Japan Press Weekly

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2014 February 5 - 11 [WELFARE]

JR East will accelerate installation of platform gates

A major railroad company has decided to speed up a plan to install platform gates at stations in Tokyo to prevent passengers from falling off platforms. This is what visually-impaired persons and the Japanese Communist Party have long demanded.

East Japan Railway Company (JR East) on February 4 announced that it will finish equipping platforms with screen doors at 23 of the 29 stations of Tokyo’s Yamanote Line by 2015, two years earlier than the original scheduled date.

The company on the same day released its plan to invest one trillion yen to improve safety over the next five years. These measures include installation of platform doors and seismic retrofitting of railway viaducts and station buildings.

Yamashiro Kanji, director of the National Counsel of Visual Disabled in Japan which has long demanded installation of safety barriers at stations, welcomed this announcement and said, “When putting up platform gates, JR-East should listen to those of us who have a direct interest in enhancing the safety of riders.”

Past related article
> JCP works to install platform gates at subway stations in Tokyo [June 11, 2013]