Japan Observations…Pics to come.

[Gazza]

I was in Japan over Christmas and new years.

A few observations

-Using smartcards is lightning fast, instantaneous touch ons, and top ups were very speedy too (You could even load a stack of notes into the machine and it would take all of them at once). The various smart cards are interopable across the country.

-Punctuality really is as good as they say it is. The worst I had was a 2 min delay in arrival on one train.

-Interlining on the Metro/Subway.  This one surprised me, basically, the metro lines and subways are not always stand alone, often they are connected to suburban lines. In one notable example I rode a subway train all the way from near Shinjuku to Tobudobutsu-Koen (40km as the crow flies). Operators changed at the boundary.
You'd also see stuff like Tokyo Metro trains down as far as Yokohama.

To that end, just use google transit directions to navigate the maze of operators.

-Just in terms of navigation. For anyone with any misgivings about visiting Japan, it is an incredibly easy country to travel in. Everything is bi-lingual or quad-lingual (adding Korean and Chinese) Signage is top notch, and if platforms are served by more than one stopping pattern, they mark separate areas to line up.

-The Sakura tramway is ridiculously slow. Thankfully only had to ride 3 stops.

-At stations they play a short piece of music when the train is ready to depart, basically to gently encourage people to hurry up.
https://youtu.be/bCmpvbGkzOg?t=15

-Crowding was not as bad as I expected. Only ever went on one train above 4 pax / sqm and it was one only one stop

-Shinkansen is great,  I didn't use a rail pass because the number of private lines I'd need to use didn't make it worthwhile. Used it twice, including the flagship 2.5h, 500km Nozomi  run from Osaka to Tokyo. This was on the Saturday after new years, the busiest travel day of the year (So literally trains every 3 mins between the cities, and almost fully booked, save for a few trains before 7am)
I also used a Hikari all stops train to get from Tokyo to Toyohashi. It still hits 300km/h according to my phone speedo, but you'lll stop at the passing loops at the stations to let trains pass, so some dwells are longer too.

-On the whole, all day expresses were quite common on suburban lines. They did this without quads, just bifuricated platforms at certain stations.

Ill add more as I think of it.

[verbatim9]

I was in Japan over Christmas and new years.

A few observations

-Using smartcards is lightning fast, instantaneous touch ons, and top ups were very speedy too (You could even load a stack of notes into the machine and it would take all of them at once). The various smart cards are interopable across the country.

-Punctuality really is as good as they say it is. The worst I had was a 2 min delay in arrival on one train.

^^Even in Sydney's Ticket Gates open instantaneously when touched on or off. Unlike here where there is a.delay sometimes 2-3 seconds.

Asian first world countries have very good punctuality when it comes to train arrivals and departures.

[brissypete]

Except in Japan it's pretty standard for fare gates to be always open, they only close if you try to go through without a ticket. For the sheer volume of passengers this is much more efficient.



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