How Airport Protests Created Japan’s Shortest Railway
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- Опубліковано 12 тра 2024
- The Shibayama Railway is 2.2 km (1.3 miles) long, making it the shortest railway system in Japan. Despite the old trains, which date back to the 1970s, the line itself opened in 2002. It uses a half-abandoned airport station, travels almost entirely within an airport, and opened after a long history of tensions between government and locals. It essentially acts as an extension of the Keisei Railway system.
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Fun fact that no one cares about:
Keisei originally used 1,372 mm gauge track, at one point there were plans to connect the Keisei main line with what is now the Toden Arakawa Line (Sakura Tram) to get into the city centre, as the line to Ueno didn't exist at the time, with the mainline terminal at Oshiage, which is now under the Skytree and offers through services with the Toei Asakusa Line. Perhaps you should talk about the history of Keisei at some point. 😉
I’m a Seibu guy but the other companies also have a special place in my heart :) i knew about the gauge change but didn’t know it had to do with Toden!
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 which station is that, Yuenchi-nishi (or whatever it’s called today)?
@@stanislavkostarnov2157every station on the Tsurumi line is in Kanagawa, so too bad. Also btw, I though the least used in Tokyo was Etchushima on the Keiyo?
What how’s it possible to run normal trains on tram line? Toden run on the street and i can’t imagine these 8 car trains running with cars😮
@@lorili6885 Search up the Keihan Keishin Line. 🙂
From Shibayama station you can walk around the edge of the airport to an airport-funded museum about the protests. Highly recommend
Narita airport also has a random farmhouse on airport ground, a small property that refused to sell. It's accesed by tunnels under the roads to the airport.
Can you do a video going through the history of the Odakyu Romancecar EMUs? You can start all the way from their Italian and Meitetsu counterparts. :D
I know there's a video about the VSE but maybe it deserves an update.
That’s a good idea!
Hey hook me up I want to see it too. Legend has it Italy and America were the first countries to have high speed trains. US it was called M1000 and Italy Setibello ETR 300 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS_Class_ETR_300
Another fascinating short railway is Monaco's national system! The line is a lot longer as it's part of SNCF's Marseille-Ventimiglia railway line, but the length of railway within Monaco is 1.7 km or 1.1 miles long! Monaco has only one station, the underground Gare de Monaco-Monte-Carlo, which isn't actually completely in Monaco as the line is along the border of Monaco and France, so Monaco really has HALF a station! Though it wasn't always like that, as the first station in Monaco, originally named Monaco (Gare de Monaco) was located in La Condamine in 1868. The following year, a second station named Monte Carlo was opened directly below the Monte Carlo Casino. The first station in La Condamine was later renamed Monaco-Monte-Carlo in the 1950s, after the building of a new tunnel bypassing the second station in Monte Carlo which was closed in 1965. The idea to relocate the railway and bypass Monte Carlo station was conceived by Rainier III to reclaim valuable land for development. In the early 1990s, it was again decided to reroute the railway, this time completely underground, and build a new station back closer to the center of Monaco. Construction commenced in 1993 and the new station opened in Ravin de Sainte-Dévote in 1999.
Canada used to have an extremely short railway called the Bayside Canadian Railway in New Brunswick....which was only 200 ft or 61 m! Shipping companies Kloosterboer International and Alaska Reefer Management (both part of American Seafoods Group) ship frozen pollock from Dutch Harbor, Alaska via the Panama Canal to the eastern US. The US's Jones Act requires the use of US-flagged vessels when shipping between two US ports, but there is an exemption, the so-called third proviso, when part of the route is over Canadian rail lines. American Seafoods has been using foreign-flagged shipping for years and until 2012, they used a 48 km-long route of shipping by the New Brunswick Southern Railway. However, in 2012, this practice changed such that upon arrival in Bayside, NB, the fish was transferred to trucks which were driven one at a time up a loading ramp onto two flatbed railcars. In 2021, the US CBP gave notice of 350 million in violations of the Jones Act because it didn't consider the railway a "through route", the company sued and judge allowed them to continue, but in 2022, a US District Court Judge for the district of Alaska ordered the railway to be dismantled but waived the CBP's fine.
