I've got some pieces of information, this morning.
Mrs. Thatcher of England would not make private the British railway. She wouldn’t and she didn’t. Several years after she left her office in Downing Street No.10, it was however eventually privatized. Japan was faster than England in this movement.
The issue is around deficit-ridden local lines and safety. Both meaningful mostly for quality of service and satisfaction of voters, tax payers, consumers, and ordinary people.
There were many shocking scenes televised while the world was alerted to the Tsunami disaster triggered by the earthquake under the sea off the Sumatra Island. Among them, trains overturned by the violent sea water in Sri Lanka were especially impressive to our eyes.
A few months prior to the Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean, which claimed some hundred of thousand lives and eventually a memorial visit by two former US Presidents to the site, a fairly large earthquake had hit an area north of Tokyo and near the Sea of Japan.
A super-express line called Shin-Kan-Sen links Tokyo to a major city in the area. This high-speed train line was also hit by the earthquake, and a Shin-Kan-Sen train happened to be running just on the very moment when the seismic tremor occurred.
The Shin-Kan-Sen train has been one of the pride of Japan, for its level of technology and record of safety. But, the day of the Chu-Etsu earthquake it seemed to be destined to face a tragedy with many passengers in it.
As a matter of fact, it derailed but neither fell from the overhead line nor collided with another train. Even no major damages to passengers. But, long rails on the concrete surface of the overhead line were curved upside in a half loop and got winding dynamically near the train automatically stopped. Large concrete substructure holding the overhead line were broken and severely damaged in some locations.
It was not by chance that no tragedy happened. There was good work behind the scene. When a great earthquake hit an area near the Japan’s second largest metropolitan area in 1995, the Shin-Kan-Sen trains were also spared disaster. The 1995 Han-Shin Earthquake occurred fairly early in the morning, though taking away some 6000 lives and toppling elevated highway roads. But, it was apparent that Shin-Kan-Sen lines should be reinforced and further shored up in some critical areas across Japan.
Then, strengthening work was planned and carried out. But, in the original plan, the work was intended to apply only to lines near metropolitan areas such as Tokyo.
Here a spotlight is on an old engineer of a privatized railroad company, who had long experiences in working from days of national management, and strongly recommended to reinforce some portions of lines from Tokyo to the Chu-Etsu area. His opinion was respected and the work was done. Maybe, it is because they found there was a fault running underground along or across the line, though it had been dormant for a few thousand years.
That reinforcement work actually stopped the tragedy just in front of the moment that might have immediately led to the full-scale tragedy.
So, it is really nice and necessary to respect an old and experienced engineer. But, I still believe there is something more to ponder in this whole information.
(Source of Information: The Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper, May 15, 2005 )