There needs to be a dedicated high-speed rail line linking Tokyo Station with Narita airport in 20 or 25 minutes.
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Charles Duncan, managing director, Japan, at Continental Airlines, Inc, referring to one way to improve the much-maligned airport. (ACCJ Journal)
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Speed
I suggest the Maglev. Oh, I also suggest closing Narita and greatly expanding Haneda. Thank you.
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Statistician
Umm ... I think there was quite a debate around this point fought out with shields and batons in the fields around Sanrizuka 30-40 years ago. I also seem to remember that about two million people in Chiba-ken and eastern Tokyo-to pretty strongly disagreed with the idea. The earmarked route has eventually gone to Keisei thirty years later.
Airline bosses always assume the rest of the world exists only to boost their balance sheets. We have the same problem in London at the moment around extensions to Heathrow where I predict politicians and corporate lobbyists will receive the same bloody noses that their Japanese counterparts did.
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Ranger_Miffy
Guess it couldn't be built underground?
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Betzee
The travelling public's interest is not well served under these circumstances. I can remember when LA opened its long-awaited light rail service in the 1990s which sails right past LAX. It took years for the "el train" to be extended to O'Hare in Chicago, the taxi driver's union fought it tooth and nail.
The new airport in Shanghai, by contrast, is served by a maglev and its gotten very high marks from travellers. Now there may be good reasons for local residents to protest and governments should address their concerns. But there's also lots of commercial interests which like things just the way they are and will use their political clout to keep them that way.
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realist
Sorry, but doesnt this guy, and all of you, not realise that a high speed line is already under construction, and will open in just over a year?
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Statistician
@realist
Well, I realise it mate, you will see I refer to the alignment being given to Keisei.
I think this guy's grouch is that it isn't fast enough. There is no real speed up within Tokyo itself on the Keisei route. And it doesn't run to Tokyo station.
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Castella
No truer words were ever spoken. The Yokosuka line is very slow. It could be made into a semi-express with the elimination of stops at a few of the smaller stations.
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Kawasaki
@realist - I think I know what line you're referring to. Unfortunately, from what I've read, that will not be a high-speed line. It will be fastER than what is currently available, but it will be just a regular train. Not Shinkansen speed, and certainly not MAGLEV-type stuff like the Chinese have. So even with the new line, the problem will remain - it will take a long time to get to the airport from Tokyo/Yokohama. They should just do a maglev deal like the Chinese did, it's pretty good...
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