Why Japan's Railways Are So Good

Japan's railways are pretty cool...but why? And suck rails British do why?
twatter: / _britmonkey

[@invictusvis4814]

Honestly, the most surprising thing about this is that a Private Rail monopoly has created an effective system that does not rob its customers blind.

[@abhishek_singh9]

Hard working people +Free market Capitalist + Honest people in Democracy =Japan

[@abhishek_singh9]

@@andrewadams3976 Yea... but Japan is a free market country... Monopoly of companies can be broken , challenged or taken over by other big players... Free market is like a ruthless Game of Thrones.

[@TheRealZeke2003]

@@abhishek_singh9 This is anything but free market. It's literally a fucking Monopoly. Private Company =\= Free Market

[@eruno_]

JR is "private" company.

[@ryan1840]

@@TheRealZeke2003 monopolization is the natural outcome of free markets, as one company out-competes, consolidates, and expands into new markets more efficiently than others who then can't keep up with services or pricing offered

[@il-dottore]

Japan: Guys, I can expla- Russia: Your high-speed passenger rail runs at 320 km/h at a maximum!? Ours runs at 250 km/h at a maximum Great Britain: 250 km/hr at a maximum!? Ours run at 200 km at a maximum! United States: You guys have high-speed passenger rail?

[@theodorepatel514]

Lol

[@theodorepatel514]

Us politics are shit..

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

@@theodorepatel514 How and why?

[@robertevbayekha6639]

@@theodorepatel514 when I read your comments I think to myself what the hell is actually wrong with you honestly

[@lilacdoe7945]

@@theodorepatel514 I disagree simply because I do not want to agree with Stalin. Thanks for winning WW2 though.

[@TransportSupremo]

8% the speed of a bullet fired from and ar15. That one got me, bloody hilarious

[@seneca983]

Can it really be called a "bullet train" if it's such a low percentage of the speed of a bullet?

[@CoolMan-ig1ol]

I did the math and it is more close to 9%.

[@hermask815]

@@seneca983 the Japanese name translates “new main line” . I don’t know who came up with that bullet nonsense.

[@seneca983]

@@hermask815 The word "bullet train" is a general term and not the name of any country's system (as far as I know).

[@seneca983]

@@hermask815 Obviously reaching such speeds wouldn't make economic sense even if it were possible. I was just joking and the moniker "bullet train" isn't meant to be taken that literally.

[@chienbanane3168]

To be fair, giving a complete monopoly to 1 company and expecting them to do a good job and not abusing their power is the kind of thing that can only make sense in Japan

[@antonioklaic4839]

If you forget your wallet in Japan chances are you will find it right where you left it when you return

[@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042]

When people actually care about the rail system and they don't have UK bureaucrats ruining it all, it's not that hard to run a good system. Compare that to Australia which is using UK "expertise" and shooting it's self in the foot. We really should get the Japanese to show us how it's done.

[@hah5196]

👀..dude JR is not a single entity. It's a union of several companies. They compete with each other too. Companies have distributed in various zones. If you don't do well other may take over.

[@raunaklanjewar677]

@@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042 Ah, civilising the westerns, nice idea!

[@gmontanher7588]

Did we watch the same video? JR is a group of companies, not a single one.

[@generaln.gabriel1240]

In Japan an 1 hour delay makes the news?, Here in Eastern Europe we cal an 1 hour delay a blessing from the god

[@blagoevski336]

The Balkans are worse kek

[@Focus10021]

Here in romania the average delay in a year is 3-4 years.

[@generaln.gabriel1240]

@@Focus10021 I see a fellow gypsy hater and Ardeal e Roman supporter

[@AvoxionYT]

I feel like I almost had a heat stroke waiting for the train in 40° weather this summer in Bulgaria. Hey at least you can stick your head out the window on these old carriages though. The same carriages that were used while we were still in the USSR, which is quite impressive

[@generaln.gabriel1240]

@@AvoxionYT Here in Eastern Europe wo make it work somehow, well my country of Romania bearley provides any funding for CFR our national railway company and its forced to work as a private business, but because this is Romania CFR dosent make a lot of money because of corruption and ticketless travelers

[@altaccount648]

"If it's over an hour late, it'll make headlines" *cough* "Japanese Train Company departs 20 seconds early, issues apology"

[@georgyekimov4577]

@@gideonroos1188 man thats how im going to explain it to my teacher

[@hamanakohamaneko7028]

Well, early has a bigger effect than late, since there is a chance someone misses the train. If it's 20 seconds (or even 2 minutes late), it's going to recover it almost instantaneously because of the punctuality.

[@metal665lica]

*Japanese train is late* Japanese: GASP! 😲 *British train is early* Brits: GASP! 😲😲 *Philippine train exists* Filipinos: GASP! 😲😲😲

[@zyancuerdo7392]

Totoo ka ang train Dito non existent na date ang busy Nyan nyayon palang ito I extend pero di connected

[@ricedanan]

This is the best comment I have ever seen about our train lines.

[@amitkothekar8406]

Indian train: arrives 2 hours late Indians: a blessing from the lord

[@hanshintermann1551]

*German train is NOT late* Germans: GASP!

[@suyogv8235]

American train exists Americans: GET IT OUT OF MY SMALL SURBURBAN COMMUNITY!

[@charonsferryold]

Could be worse, it could be America where you just plain can't travel to most of the country by rail.

[@FDNY101202]

Why when you can drive a diesel dodge ram with a mini gun mounted on the roof and 2 of your fake titted cousins riding shot gun 🇺🇸🤷

[@eurasiaacaci.-110]

Atleast you have good roads

[@commandochipmunk5576]

@@eurasiaacaci.-110 I mean.... not really?