Hey, I’m just happy a country smaller than Central Park even has half a railway station!
@@Thom-TRA To make you even happier, the Vatican also has half a railway station, with its single platform protruding into Italy. Not being able to fit your station inside your border seems like a micronation thing 😅
The Jones Act is incredibly stupid and past its purpose. Time for a repeal.
@@Squizie3 I told my mom about it, when she, my brother and my brothers gf climbed the cupola of the St.Peter's church. Told her it was the worlds smallest train network.
If I was a Shibayama resident back then, between a people mover to Narita International or interlining allowing the ability to take a train directly to Ueno or even Haneda from Shibayama, I would've picked the Shibayama Railway too! Quite the interesting operation! A uniquely short railway is the Vatican Railway, whose tracks are 300 meters/980 ft long (with two freight sidings!), making it the shortest national railway system in the world! The Vatican has a railway because it was guaranteed in the Lateran Treaty in 1929. The construction of the viaduct leading to Vatican City from Roma San Pietro was paid for by the Italian government! The first locomotive entered the Vatican in March 1932, and the station was opened officially in October 1934. However, the first Pope to use it was Pope John XXIII in 1962. The railway station was actually the only thing bombed in Vatican City during WWII as in March 1944, the Vatican discovered that the Germans actually parked a munitions train there! You can actually take a train from there seasonally as since 2015, during Spring and Summer on weekends, they offer service to Castel Gandolfo which is the Pope's vacation retreat
Speaking of BWI, before the AirTrain JFK system opened, NY's MTA used to have a service called the JFK Express, aka the Train to the Plane! It was a limited express service that operated between 1978 and 1990, mostly between 57th Street station (on the IND Sixth Avenue Line) and Howard Beach, where people would then take a shuttle bus. Unlike the other NYC Subway route bullets that are either numbered or lettered, the JFK Express's route bullet was an aircraft symbol! Passengers paid extra, premium fares to ride the train. In 1979, airline and airport employees were provided a discounted book of twenty tickets, selling for $25. While around 5K used it per day when it started, by 1989, ridership declined, they realized most passengers were actually commuters from Howard Beach and the Rockaways, and so they wanted to eliminate the service to free 144 workers and 12 subway cars for more cost-efficient runs. During the JFK Express's last six months of operation, it was extended northward along the IND 63rd Street Line to 21st Street-Queensbridge. The shuttle bus continued until AirTrain JFK opened in 2003. The NY government actually wanted to extend AirTrain JFK all the way to Lower Manhattan via a new East River tunnel and the LIRR Atlantic Branch! Crazy!
New York could learn a thing or two about convenient transit to the airport!
Great video! Would love to see another possible explainer on Japan's private railways since most seem to only talk about JR. Ironically as well, thanks to the leftover Narita Shinkansen infrastracture, Keisei managed to build the fastest non-Shinkansen line in the country.
Also, suggest you do a video on the Enoshima Electric Railway. Nothing particularly interesting about it but it has some great views and high ridership despite being a single-track line with passing loops lol.
I love Enoden. As for shitetsu, it drives me insane that everyone else only covers JR trains. Japan wouldn’t be what it is without all its private railways.
I’ve done a video like that before, but could do it again.
Keisei has technologies being transferred from the Hokuhoku Line, the main connection from Greater Tokyo (via Joetsu Shinkansen) to Hokuriku region before Hokuriku Shinkansen was extended to Kanazawa.
Enoden is featured in Slam Dunk, Bunny Girl Senpai and Bocchi The Rock, to name but a few.
Fantastic video sir!
beautiful video as always thom
Thank you
Excellent, informative video, Thom1
Thank you!
This is really good, well researched
Thank you!
