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Land ministry calls for improvement of rail crossings that make cars, pedestrians wait a long time

14 Comments

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has requested that some train companies and local governments improve a total of 529 railroad crossings throughout Japan by 2020.

Specifically, the ministry said the crossing gates remain lowered for too long, Fuji TV reported. They include 69 crossings in Aichi Prefecture, 58 in Tokyo and 53 in Kanagawa Prefecture. The ministry said train stations and rail operators have received many complaints that the gates are not raised for an excessive amount of time due to their proximity to a station.

According to the ministry, at one of the crossings in Shinagawa, Tokyo, the gates remain lowered for more than 40 minutes each hour during rush hour in the morning and evening.

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14 Comments
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Keio line is ridiculous ... and I do know that Shinagawa crossing... had a ridiculous wait there on a bike one day...

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Alex, that damn crossing needs someone from Keio post there to issue late slips for when one is tardy due that ridiculous crossing. I missed an appointment once because of it and another time about a half year later was late getting to Kura sushi. :(

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Are these crossing not suitable for building overhead or underpass crossing?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This really needs to be an ongoing thing, not just an issue raised once every 5 years or when an old person gets killed because they can't cross fast enough.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I don't know the specific sites but I suspect that at some, a solution for many people would be to simply put in a pedestrian/bicycle footbridge or tunnel. The reason one hasn't been provided will be that cars and trucks couldn't use it.

It shouldn't be a big deal if a car or truck has to do a 10 minute detour to get to the other side of a station via a tunnel or overpass built at an easier location than right by the end of six or more parallel train platforms.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@m6bob

I was thinking the exact same thing and (if I remember rightly) there was a place (near Route 20 ?) where they actually made a tunnel for the trains and took away the level-crossing.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan needs to build more overhead escalators! Also, too many traffic lights! However, the pace of life here will begin to slow as many people are becoming older....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I know a really busy crossing that hardly ever opens during rush hour. People queue up there and wait.

But there is an underpass to get to the other side. It amazes me that people don't use it.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@m6bob: have you ever thought to become an executive of safety commission of Japan construction business association?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yeah, 40 minutes is a pretty crazy wait. However, I'm not sure what they can do about them. The only option would be to build bridges over them for traffic or raise the train lines above the roads, which will take years.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The barriers can take ages to open after the train has gone through.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Some place, overhead. Some place under. Depending watérbstream and earthquake scare.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Has anyone waited more than 5 min. at a crossing ? Where?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Has anyone waited more than 5 min. at a crossing ? Where?

I used to live close to a crossing that sucked really bad. To go to a bridge that went over the tracks was about an additional 5-10 minutes of driving, or you could gamble on the train crossing. However, the train crossing sometimes could as much as 15 minutes itself, with 3-4 trains going in each direction before the gates came up. The problem was that the crossing was really close to the station, so a train would be stopped at the platform but the gates would be down, as the train was within whatever range is set at which the gates need to be down.

I lived there for seven years. They eventually built a tunnel that went under it and made things so much better. The tunnel opened a month before I moved. Sucked.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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