[@SenorGuina]

@@commandochipmunk5576 oh man, the quality of the roads is mostly great, specially when compared to most countries, the problem is really traffic laws and the cities being builty around the roads

[@Jerome...]

Yep, like almost like the US is a very large place.

[@peterjerman7549]

Railway owned housing, Railway owned restaurants, Railway owned police, Railway owned schools... Yep it's ANCAP Japan time.

[@Brtt4849]

:,)

[@auxiliarypowerunit]

By now they have Railway hire chefs, Railway nannies, Railway shared umbrellas, Railway hotels, Railway nusuries, And railway bicycle parking Edit: The train company in my area also offers Railway buslines, Railway supermarkets, Railway convenience stores, Railway Breadshops Railway Taxies, and Japan's largest online undershirt retail store, Plus has large properties throughout Asia and Australia.

[@TerrierMartello]

Railway now owns a empire larger than the universe

[@sirnikkel6746]

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY PROPERTY URAAAH! URAAAH!

[@artificial_S]

@@auxiliarypowerunit my dream

[@IKEMENOsakaman]

When I was on a flight from Tokyo to New York, some engineers from Kawasaki Railroads sat next to me. We chatted, and they told me that they were on their way to New York for an annual check-up of the New York subway. They complained that American workers were always so unprofessional and never took care of their infrastructure, and every year when they went there for a check-up, nothing was fixed, and it was always worse and worse.

[@rawrimadeinosaur7513]

Yeah I'm an American in a Manufacturing shop and most of our work is fixing stuff. My boss often complains about how shit a lot of these big American Companies are.

[@SASMADBRUV7]

@@rawrimadeinosaur7513 I've heard that stereotype about how badly built American products are. What actually is the cause of that do you think?

[@rawrimadeinosaur7513]

@@SASMADBRUV7 management, stuff from the US is actually high quality and will last a long while if you take care of it. But when you have new management that wants to change things and they often ruin a company. But that's not just an American problem that's a company problem. Edit: also a lot of our stuff is made from China

[@sonic23233]

Our steel isn't made in China it's going to be made in Japan

[@24killsequalMOAB]

Fully Privatise it all

[@ar1su]

More people need to know about this topic. Absolutely nobody understands how amazing trains are.

[@NIRDIAN1]

*coughs in Dutch*

[@oxey_]

Adam Something has been inspring many these days I think!

[@katharinasei.1807]

I hear the dutch do understand this ... and the Japanese and Swiss obviously :D

[@thanosal-titan]

In Japan, there are bunch of people called Densha Otaku. They are absolutely understand how amazing trains are. Basically, train is a God for them

[@quanbrooklynkid7776]

@@NIRDIAN1 shut up

[@davidlawand2805]

"...best thing since hentai..." -BritMonkey

[@lalachan9658]

Oh you heard it too lmao

[@raisou9750]

@@lalachan9658 Yeah, I heard that, and I'm willing to listen to that 350536 times.

[@Tobu9105F]

@@lalachan9658 same

[@musicismoreimportantthanyo9246]

Do you like music?

[@jackthompson7125]

Bruh, did he really just bring up hen tie in an otherwise totally sfw video about trains?

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

“This demon spawn” instant subscribe

[@hinduimperium4885]

Just a question why do some Britishers hate Thatcher, I know 2 things 1st she show heavy handedness against irish separatist and 2nd taking away milk and as far as I know Thatcher was not in favour of tain privatization.

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

@@hinduimperium4885 she also helped finish off Northern England’s local industrial economies, and Scotland lost a whopping 20% of its workforce.

[@willforest5302]

@@hinduimperium4885 there are some of us who love her and think she was probably one of the best prime ministers, its not as simple as all british people hate thatcher

[@CoolMan-ig1ol]

@@willforest5302 she did many good stuff and some wrong decisions. tho, she did not privatise the railway and it was good under Thatcher, the video is partly wrong there

[@willforest5302]

@@CoolMan-ig1ol I'm a big Thatcherite so id tend to agree. She turned the sick man of Europe into one of the strongest economies in Europe. She wasn't perfect though and I think that in many ways she really harmed the unity of the country

[@thekernel843]

As an American, thank you for the Ar-15 reference🙏 I now know how fast those shinkansens go.

[@GTAVictor9128]

300 km/h is 180 mph, which is the speed a typical sports car can reach.

[@VJETRA]

@@GTAVictor9128 you don't compare a giant train to 4 passengers car, also you cant use that speed 99% of the time .

[@lilacdoe7945]

Tom Scott has a video showing the British rail route than ran without any passengers for like a decade. They closed the terminal that went to a ferry that no longer existed, but kept running the route because it was cheaper than not going 🤣

[@thestudentofficial5483]

I bet they could even run the train on paper only and not a single soul in the island would notice

[@lilacdoe7945]

@@thestudentofficial5483 Shreveport Louisiana is a good example of paper routes. Back in the day the riverboat casinos could only allow betting while traveling on the river (land based casinos are illegal). Over time that became where they only had to travel a few times per week to prove it was a functioning ship or something. Nowadays, they've built bridges I doubt the boats can even go under and the casinos have built elaborate walkways because they are permanently fixed to shore. Imagine that, a ship that cannot undock without a demolition crew visiting first 🤣

[@leongkinwai9709]

I think that was a Geoff Marshall video

[@harrystockdale6400]

@@thestudentofficial5483 someone would notice then they would complain then the train company would get fined

[@robertwilloughby8050]

Ah, yes, the infamous "parliamentary trains" whereby one train runs on one route just to keep it open - look up the line between Stalybridge and Stockport for proof. (The line may have the last laugh, though - York-Cardiff trains might run that route from 2025 onwards. And we couldn't do that if it was shut, now!)