This is what I come to UA-cam for. Well researched, simple videos by people who know their stuff. Thank you!
Appreciate the huge compliment!
Delightful video, Thom!
Appreciate it!
We really enjoy your videos about things we didn’t know we didn’t know about!!!! This delightful little railway is really awesome!!!!
Been enjoying the magazines!
@@Thom-TRA We thought you would! 🚝
I enjoyed that video👍👍
Thank you!
I’ve subscribed now! This is an indeed a fascinating concept of a small railway company, and an interesting history to it as well.
I hang out on UA-cam for interesting videos like this 😁
Thank you!!
Can you do a video on Keikyu’s new 1000 series? They’re damn legendary and there’re so many variations throughout the batches
Despite how short the railway is, it’s still mile more useful than the (bus) line to Eppley Airfield, Omaha’s airport. The 16 bus is a useful route, connecting downtown and the main transit center to Eppley, an Open Door Mission, an industrial area, and the east side of Carter Lake, Iowa; but only runs weekdays from about 5:30 to 9:30 in the morning and 3 to 6:45 in the evening at every half hour; in addition to all the other things that make buses lesser than trains.
Airport transit is seriously underrated. The best cities have trains that bring you right to the terminal.
@@Thom-TRA True. Eppley also isn’t very far from downtown Omaha, so I would imagine at train between the two wouldn’t be super expensive while also being pretty popular because it’s downtown and the airport.
1:40 would make a great SEPTA subway livery
That looks cool!
What a quirky little railway! Thanks for sharing. :)
Worth checking out on your next trip! Thanks for watching
@@Thom-TRA For sure! Man, I need to go back...
@SuperalbsTravels same tho…
There are a similar story. The Tohoku Shinkansen built between Omiya and Ueno was protested by homeowners, so JNR built the Shin Tsukin Sen which is now known as the Saikyo Line
Plot twist: Those old 103 series trainsets on Saikyo Line are much more noiser than the Tohoku Shinkansen 😏
@@RicciChoi1109 Oh yes, I once read about that which is why they were replaced by the 32 trainsets of 205 Series. Now 18 of those trainsets were sent to Indonesia.
Although Higashi-Narita Station has almost completely lost passenger use, it is still used by many people who work at the airport in the mornings and evenings.
There is an underground passage to walk between Airport Terminal 2&3 Station(Keisei main line) and Higashi-Narita Station, but it is interesting because the space is so bleak and inorganic.
So what is the advantage for them? Is it closer to the cargo areas and things like that? Or cheaper fares?
@@Thom-TRA As you have guessed. It seems that people working in freight areas and other areas away from the passenger terminal make useful use of Higashi-Narita Station.
Good job on the past videos Thom. What is your take on the possible merger with CTA metra and pace?
I don't have anything against it. If it improves connectivity between the three (particularly Metra, which kind of does its own thing in terms of schedules and fares) then I support it. But with good branding for each individual mode (L, city bus, suburban bus, regional rail).
Have you done a video on the NJ Transit Dinky in Princeton NJ? That's a fascinating one.
Have not had the chance to ride that one yet
@@Thom-TRA Something perhaps to look forward to. Great channel man.
@@JC-bl9bo thanks!
Branch line-type lines are always so fascinating to talk about! My favorite train line in particular (JR Wadamisaki Branch Line for those curious) in particular was only 500 meters longer than the Shibayama Railway Line.
This is kind of sudden for a first-time viewer but I'd like to see the Wadamisaki line get some spotlight too! It has an interesting history of being probably one of the last railway lines in Japan to use a push-pull locomotive operation up until 1986, it also was a very crucial line as it connects to different factories (And even a freight line) around the area before, nowadays the only branch it has was the branch to Kawasaki's rolling stock factory.
You, my guy has earned a sub!
Is the Wadamisaki line still using those old 103 series trains?
