July 28, 2017
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2017 July 26 - August 1 [SOCIAL ISSUES]
JCP assembly members in Hokkaido urge central government to take measures to maintain local train services |
JCP Dietmembers Hatayama Kazuya (House of Representatives) and Kami Tomoko (House of Councilors) joined the petitioning held in the Diet building.
Cities, towns, and villages across Hokkaido could lose access to train services due to two reasons.
One is that Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) announced that it has difficulty in providing train services on nearly half of all lines in the prefecture.
The petitioners demanded that the Transport Ministry take necessary measures such as financial assistance to maintain local rail networks.
A ministry official said that the ministry will lend municipalities a hand to work out solutions to the problem. JCP member of the Asahikawa City Assembly Notoya Shigeru said, “In local opinion polls, 80% of the respondents called for government measures. The central government should draw up a program which helps JR Hokkaido continue its railway operations.”
Another reason is a serious delay in recovering rail tracks destroyed by natural disasters.
Regarding this problem, JCP Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly member Mashita Noriko said, “If roads are severely damaged by weather disasters, they are repaired without delay. Why are damaged train tracks neglected? This tramples on local people’s right to freedom of travel.”
Past related article:
> JCP Motomura: Gov’t should use tax revenues to maintain local train services and not for maglev railway project [February 18, 2017]
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