[@USBearForce]

"Mussolini made the trains run on time." Hirohito: "And I took that personally."

[@ebnertra0004]

I read a history of Mussolini and it pretty clearly said that even he couldn't make the trains run on time

[@kikivoorburg]

Britain had a system extremely similar to that of Japan’s today between 1923-1948. (4 major companies competed among each other but cooperated when it came to inter-regional services, they owned everything, and they were able to make money from adjacent services to the railways.) It is overwhelmingly considered to be the Golden Age of Britain’s Railways. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[@TonboIV]

That's not really a good comparison though. In 1948 mass market air travel and freeways weren't really a thing yet, so the railways didn't really have any competition except other railways.

[@Joostuh]

@@TonboIV both planes and cars are many times less efficient than trains. If trains are managed well cars and planes shouldn’t be able to compete on price.

[@TonboIV]

@@Joostuh I mean yeah, there's a lot to say about that, but comparing the 1920s-40s to the 1980s is still a bad comparison. It was two different worlds for the transportation market.

[@captainbutplak4344]

@@Joostuh really depends on population density and distance...

[@Joostuh]

@@captainbutplak4344 Those metrics also affect cars and planes.

[@maycontainnuts3127]

I'm British and I found that moving into the city instead of commuting was cheaper than paying for a train ticket every 3 days or buying a railpass for a year.

[@sagichdirdochnicht4653]

Not only in Britain, the same Crap often goes for other countries. Germanies Trains are pretty god damn expansive as well. They can have reasonable prices, when you plan LONG ahead (like 3 Month +), but trying to get a long distance train with reasonable speed that won't make you bankrupt is almsot impossible. There isn something SERIOUSLY wrong, when fucking planes are cheaper then Rail. I mean there is of course the Option of a Car. And to be fair, with depraciation, repairs, insurance, tax and fuel calculated in, Trains are in Theory cheaper, but since Public Transportation to and in the rural Areas are often unuseable, many people need a car anyway, and the fuel needed to travel is most of the times a lot less, then what a stupid train ticket would cost. It's a fucking nightmare. Especially since I H A T E driving with a Passion, especially long distances. Being able to eg watch a Movie, read a book or do whatever is SO much better then staring out a Window for 5 hours straight - driving is fucking horrible. But when the train literally costs me tripple the Gasoline price, it's kinda hard to justify the Trainride. It's mindblowing. Goverments and shit all over the world wanna get people to use public Transportation more for obvious reasons, but most of them fail HARD to make them a as good or better Option then a Car.

[@NIRDIAN1]

@@sagichdirdochnicht4653 I LOVE the Dutch train network and infrastructure, but honestly the pricing is outrageous and I might not be able to afford regular travel for much longer... 14€ for an under-1h trip... :| Might just have to invest in a racing bike and figure out how to handle 8-10h daily commutes...

[@sagichdirdochnicht4653]

@@NIRDIAN1 I feel ya. At least the Dutch train network is useable most of the times AFAIK. For a trip down to my parents I would need to pay around 12€, but it's only 30 Minutes and my parents would need to pick me up from the trainstation. Otherwise I would need another train and a Bus, pay 18€ in total and would need around 2 hours or more to get home. While my car will do that distance from door to door in under 30 Minutes and gasoline for that distance isn't that much. Long Distance sucks hard. You NEED to plan ahead. 2-3 Months at least. From Augsburg to Berlin, a trip that I've done in the past, which is around 550-600 Kilometers, you can pay up to 120€. Do I look like I can shit gold nuggets? Planed ahead, like 2-3 Months at least, you can get down to 30€, which is a reasonable price for that distance on a high speed connection. But the regular price, that is just to god damn high, my car can do that with less then a third of the cost.

[@badass6300]

yes, but now you live in the city and cities are hell holes.

[@sagichdirdochnicht4653]

@@badass6300 Not really. But depends on were you are and what you prefer. In most North American Cities, yes. Many European Cities aren't. You will propably sacrifice having a Garden, but other then that... Noise is most of the times under controll. Everything I need on a daily bases is at walking distance, public transport trough the city is fantastic and I can get pretty much anything I could want here without the need of driving. But if you need a big private Garden, which I can totally understand and have a very quiet Neighbourhood, cities aren't for you. I prefer Cities tough. Again, depending on your Region. American Cities are for the Most Part hell holes.

[@mukundgupta2959]

“If a train is an hour late it makes headlines” *Laughs in India*

[@VishalDubey]

*gasps in Hindi*

[@harshit2.02]

When train arrives next day due to heavy rainfall Indians: atleast it arrived

[@shivanshna7618]

Actually we are more punctual than british at worst in recent times it was 30% delays now 10 and getting better every year.

[@jmsalgorithms]

Really did a good job pointing out the factors that many don't see when mentioning Japanese trains. While the economics is largely true for the JR group, it is also the case for the major private railways. A lot of these private railways are part of massive conglomerates which basically allows them to have complete control of operations. I think many don't realize this but their definitions for "Commuter Rail" and "Subway" are largely different compared to at least the western world, and certain methods of operations (such as through services of commuter trains running on subway lines) may further explain why Japanese rail operations are superior.

[@CoolMan-ig1ol]

And private trains must pay for tracks they use on a 10 minute basis. It is unprofitable to run late.

[@DaroriDerEinzige]

And then you've the "Deutsche Bahn" which is also in private hands but simple pockets the money and let the State finance the whole stuff which leads to a slow decay anyway.

