Hurdles abound as Japan’s railway stations install platform-edge barriers but they are installing them

Hurdles abound as Japan’s railway stations install platform-edge barriers but they are installing them
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/30/national/hurdles-abound-japa...
JIJI
• AUG 30, 2016

Platform-edge doors are appearing at many of Japan’s busier railway stations to keep passengers from falling onto the tracks, but installation is taking time.
Hurdles abound as Japan’s railway stations install platform-edge barriers

Platform-edge doors are appearing at many of Japan’s busier railway stations to keep passengers from falling onto the tracks, but installation is taking time.

Problems range from the cost — up to ¥1 billion per station — to lack of space on platforms that need heavy structural remodeling.

The transport ministry aims to have platform barriers set up at 800 stations by the end of fiscal 2020.

But installation can only take place at night when trains are not running, and some stations simply do not have the space for teams to work.

The doors were seen as a solution after a blind man fell from a platform and was killed by a train at Tokyo’s Mejiro Station on the Yamanote Line of East Japan Railway Co. in January 2011.

There were 3,673 accidental platform falls nationwide in 2014, up some 50 percent from 2,442 in 2009. Around 80 incidents every year involve visually impaired people.

Following the 2011 death, the ministry drew up guidelines for doors to be installed, setting priority on those stations that handle more than 100,000 passengers per day.

By April this year, the barriers had been set up at 665 stations. But of the 251 stations with more than 100,000 daily passengers, only 77 had them.

Installation costs are split equally by railways, the central government and the governments of local communities where stations are located.

There was a fatal fall on Japan’s oldest subway line, Tokyo Metro Co.’s Ginza Line, on Aug. 15. Barriers cannot be fitted quickly on the line as other work is needed, such as reinforcing the platform foundations and removing pillars from platforms. The line went into service in 1927.

In the accident, a 55-year-old blind man accompanied by a guide dog fell from the platform of the subway line’s Aoyama-Itchome Station after apparently trying to skirt a pillar that interrupted a studded guide track for the visually impaired. He was hit by a train.

JR East is erecting platform barriers at all 29 stations on the Yamanote Line at a cost of some ¥55 billion. The work has been completed at 24 stations.

For the remaining five stations, including Tokyo, Shinjuku and Shibuya, a decision has not been made on when to install the barriers, due partly to large-scale station renovation projects.

Another hurdle is the structure of trains. West Japan Railway Co. uses train cars each with three doors for passengers on either side and some with four doors, which makes it difficult to design barriers to suit all carriages.

In 2014, JR West introduced a new wire fence-type platform barrier that drops into place from above, at Kobe’s Rokkomichi Station on the JR Kobe Line.

JR West is installing the barrier at other stations. The barrier moves up when a train arrives so passengers can get on and off, and moves down when the train departs. It can be used regardless of the number of doors on the train cars.

“Railways are trying to accelerate the installation of equipment to prevent accidental falls onto tracks, but it is difficult to substantially move up the schedules because there are physical limits, such as work periods,” a transport ministry official said.

For the now, the only way to prevent falls is to remind passengers verbally, the official said.

Following the Ginza Line tragedy this month, the ministry set up a task force comprising officials from 16 railways and other entities. It held its first meeting Friday to discuss ways to prevent similar accidents.

The task force aims to produce an interim report by the end of this year