@@Thom-TRA OH GOD YOU'RE ASKING THIS JUST EXACTLY ONE DAY AFTER SAID TRAIN WAS SENT OFF FOR SCRAPPING 😭
It sadly did its last run on March last year, and is now scrapped just exactly 14th of May this year...
Cool video
Thanks!
@@Thom-TRA your welcome
Have you ridden the new Tren Maya yet in Mexico from the Yucatan? It'd be nice to see a video on the experience. It's partially completed so goes for now through a few states southeast.
You can already find the video on my channel!
@@Thom-TRA OH, cool!
5:06 Most trains terminate at Keisei-Narita, but there are multiple that do run into Tokyo during rush hour.
I’ve seen them on the Asakusa line many times
@@Thom-TRA Will you ever do videos on platform screen doors? I feel that'd be a cool topic
Funny that this tiny railway line still has its own rolling stock! Gotta love the variety on the Keisei/Keikyu networks
The Asakusa line is always a surprise what you’ll get
I never been to Japan but have known the Narita ever since I was 7. Saw it in an old Japanese train tape in 1999. Do you know anything about the N'EX 253 series train? To be honest there are other short rail lines around the world that go to airports and they do NOT merge into larger lines. Some to name: HK airport express, Bangkok Airport Rail Link (Comes in two short versions. Airport staff and working students love it), Gatwick and Heathrow express (rode Heathrow express in 2017 and it was worth the high ticket cost. Staff is very friendly). This is all I remember because most other airport lines around the world go very long distances.
Yes, I rode the 253 series all the time! They’ve been replaced by the E259 series, but the 253s run on the Nikko service now, which is arguably more interesting.
Thank you!!!!!
After long years of the use of Keisei line, still never been to Schibayama Chiyoda line hahaha. Ever sice the opening of Sky Access line, I didn't even utilise Keisei main line in Chiba area, since my nearest station was Takasago. Either to go to Haneda or Narita took more or less an hour, which was really convenient. Ahh, still missing the puncual railways in Japan....
Sky Access was such a game changer. I cannot believe how much time Skyliner saves. I never used NEX after that.
I remember reading somewhere that Tokyo Metro has/had the plan to build a line from Narita to Haneda, passing through Tokyo Station. It seems a bit ambitious to be true. Do you mind doing a video on that in the future?
That would have been a branch line and bypass tracks on the Toei Asakusa line, branching off at Takaracho and stopping at Tokyo Station. I honestly don't think it's happening.
@@Thom-TRA ahh i see. i agree that the project isnt gonna go anywhere, its way to ambitious for a metro company imo
On my second trip to Japan I accidentally found Higashi-Narita station when I needed to visit the Narita Airport police HQ which is located near to the station. There's a really cool mural in the concourse of the station and the signage on the unused platforms still say "Narita Airport". Also thanks for mentioning that you can't use Suica on the Shibayama section of the line. Keisei do accept Suica and Pasmo so you can tap-in at Higashi-Narita, but you can't tap out at Shibayama-Chiyoda and instead, as well as selling you the ticket you should have bought, they'll give you a form to give to a station attendant at the next station you use that does accept IC cards to manually complete your journey.
Near to Shibayama-Chiyoda a short bus ride away is the Museum of Aeronautical Sciences which I recommend visiting if you like old planes. It's not big, but it has some very cool retro planes.
I learned about the no Suica thing the hard way!
I was just to ask how does it work with the paper ticket. Very surprised!
Great stuff! It's amazing though that Suica / Pasmo is not accepted on this line. Why?
Probably too expensive to install the system
Higashi Narita station feels like a Shōwa-era time capsule
An absolute time machine
Like it and for this Railway they really need to open up to use a smart card which is compatible with each other Nationwide. Since there is a domestic flight between NRT & KIX they're likely to use an Icoca Card
why would they use Icoca over Pasmo? all of the Keisei group companies issue Pasmo and I don't see why Shibayama wouldn't do the same.
@StarboardPitotTube reason for it is very simple Pasmo cannot be purchased inside KIX but Icoca can be purchased there.