[@SK-mi5qv]

@@DaroriDerEinzige Three weeks in using the public transit ( sadly I have to ) and I had to experience: Two strike's, one week after the other, on 5 days they arrived to late ( 20+ minutes ). Three weeks. How can they even justify the increasing price, that will happen next year as well? and do not forget, that there is another strike coming soon ( the area I reside in ). And than they have the audacity to say:" Use the public transit more often". Not with this awful service. If you can DEFINITELY stay FAR away from it. Heck, I love cars but I adore nature as well. Use the bike or even just walk, if you can but DON'T use DB.

[@eruno_]

Japan railway was also good even before it was privatised

[@CoolMan-ig1ol]

@@eruno_ it developed rapidly after privatisation and got the reputation for being on time only after privatisation.

[@gerardoalarcon1497]

The fact that I know what "8% the speed of a bullet fired from an AR-15" is but have zero references to how fast 300km/h actually is made me shed a tear while a bald eagle flew overhead.

[@pablojp3498]

As a spaniard i hate how we are always overlooked in this things. We're the second country with the most high speed trains kms (not per capita but overall!) and I've never heard problems due to heat. Furthermore, high speed trains are always on time and when they aren't they speed up to arrive to the destination on time.

[@juliansmith4295]

If Spanish rails don't have a problem with heat, British rails really shouldn't. What are they made of, rope?

[@sacleocheaterz]

Your last sentence reminds me of a certain video of a train driver going a little too fast... even so, the Spanish HSR is very efficient, affordable and well routed.

[@Moses_VII]

Yes, Spanish HSR is extremely impressive

[@glntv5217]

Cries in german

[@jimjam5239]

@@juliansmith4295 did you actually watch the video? HSR requires a certain type of track. In Britain, we have this but only limited to sections, or HS1. It doesn't matter if a hotter country doesn't have any problems, if our infrastructure is antiquated and overdue for replacement.

[@valerievankerckhove9325]

I'm half-Chinese half-Belgium, and moved to Belgium a few years ago. Once, my Chinese mom was visiting and she said 'The UK has beautiful small villages! We should plan a weekend trip! It's close by and there's a train from Brussels to UK!' So we looked up the train schedules and we were rather shocked to see the travel times. There went our UK small village weekend getaway plan...

[@balls9420]

Down in Cornwall its even worse since we are cut off from the rest of the UK with a lot of things. We are usually a year or two behind the rest of the UK. So our rail infrastructure despite being the place that invented the steam locomotive is in a shocking state. A train every half hour. Not to mention other public transport in Cornwall...

[@JoseTwitterFan]

Also with some Japanese tracks and trains being more uniform in standards, it also allows tracks owned by one public or private company to be shared by different train companies for "through services": Some metro trains can also run on conventional-rail commuter tracks and vice versa, thus reducing the amount of transfers one passenger must make even further. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_train#Japan

[@jackeldridge1319]

Tbf, through services still have a lot of the problems of Britain's entire rail service. Because these aren't served by singular conglomerates or companies, there's a lot of disorder and they often struggle to meet demand or factor in delays. So the worst problem with the Japan Rail system is also the worst problem with the British Rail system, but in Japan it only plays itself out to a very minor extent. So Japan's Rail system, although excellent, still shows why privatisation is dumb and stupid

[@hamanakohamaneko7028]

To be fair, a lot of times the through trains are by companies that don't compete with each other or a metro line run by the city government. Odakyu competes with JR East on a line. JR Central and JR East don't like each other very much. JR Central allows Odakyu through service on its line.

[@KasirRham]

It seems Japan has a lot of collaboration and interoperability. Here in the state the private companies would be hiding their operations from each other and competing for government contracts. You wouldn't want to ride the trains here.

[@pieppy6058]

c2c (best uk rail company) is owned by an italian company which i can only imagine is operating at a loss to get political capital from the uk government. c2c is rarely late, the servive is great. its affordable. southend (the town it connects to london) has a huge rich areas on the side where commuters live (suspiciously surrounding the lines).

[@KasirRham]

@@pieppy6058 yeah, there up to something

[@notnjx5270]

C2C also has the distinction of not having many branches, I imagine that helps, instead of commuterhell victoria where you have the wonderful opportunity of going to 30 destinations

[@milesarcher.]

I travelled a lot by Shinkansen about 10 years ago on an extended business trip. I recall you could flip the seats around 180 degrees to face your colleagues. I think they flip all the seats around when the train has to go in the opposite direction. The Japanese like to face forward I think, hence the ability to do that. And the staff (conductors etc) would bow when they entered and left a carriage. And you could really feel the acceleration, like being in sports car. That was unexpected. Oh, and the commuter lines around Tokyo, each station has its own jingle that plays when a train arrives. Awesome!

[@Nick-kz6dg]

3:58 "We're building a big useless HS2." But also... 4:04 "HS1 is not enough." 4:51: "Shinkansen run on separate tracks which lets them go fast." Either the UK needs HS2 or its useless. Which is it??

[@burgerpommes2001]

Britain needs hs2 for extra capacity

[@seneca983]

In Japan, the railway gauge is the rather narrow 1,067 mm. However, the Shinkansen uses the wider standard gauge of 1,435 mm. In Britain the 1,435 mm standard gauge is what's in use so possible high speed routes shouldn't need separate tracks just to get a wider gauge (though there can possibly be other reasons).

[@benjamindesson5326]

@@seneca983 A couple of other reasons, HS2 is not purely about train speed but increasing capacity by separating local and region services from intercity services, requiring extra tracks to be laid for overtaking. With many mainlines in UK having houses and other structures beside them it is not feasible to expand 2 track sections to 4 track etc. Other issues are some mainlines have corners that are too tight and 3 mainlines would need upgrading to do what HS2 can do alone.

