Front Cover
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Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 8 (Front cover & p.3)
Front Cover |
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Photo: Shinjuku: Tokyo's New Government and Business Centre |
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Editorial |
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Different models of rail management |
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Rail reforms are going on everywhere in the world, and we are now seeing three different
models of railway management in highly-developed economies. In Japan, nearly
10 years after the restructuring of Japanese National Railways, the three major JR passenger
companies are demonstrating their commercial viability. They enjoy comfortable
profitability, bearing entire infrastructure costs and receiving no financial aid from
the government. North-American railroads also display another example of commercially-
viable railways. In contrast with the Japanese passenger railways, they specialize
in freight transport, but they also enjoy profitability, without any financial support
from the government and with full responsibility for their infrastructure. In Europe, neither passengers nor freight can generate enough money for railways, and the current solution is to separate railway operations from infrastructure. To maintain infrastructure by using substantial public funds may ease the financial difficulties of railways and will probably pave the way to the privatization of rail operators (although the British solution is taking a different path by privatizing Railtrack and charging full infrastructure costs to rail operators). However, the problems of safety and technical development must be always taken into account, because the most critical safety problems of today's railways arise from the interface between rolling stock and infrastructure, and future improvements of railway performance also depend on technical breakthroughs in this border area.
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