@@EpicThe112 you do realise you can use pretty much any IC card (suica, pasmo, icoca, etc.) literally everywhere where IC cards are accepted (e.g. i can use an ICOCA card in tokyo, or a Suica card in sapporo)
Pasmo is more likely. You are only going to buy IC card from the airport you land at. Anyway, unless this railway is extended, it will only accept tickets,with IC card user having to fill out a form.
@enochliu8316 I get it now and my question is this can you refill that using an Icoca card add value machine or not
Under 1K gang (Seriously very nice video)
👇🏾
Thank you very much
Very interesting.
Bedankt!
Are you going to be in St. Paul next week for the debut of the Borealis? I bought my ticket. :)
It seems like many Shibayama residents maybe have a daily commute through NRT!
because of the Tokyo area's extensive and fast moving trains going to and from Narita, despite it being quite a ways away from most of Tokyo, it's FAR faster and easier to travel to and from then many secondary airports in the United States which often require long bus rides or hit or miss metro lines that make it take often over an hour to get back into down town from those airports.
With the gleaming exception of Midway, which is miraculously connected by the L.
But yeah, I remember living in Tokyo in 2010 when the Sky Access line opened. I couldn’t believe how fast it was.
Haneda is still a lot more convenient but flights there always seem to be more expensive
Meanwhile in UK:
- HOLD MY ALE!
...and build Stourbridge branch long as 0.8 miles (1.3km) and still in operation today by train shuttle.
I loved reading about the Sanrizuka Uprising and watching a couple of raw footage videos on it, its a story where the college kids and the villagers, most of them old, came together to fight against the federal government, with mediveal war tactics and makeshift forts! I can't recall another major time where you had such populist unity for a genuine cause. To this day even, terrorist assaults are still a reasonable possibility for Narita Airport, probably the most hated airport in the world!
Narita although still a major international hub is dying since many airlines like British Airways, American and Delta are moving to Haneda so Haneda might become the focus of the main international airport of Tokyo soon so the farmers might win since Narita might be closed 😂(I prefer Haneda so biased)
Yeah I remember when Haneda was just a "small" domestic airport. Then they opened the new terminal and it all changed drastically.
Narita still is a busy airport and Haneda can only take so many flights.
...but it's not as short as the "secret" US Capitol subway! ;-)
It's a very interesting story but the shortest railway ? ... Just north of Tokyo is the daishi line operated by the tobu company. It's a whopping 1km long !
That’s just a branch of the Tobu Isesaki line. Not considered a railway, just a line.
Ah yeah, Shibayama trains are one of the rarest to pop up in the Toei Asakusa line. For a really interesting story, do one on the Hokuso line. It's one of those "build-it-and-they'll-come" stories that didn't.
especially since the green-red color scheme didn't exist for nine years until 2022
Well, the scheme’s been around since 2006, but Shibayama Railways rarely painted “their” trains, most recently due to their 20th anniversary in 2022 (they leased 2 trains - 4 unit Keisei 3500 and an 8 unit 3600, both types pretty much quickly on its way to retirement). Shibayama trains rarely venture past Keisei-Narita normally. From Keisei main line only 3 daily rush hour runs go into the Asakusa line via Aoto, and less than 5 goes to Keisei Ueno. That’s compared to the multitude of daily Narita Sky-Access runs, or Hokuso runs from Imba Nihon-Idai into the Toei subway.
@@Waaaaaaaaaaaang cool, I couldn't find the Shibayama Railway units when I rode the Shibyama Line😢
@@ramairturbine4326 Unless you are really really lucky it’ll almost always be a Keisei red-and-blue-stripe train. Shibayama is a de-facto Keisei subsidiary (much like shin-Keisei or Hokuso), and the 2 painted trains are earmarked for retirement in 2024 along with the rest of the 3500s/3600s. I don’t think Shibayama leased any of the more recent 3000/3700 series trains.
OMG, what a mess!