[@choppership465]

without hs2 birmingham can never succeed

[@jgcondron]

There's a huge amount of misinformation in this video. Trains don't run on petrol. Concrete is irrelevant to the expansion of steel. 125mph is the max speed of mainline services (excluding HS1). How is that 1/3rd of 186mph? The max speed of the Shinkansen is 320km/h, not 300km/h. Thatcher was against railway privatisation.

[@kaliyuga1476]

The fact that the UK invented the train, the US used it the most during manifest destiny and now Spain, France, Japan... Are far better than then at it

[@haechiwr]

They are too busy working on freeways and airports :)

[@ilcubo32]

Just like football?

[@DangItshere]

@@ilcubo32 "we are the first, now we are the worst" - Jay Foreman, Unfinished London

[@kaixiang5390]

The Americans have a massive cargo train network. Largest in the world

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

@@kaixiang5390 not as huge passenger network. if only we got our act together

[@reindert144]

*casually plays Big in Japan in background* Good one dude, good one!

[@rokano]

A few years ago I was lucky enough to ride a Japanese diesel train from the 70s.

[@yeastov5470]

One thing that bothers be about the trains in Wales is that unless you use them regularly, it's really difficult to figure out where the he'll the trains are going. The amount of times I've been on a train that was marked as going to where I need to go, then it straight up drives past my station is frustrating. And in Cardiff station, I have yet to see a single train map, instead we have boards with thousands of time stamps written on it. And the only train map I have seen was at another station that was practically hidden behind a cafe, like train maps are some kind of illegal substance that needs to be dealt in alleys.

[@the_embarrassed_lemon5967]

It's slightly easier for me as its just one line Aberystwyth to Birmingham execp for some stations you have to ask the conductor to stop or else they'll just skip it

[@choppership465]

wales

[@MrMarinus18]

The EU should take a page from Japan and create a consortium of railway companies. This is not an unprecedented thing. In the 1980's they already did something similar when most of the European airplane manufacturers banned together to create Airbus.

[@rtr0_insn323]

It’s interesting to see a corporate monopoly actually providing an excellent service quality, I’m really wondering how ?

[@pumpkinhill4570]

It's in their interest to have lots of happy passengers not just to collect more fares, but to make them want to live and shop and eat in and around their stations since they're all big real estate companies too. Also, the Japanese government never shrugs its shoulders about them just because they're private companies; they're more than willing to step in and take action if there's a problem.

[@yohannessulistyo4025]

The corporations are part of the community, the organisation is typically just a faceless entity carrying the spiritual idea of its founder. They have obligations to the Japanese society. When JAL went bankrupt, the CEO took a paycut, sold his car and took taxi to office. And when the situation doesn't improve, he take buses. JAL did not get preferrential treatment from the government, for having "Japan" on its name over ANA's "Nippon" namesake, or other players, be it domestic or foreign. Competitors are often asked to help / voluntarily assist struggling rivals for greater good ("there is enough room for us under the sky"). Shareholders / investors / capitalists will hold back their greed of demanding greater return on their investment to save "my ideal retirement place of Japan, where JAL planes still roam its skies". In USA / the west, corporations are individuals seeking to be personified, so they tend to ask the same rights as ordinary Americans: being listened by their government, but with greater influence-wrangling power: lobbying money. Their interests often superseded public interests. They are also capitalistic in nature that they listened too much to non-interested shareholders / investors / capitalists who often blindly demand profits, and ended up ruining the business: "I don't care about operations anymore, why the profit doesn't grow from last year?" When a company doesn't meet target profit growth, the CEO gets replaced, until they found one that can deliver the profit growth numbers. Nobody cares about what Henry Ford or William Boeing envisioned the company to be or what are their values that are still relevant today. Instant profit for today is all that matters. Let's pick one case of JR business model: making their train station a shopping centre: that works great for the public, busy Japanese commuter could just shop or dine along the way. In the west, they will simply shrug and tell the board: "we are not property / real estate business, we want to focus on our value chain" - rinse and repeat of their self-aggrandizing business textbook theories.

[@rtr0_insn323]

@@yohannessulistyo4025 wow interesting, I also noticed the culturally different approaches by which Japanese and western capitalism reason, anyway thanks for this response man I really appreciate it.

[@hamanakohamaneko7028]

I feel like cars and buses are still competitors

[@TheRealZeke2003]

To put it simply because the Japanese government have managed to make it so it's actually more profitable to make a better service.

[@DavidfromBA]

As someone who enjoys traveling by train, and who wishes Amtrak served more towns and had access to train infrastructure even remotely comparable to what was depicted in this video, I have to tip my hat to The Japan Railways Group. In my native France, trains are reliable and practical as well - when the SNCF (France's national railway company) isn't on strike, at least.

[@LordSandwichII]

1. The UK uses concrete sleepers on most of the network as well. 2. Most of our tracks are welded together. 3. Hs2 is not "pointless", it is designed to relieve pressure on the West Coast Mainline, so that more slow trains can run locally. Also, it'll be the fastest train in Europe, so Yay to that!

[@samreagan6292]

This is interesting. When you give a company a "monopoly" over the train network, service is not decreased or more expensive because they have a monopoly over that mode of transportation, not any mode of transportation.

[@samreagan6292]

Amtrak has a monopoly over rail transport in the US because the stations that were subsidized and saved out west were prioritized for saving since they had no other viable transport option. Not close to the interstate or international airport. Whereas amtraks northeast corridor(Acela) - competing with both I-95 and the international airports of almost every major city along the route - is profitable. You would think that that competition would drive prices into the ground and the monopoly out west would be the money maker for Amtrak however the opposite is true.

[@GregVidua]

I think Spain's high speed rail network is becoming even more impressive than Japan's. Barcelona to Madrid in 2.5 hours on a clean, fast, quiet train for just 5 Euros if traveled out of peak hours is insane.

