For those who haven't seen it, I'm currently reading "Japanese National Railways: It's Break-up and Privatization" By Yoshiyuki Kasai.
At the time of publication, Mr. Kasai was President and CEO of JR Central. The book details what hew saw and did from the time he started with JNR in 1963 through the collapse under government regulations, several failed reformations, and his work on the reformation committee that finally engineered the division and privatization of JNR.
Some interesting tidbits: The Tokaido Shinkansen was the most daring and questionable of the 3 alternatives for increasing capacity on the Tokaido corridor. The use of electric multiple unit trains was predicted to be an expensive failure, the line was a wasteful white elephant and the whole boondoggle was predicted to destry JNR if it was completed.
The Shinkansen, when completed was the only line they built which was profitable from the first year, subsidizing much of the government's massive construction programs. It recovered the construction costs in 10 years, but couldn't generate the level of profits needed to support the lines the government kept building to small back country towns that failed to generate traffic.
Debts kept mounting as the work force kept increasing to pay off political favors and restrictions on what the railroad was allowed to do kept strangling its ability to opeerate efficiently and focus on the core routes that generated the bulk of the finds; principally the Shinkansen and the Yamanote line.
Finally it was decided that no reform could save JNR as long as the government had authority over internal policies, and the break up into regional private carriers was the only remaining option to return to profitability.
I'm currently in the middle of watching them arrange the political maneuvers to begin the separation. Its a pretty exciting drama, and at 200 pages a fairly quick read.
Claude
At the time of publication, Mr. Kasai was President and CEO of JR Central. The book details what hew saw and did from the time he started with JNR in 1963 through the collapse under government regulations, several failed reformations, and his work on the reformation committee that finally engineered the division and privatization of JNR.
Some interesting tidbits: The Tokaido Shinkansen was the most daring and questionable of the 3 alternatives for increasing capacity on the Tokaido corridor. The use of electric multiple unit trains was predicted to be an expensive failure, the line was a wasteful white elephant and the whole boondoggle was predicted to destry JNR if it was completed.
The Shinkansen, when completed was the only line they built which was profitable from the first year, subsidizing much of the government's massive construction programs. It recovered the construction costs in 10 years, but couldn't generate the level of profits needed to support the lines the government kept building to small back country towns that failed to generate traffic.
Debts kept mounting as the work force kept increasing to pay off political favors and restrictions on what the railroad was allowed to do kept strangling its ability to opeerate efficiently and focus on the core routes that generated the bulk of the finds; principally the Shinkansen and the Yamanote line.
Finally it was decided that no reform could save JNR as long as the government had authority over internal policies, and the break up into regional private carriers was the only remaining option to return to profitability.
I'm currently in the middle of watching them arrange the political maneuvers to begin the separation. Its a pretty exciting drama, and at 200 pages a fairly quick read.
Claude