A (long) Sunday read:
In the UK around 8% of all passenger kilometres travelled is by rail, the rest is by road (including buses); In Japan its nearly 28% by rail.
What have the Japanese done to keep this high(er) share of rail use. In short, they have returned to a model of regulation that looks much more like how the railways were bought into mass use in C19th; Japan's geography may also play a role but there's much of interest in this analysis.
#railways #politics
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-japan-has-such-good-railways/
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us has moved
npub1hr…f2ktj
2026-04-19 06:25:04 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1hr0x0gm9ksmvuvqwkyzfjuczv9pln83axuftxfhnq2maday69ypqtf2ktjSeen on
wss://relay.ditto.pubPublished at
2026-04-19 06:25:04 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "fe638991a2cbd381ab4480bd59d20c1781571fc1da367c08ec7b3bb2cf4d1ece",
"pubkey": "b8de67a365b436ce300eb1049973026143f99e3d3712b326f302b7d6f49a2902",
"created_at": 1776579904,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"railways"
],
[
"t",
"politics"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://zirk.us/users/ChrisMayLA6/statuses/116429940637348813",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "A (long) Sunday read:\n\nIn the UK around 8% of all passenger kilometres travelled is by rail, the rest is by road (including buses); In Japan its nearly 28% by rail.\n\nWhat have the Japanese done to keep this high(er) share of rail use. In short, they have returned to a model of regulation that looks much more like how the railways were bought into mass use in C19th; Japan's geography may also play a role but there's much of interest in this analysis.\n\n#railways #politics \nhttps://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-japan-has-such-good-railways/",
"sig": "27a68a506ebbd89db3f1fa8fbbd4e21660ee1bd7c4b0840eae6b843d750950cbbd772775daa0a9fe0cb4f9a89c20e007f049a6d4599dfbf0d436c5e6de38c8c4"
}