[@juliansmith4295]

5 Euros from Barcelona to Madrid? That's not a typo?

[@GregVidua]

@@juliansmith4295 not a typo. AVLO is Spain's cheap high speed service; it runs between Barcelona - Zaragoza - Madrid 3 times a day during off-peak hours and tickets one way go from 5 EUR up to 45 EUR depending on how early you get them and time of departure. If you are planning a trip few weeks ahead you can regularly get them for 5 EUR.

[@juliansmith4295]

@@GregVidua That's amazing. Thanks for the information.

[@vulpes7079]

With how Spanish politics constantly is, I'm sincerely amazed by this

[@hamanakohamaneko7028]

Seriously??? That's like 4% the price of the Tokyo-Osaka ticket. But to be fair, the Tokyo-Osaka corridor is so busy and crowded that there are pretty much no "out of peak hours".

[@masenformen]

A lot of people in the comments seem to misunderstand what JR is. They're a cluster of private companies that cooperate for business purposes, not a conglomerate. They don't have a governing body, or any CEO of sorts. Saying they're a monopoly or that they're the same company is like saying the Ivy League is a single institution with a lot of campuses.

[@Asdayasman]

I'm kinda sad you didn't go into why Britain's government decides the schedules and their allocation (to make sure rural areas have service), and how Japan ensures that by contrast.

[@PatheticTV]

The idea of building property on top of the railway is done all the time here in Hong Kong, and the MTR even has a whole neighbourhood called LOHAS Park where you can live, eat, shop and work all on MTR property.

[@conorduffy693]

Love these styles of videos and yours are made so well, keep it up!

[@doriangreg1601]

I went to Japan before as a kid, but when I went back 2 weeks ago I was so amazed by how well the public transport was there. Like not just the trains, but even the busses work so well. They have this card too that holds money that can be used for all public transport, and all train lines from JR line to the seibu lines etc, that help makes things easier. Idk how to explain it all but it was so convenient, and I was never bothered to walk from one place to another because of it

[@rolandaustria7926]

Japanese people don't even use the Train Cards much anymore. It's all imported into the phones and smart watches now. When a foreigner tourist comes into Japan and searches a train route on Google Maps for example, it'll suggest an app. That app now does what the Train Cards used to do: Pay for everything in the country. Train gates, convenience stores, vending machines, shopping malls, restaurants, buses, all of it are paid with a swipe of your hand. Especially with the chip shortage, you CANNOT buy a physical train card in Japan anymore.

[@StarboardPitotTube]

@@rolandaustria7926 edit: you CANNOT buy a physical train card in *the Kanto Region* anymore.

[@cactussauce3452]

Its frustraiting that you don't get more coverage. Another awesome video.

[@SpatsirkSpart]

What has Thatcher not ruined?

[@peterjerman7549]

Sadly my cock. No CBT for the lads D:

[@p.w.5813]

You won the falklandwar, right?

[@SpatsirkSpart]

@@p.w.5813 I am not Thatcher

[@raMio.]

falklands war

[@SpatsirkSpart]

@@raMio. I said not ruined

[@querube78]

Watching this as an American feels like watching someone who is eating McDonald's praise someone for eating Fogo de Chao while we're out here eating dollar store steak.

[@specialopsdave]

Couldn't have said it better myself

[@lild3838]

*mr crabs sad violin

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Americans have no need for High-Speed Rail. A waste of money for something not enough people will ever use to make it profitable.

[@specialopsdave]

@@robertortiz-wilson1588 One of the most expansive countries in the world doesn't need efficient, high speed travel? You gotta tell me what you're smoking, it must be strong stuff

[@f1r3hunt3rz5]

@@specialopsdave America for sure need trains, but.... Their car culture is so ingrained in the citizens that it's simply impossible to take away cars from them because "that's the American way".

[@Digephil]

To be fair, I have absolutely fallen in love with Transport for Wales. Might not be the fastest trains, but they got me from Cardiff to Tenby for £20 in a few hours.

[@idk-zi3gw]

Dam imagine 3x faster trains

[@archie4oz]

The amusing thing is you keyed off one of big things about the Japanese transit rail model, the fact that the rail companies are diversified interests that own real estate, retail, etc. (including payment systems you forgot to mention), but while the UK hasn't been able to replicate it, one of its former colonies HK (MTR) has it copied brilliantly down to a T.

[@comit7926]

Finally, a British person who actually understands how we measure speed. Thank you

[@tstcikhthys]

The Shinkansen is insane and a modern marvel. Also, +1 for properly pronouncing _kilometres._

[@SalvadorCiaro]

It sounds like even though JR is a for profit company the main thing isn't really for profit.

[@CoolMan-ig1ol]

It is. It has never made a loss except for the years 2008, 2020, 2021, 1990. Also, JR is not a single company, it is a group of cooperating companies. It is like saying Apple and Google are a single company because they cooperate in having google search engine as the default or they cooperate in "using our data for advertiser friendly purposes".

[@SalvadorCiaro]

@@CoolMan-ig1ol I don't think you got what I meant.

[@SalvadorCiaro]

@@CoolMan-ig1ol they use other sources of income to kind of Subsidized the transportation part of the company's.

[@jacobarcher1097]

@@SalvadorCiaro yeah this, providing rail service itself will never be profitable, but it will increase efficiency and quality of life for the public in general

[@beneveritt2720]

I think the phrase ‘built by public, operated by private’ might help answer your question. JR still receives public funding to upgrade its infrastructure or build new lines, in exchange for taking the risk to provide a service to the public

[@kowrow]

another thing that makes japanese railways work is the culture: keeping things clean, not causing problems for others, being respectful of public property (so like societal expectations), unspoken laws about trash and food, and not doing seedy shit in corners of the stations (pervs being the exception), and lack of graffiti if one day other countries do somehow get the exact same railways systems, they won’t be maintained or cleaned as well as the ones in japan

[@sammagic1115]

Thatcher didn't privatize British Rail, John Major did.