Just for clarity - because I’ve had friends get lost with this - there is the Keio line that runs through the western half of the Tokyo suburbs.
And then there’s the Keiyo line that runs along the eastern bay and beyond.
They sound almost exactly the same so using Keio line and JR keiyo line is your best way to delineate.
Oh oh oh, and do a video on the Musashino line and Nambu lines. They’re really weird lines once you start digging deeper. Especially the way they’re split with freight and passenger rail sections.
They’re pronounced pretty differently in Japanese though. Keiyo versus Kei’ou. But definitely confusing for foreigners. I’ve actually thought of making a video about it.
@@Thom-TRA technically yes but in general conversation the distinction gets much harder to hear. Especially for non-speakers.
@@yukisuter I’ve never really heard a Japanese person say “JR Keiyo sen,” if there is confusion they’ll usually just re-emphasize the “yo” part.
@@Thom-TRA I think that's more because of context, since the two lines run in opposite directions from the opposite sides of Tokyo. I only say this because even as a native speaker it gets confusing without context/emphasis of the u or ō sound (which isn't normal for general conversation)
Ok what is up with japan making things that look, at MINIMUM, a decade newer then they actually are? Those 70s trains look like they were built in the late 80s!
They were actually modernized!
Love the SEPTA-colored livery
Nah, SEPTA has a Keisei-colored livery
Great little history. Thanks so much. But one wonders ..... why didn't they build a railway for the protesters to use? 😁
They did, just a few decades later!
@@Thom-TRA Those protests were violent. They made the TV news here in the US. In S Korea, Japan, the US and Western Europe politics had a harsh side with real violence. The Left liked to put their militancy front and center. After the Soviet Union went away, things calmed down a lot the world over.
Your explanation of the first part is bit lacking. Initially the protest was caused by local farmers, but later, some communism groups participated in the campaign with violence. Their main purpose was to evoke the anti-government momentum in Japanese society and they are in active nowadays. Because of that, You can see many police officers around the airport.
I think I explained it just enough for an audience that doesn’t know anything about this.
Why don't they just merge the lines together?......
Because they have different owners. Merging requires negotiations. It doesn’t “just” happen.
Repurposing/upcycling made manifest \m/
Two things about Narita airport saddens me:
1. The history of Narita airport itself. This is all happened because the people who lived there were farmers who were deported from Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria after Japanese empire lost the war. Even though they lived in colonized areas, most of these farmers were not colonizers. They were just normal people who were too naive to believe the bullshit of Imperialist Japanese government, "I guarantee your success if you move there!" No wonder they did not believe the government at all when it tried to build the airport.
2. Because of this problem, Japan failed to build a useful connection between long distance flight and Shinkansen. I prefer transferring from a long distance flight to a high speed train to transferring to connection flight. It is better for the environment as well. Thinking that Narita was actually a good location to connect Honshu island(unlike Incheon airport in my home country), I feel really bad that this failed.
It’s definitely a history that is well-documented but not taught much. I never knew any of it while I was living in Tokyo.
History like this about public transport is interesting
It has all the special ingredients
Public interest, government profit, corporation history and scammy loop hoke trade deals!
Everything you can ask for, more, and a few obscene illogical denials
It's a bit of a secret I think, but I work at MSP which used to be a northwest airlines hub
I think this airport was constructed by with Japanese interest. Up until just this year in 2024 there were still Japanese signs up
Please do a history and analysis of MSP,
I don't think it's as obvious as you could point out there but I think you will see it if you visit
Normandale college next to the airport has a Japanese garden 🤷♂️🤷🤷♀️
You’ve peaked my curiosity! I might do some digging.
After Japan, I lived in the Netherlands. I remember all the NW planes at Amsterdam Airport. Now it’s all Delta.
yo
This is a short railway _by design_ (Or rather: _By extension_ (Sorry! 🙃)) but why can't I seem to stop thinking about HS2 after watching this?... 🚄🇬🇧🤏😉