligence and violation of the Railway Act.

After eleven years of construction, the Hokkaidō Shinkansen was put into operation on March 26, 2016 , a 148.9 km high-speed line between Aomori and Hakodate that also uses the Seikan tunnel. On the same day, JR Hokkaido transferred the parallel Esashi line between Hakodate and Kikonai to the new company Dōnan Isaribi Tetsudō ; the section to the west to Esashi had been closed two years earlier. An extension of the Hokkaidō Shinkansen to Sapporo is currently under construction; the 211.3 km long route is scheduled to open in 2031. There are plans for a Sakhalin-Hokkaidō tunnel that would create a connection to Russia .

Group companies

Headquarters in Sapporo
Branch in Hakodate

JR Hokkaido is a group that, in addition to the actual rail operations, also includes several subsidiaries:

  • Hokkaido High-Speed ​​Rail Development (50% stake): Execution of electrification projects, rental of systems and vehicles
  • JR Hokkaido Bus Co .: City bus services in Sapporo , long-distance bus services
  • Hokkaido JR Consultants: Design studies for rail projects
  • Elektrokinetic: construction and maintenance of electrical equipment
  • Hokkaido JR Built: Construction and maintenance of lines and buildings
  • Hokkaido Orbital Facility Industrial Co .: Construction and maintenance of track systems
  • Satsuken Industrial Co .: general construction and civil engineering
  • Sapporo Rolling Stock & Machinery Co .: Maintenance, repair and modification of vehicles, air conditioning and sanitary systems
  • Sapporo Koei Co .: By-products of the wagon factory
  • Hokkaido JR Transportation Support Co .: cleaning and maintenance of vehicles, offices and company buildings
  • Hokkaido JR Cybernet Co .: Electronic Equipment and Systems
  • Hokkaido JR Servicenet: travel agency , employment agency , educational offers
  • JR Hokkaido Rent-a-car Co .: Car Rental
  • Hokkaido JR Freshness Retail: Grocery stores
  • Hokkaido Kiosk: convenience shops
  • Hokkaido JR Shoji: Obtaining the materials used by the JR Hokkaido Group
  • Hokkaido JR Foods: Operation of the restaurants and hotels of the JR Hokkaido Group
  • Hokkaido JR Urban Development Co .: Real estate trading
  • Sapporo Station Development Co .: shopping center in Sapporo Station
  • JR Hokkaido Hotels Co .: Rail hotels in Sapporo , Asahikawa and Obihiro
  • Hokkaido JR Inn Management: Hotel in Sapporo
  • Hokkaido Clean System Co .: Facility Management , Waste Disposal and Recycling
  • Hokkaido Linen Supply Co .: cleaning of fabric covers, bed linen, work clothes, etc.
  • Hokkaido JR System Development: software development
  • Hokkaido JR Agency: Advertising and communication services
  • Sōen Driving School: Driving school
  • JR Dotō Travel Service: various services in Kushiro
  • Asahikawa Terminal Building Co .: various services in Asahikawa Station

literature

Web links

Commons : JR Hokkaido  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 会 社 概要. JR Hokkaido, 2018, accessed February 13, 2019 (Japanese, company profile).
  2. ↑ a b 北海道 路線 図. JR Hokkaido, 2019, accessed on May 4, 2019 (Japanese, also includes the part of the Sasshō Line that was shut down on April 17, 2020).
  3. ↑ 20 Years After JNR Privatization. P. 12.
  4. ↑ a b 20 Years After JNR Privatization. P. 13.
  5. ↑ ふ る さ と 銀河 線 ， 最後 の 日 を 迎 え る (Last day of the Furusato Ginga lineage). Japan Railfan Magazine, April 2006, p. 166.
  6. ^ Railway operators in Japan 2 - Hokkaido. P. 62.
  7. ^ Railway operators in Japan 2 - Hokkaido. P. 63.
  8. ↑ 20 Years After JNR Privatization. P. 14.
  9. ^ Railway operators in Japan 2 - Hokkaido. Pp. 59-60.
  10. ↑ JR Hokkaido in crisis. The Japan Times , November 27, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  11. ↑ JR Hokkaido admits manipulating track data at accident site. The Japan Times , December 13, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  12. ^ No way to run a railway. The Japan Times , February 19, 2014, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Papers on JR Hokkaido derailment to be sent to prosecutors. The Japan Times , December 19, 2015, accessed May 20, 2016 .
  14. ↑ JR 北海道 グ ル ー プ. Hokkaido Railway Company, 2016, accessed on May 20, 2016 (Japanese, brief portraits of the group companies).