[@TrafficPartyHatTest]

The "8% of the speed of a bullet" comparison did unironically help me understand how fast the trains are

[@u.syadav5321]

India has MORE electrified railway then Britain that's about 65%

[@Brtt4849]

True japan has 80% but japan is helping India

[@anitathakur9340]

@@Brtt4849 I hate Britain, if they would have colonized Japan they would have taken all the credit for the development of Japan

[@Brtt4849]

@@anitathakur9340 that’s true

[@anitathakur9340]

@@Brtt4849 ikr , they would just be like OH japAN AND CHINa ThEsE COnTRIES DEVLOpED BECAUSE OF US ,WE GAVE ThEM ENGLISh

[@Brtt4849]

@@anitathakur9340 And If It WeRent FoR uS tHaN tHeY wOuLd Be In tHe 1990

[@pipersolanas3322]

I love your channel. Binge watched most of your videos.

[@morenofranco9235]

Great, BritMonkey! This is informative and FUN!

[@panzervpl9406]

Trains in Poland: average delay 30min Meanwhile planes: you need to get to the airport 2h earlier so you don't miss your 3h delay

[@LinkWave290]

11/10 video for the Dragon Quest music 😁

[@augustosani]

3:34 oh thanks man that clears it up for me

[@joooja]

I finally watched it, thanks for this beautiful video

[@SkSafowan]

This is more of a Japan and UK Railways comparison video rather then "Why Japan's Railways Are So Good" Explanation video Anyway it's still great, just try to make the title more accurate next time.

[@charliecharliewhiskey9403]

So what I take from this is, when deciding whether to privatise infrastructure, you should either go all in on privatisation, Or all in on nationalisation, but NEVER a halfway house where you hamstring both Companies AND Government.

[@sacha5555]

Hate to this, but trains are diesel based, not petrol

[@Lucaestheticc]

It runs on air

[@darthvader3535]

@@Lucaestheticc wrong it runs on tracks

[@sirnikkel6746]

@@darthvader3535 wrong it runs on wheels

[@iPownYouN00B]

@@sirnikkel6746 wrong it rolls on wheels

[@elpsykoongro5379]

@@iPownYouN00B correct it rolls on wheels

[@GaryJust]

Just subbed after having been watching your videos for quite some time. Keep it up, man!

[@hesterclapp9717]

I mean, HS1 is basically a piece of French TGV track that just happens to be in the UK. I mean, the speed limit is measured in km/h, the signalling system is all français and the only reason it was built was because of France

[@juanbaker8717]

I like in japan, the operator changes depending on the direc5ion of the train. For example, a train from sendai to sapporo will be operated by jr hokkaido. Vice versa will be operated by jr east

[@hamanakohamaneko7028]

No, you change the operator on the border station between JR Hokkaido and East. Direction doesnt matter

[@amcraft2031]

I can feel that I need to watch this channel regularly!

[@tristankawatsuma8962]

From what I'm hearing, it sounds like Japan's success over Britain's railways is due to the government actually giving full private control to the companies, but Japanese National Railway did some type of internal split basically making smaller copies of itself. The fact that these companies all belong to the same monopoly, have the same name, and use the same trains honestly makes it sound like a national system or just one big private company. Heck, maybe the government should have just had JNR become a private company instead of splitting it up, since JNR's descendants are practically brothers. Of course some JR Group companies still need government funding such as JR Hokkaido and JR Freight which spans across the nation, though that may be due to the automotive industry being more successful in some regions. After all, railways in Japan only transport 5% of goods in the country. However, I think another reason for the JR Group's success is also due to their culture of service and honor. Western nations are a little too into capitalism and money compared to Asian nations.

[@polskark]

im japanese and this makes me proud

[@andrebelefleur332]

“Can’t I get to Edinburgh in less than 4 hours?!” *cuts to a class 55 Deltic* you have earned yourself a subscriber for that laugh.

[@__-fm5qv]

Big in Japan in the background is a nice touch

[@oh_wall]

5:16 I adore the Starflight Express theme used for the punctuality section

[@notdpanda9525]

They're making a new line that's twice as fast.

[@SandTurtle]

Imagine having public transport. I showed a railmap of chicago to someone from germany, they said it looks like a city with 300k people. You can shop daily at walmart, own platinum tvs and high speed internet, have an entire room dedicated to computers, and never use public transport your whole life in the us

[@mundexpp]

man, i found this channel at 50k subs and its now 150k every good channel i find is good

[@mistertestsubject]

Funnily enough, on my first night in Japan in 2019, the first regular passenger train I got on broke and limped to the next station for 45 minutes. Every other train we took for the holiday was perfect though.

[@sebastiangruenfeld141]

Meanwhile here in Germany a train is legally considered punctual if it arrives within 16 minutes of the schedule

[@DSan-kl2yc]

I hope your jobs also use that rule

[@sirnikkel6746]

Latinamerica: Wait, you guys have -trains- train schedules?

[@user-cy7dx1wh3d]

This channel is really incredible. I would never expect this is a video from a youtuber with only 1.3k subs.

[@jmstransit]

and 1 year after posting it has 108k subs. Unreal

[@hammeredo]

3:29 this part made me spill my sake

[@sofialmeidah]

Oh, I remember to this day when in 2014 a train was 12 seconds early in Japan. You heard it right, EARLY. And it turned into a scandal so great that the news got to many other countries and the company had to apologize publicly.

