TOKYO: Japan’s transport ministry is calling on neighboring local railway operators to collaborate over the management of facilities and train cars as well as the education of employees.

The ministry hopes that the efforts by five operators of conventional railways running alongside the Japan Railways Group’s Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train line to share parts and participate in each other’s training sessions will be a model case for such cooperation. It aims to promote specific collaboration methods to help enhance local railway firms’ operational efficiency amid the challenges posed by labor shortages.

The five operators in question–Shinano Railway Co., Echigo Tokimeki Railway Co., Ainokaze Toyama Railway Co., IR Ishikawa Railway Co. and Hapi-Line Fukui–and the ministry began identifying areas for collaboration last December. The firms later agreed on specific measures for collaboration and started to implement them.

The measures include sharing the lists of spare parts, such as pantographs and motors, that the firms have in stock to prepare for possible breakdowns. The companies hope that mutually supplying parts based on the shared lists would help swift repairs, while it may take a long time to procure parts from manufacturers.

Additionally, some of the operators will jointly purchase and store rail-related spares. They will also operate snowplow trains across each other’s sections in times of heavy snowfall to improve efficiency.

The five companies will join hands over employee education to maintain and enhance technological capabilities.

They have shared their respective schedules for derailment recovery and disaster response training so that they can take part in or observe each other’s drills.

The firms have created opportunities for their staff in charge of employee education and training to share information and know-how, and are mulling conducting joint training sessions in the future.

The transport ministry aims to spread this kind of cooperation nationwide, including among railway companies whose train lines are not running alongside Shinkansen lines, by, for example, facilitating discussions among operators through its district transport bureaus.

JIJI Press