[@kuyaleinad4195]

The thing is, railway companies owning real estate isn’t even a foreign concept in the UK since many of London Underground’s stations were owned by the companies who built the track. Most of the Northern Line North of Camden Town were built with this concept where the stations were there before the housing and they made money on the land built up around the stations 🤷‍♂️

[@choppership465]

metroland on the metropolitan line?

[@Cotswolds1913]

I do hate to crash the party, but the land tax in Japan did not calculate the "unimproved value of the land." It's not a Georgist land-value tax.

[@Cotswolds1913]

@@gideonroos1188 I’ve done a lot more research on land value tax since making this comment, and my views have shifted a bit. I still think the attempt to do the impossible (to know the “true value” of a specific land parcel you would have to subject it to an actual exchange) will introduce a fair bit of distortion in land factor markets, as well the fiscal burden for more assessment officials. However, property taxes also introduce distortion, even if less, and I don’t think these considerations overwhelm the underlying advantages of the scheme in comparison to income-based taxes or property taxes, i.e. the effect of not taxing the marginal investment of capital into land, for the purpose of the latter’s improvement, and that being backed up by data showing the before and after rates or construction permits being applied for, in municipalities who instituted an LVT, especially of late in Pennsylvania. And especially because the burden of taxation can be shifted a lil bit, from ordinary residential owners to wealthier ones. That’s looking at this question from a strictly utilitarian or Friedman-esque view mind you, I could not possibly have less respect for Georgist philosophical diatribes on land ownership, which are easily torn apart.

[@Pancakegr8]

Had to drop a like for the quarter that didn't freaking drop on a fast ass moving train got damn lol that was pretty great.

[@williameve7088]

Enjoying the big in Japan background music

[@tracycove257]

and British invented railways

[@gabbar51ngh]

Japanese perfected it. Science is something which progresses with time.

[@Astr0_Feline]

And Japan invented Shinkansen

[@weasdf8718]

@@gabbar51ngh first of all the trains are not perfected yet

[@snxw69420]

@@gabbar51ngh first time I am seeing a comment to a comment with more likes than the original comment

[@typemasters2871]

As a British person myself, I can understand why the whole railway system hasn’t been torn out and replaced with a more efficient one All thanks to the old saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” a.k.a “if trains can run on current track, then what’s the insensitive to spend money to tear it out and put in new track?”

[@kokokoko2koko]

Amazing content, keep it up! it should have 10x the number of views!

[@ethanthechickenprotector5892]

My history teacher just watched this with us

[@aguspuig6615]

8% the speed of a bullet fired from and ar15 thats like 1,5 football fields per second, take or leave a quarter of a baseball field

[@MrHat.]

Um aKtUaLlY Basketball doesn't have fields, it has courts

[@danielinnes8839]

Listening to a British person calling their system shit when I get 4 trains per day to a city of 500k in Canada.

[@juliansmith4295]

I really hope that HFR announcement actually turns into something real this time, but I'm not holding my breath.

[@XMysticHerox]

Well it is shit but unlike in North America it actually exists.

[@Lherme]

Underrated channel holy shit

[@jumbo_mumbo1441]

Thank you for covering to AR bullet speeds. This is really the only speed metric I understand.

[@alt51801]

hahaha as an american. Thank you for converting metric to bullet speed.

[@lazergurka-smerlin6561]

So being able to coordinate between multiple levels of control makes it easier to effectively engage in a cooperative effort toward a singularish goal? Who knew!

[@user-uv6qz7dm6h]

Hi all. I live in Belarus. Our trains are not even close to Japanese or even British trains😅😅😅, but ..... A ticket from the capital of Belarus to almost any major city will cost from 4 to 10 dollars. The approximate distance is from 250 to 300 kilometers. In terms of time, this is approximately from 4 to 7 hours, not very fast of course🥲🥲🥲))) But the price🤩🤩🤩!!! For ten dollars you can buy a ticket in a compartment with all amenities where there will be only two people - you and your travel companion. Or even buy both tickets to go alone. Something like this, bye everyone ... Peace✌✌✌

[@foty8679]

In Germany a train is only officially counted as late if its over 15 minutes lol.

[@AlohaBiatch]

Hmm as a Japanese person I would disagree strongly that the different JR companies are run as cooperating "sister" companies. Their network is completely different, the ways they run the company (safety culture etc...) is also very different. The only thing they share is that they used to be the national rail and keep the JR + region name. Most of those companies are also on the Tokyo stock exchange and therefore it would not really be true to say they reinvest their earnings into rail. Recently a lot of rural jr lines have been closing because they lose too much money. However it is true that for many of them a large part of their business is real estate, shopping etc.. Which helps explain their success.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

Do people want it to be government run again? Or are they happy or okay with the current system?

[@AlohaBiatch]

@@DSan-kl2yc people are happy with the current system, I have never heard of people asking for renationalisation. The only publicly run railways left in Japan are some subway systems (Sapporo, fukuoka, Kyoto, Toei) etc.. Which are usually run by the city. Toei in Tokyo is one of two subway systems but soon they would like to privatize it as well so they can merge it with Tokyo metro (making fares cheaper for people who have to transfer)

[@Brtt4849]

Thanks from japan 🇯🇵:)

[@lordsiomai]

I can't believe that you made a video about a monopoly running things and actually convinced me that it works. Japan truly built diff fam.

[@sleepyguy4237]

I think it works is cause the Japanese government will slap the railway monopoly if they do not satisfy the customers. While other countries governments are just giving free passes at the monopolies especially at the expense of their own people.

[@StarboardPitotTube]

@@sleepyguy4237 It really isn't a monopoly. Japan has tons of private lines that run parallel to JR lines and that competition is what keeps JR on track. JR does slack off where they don't have competition though, especially in the countryside.

[@aur-1998]

Thanks for the information