Japan Press Weekly

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2015 August 26 - September 1 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP parliamentarian urges Kyushu railway company to eliminate unstaffed stations

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Majima Shozo on August 31 together with a group of Fukuoka citizens made a representation to Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu), the major railway operator in the Kyushu region, demanding deployment of staff to 12 unmanned stations.

JR Kyushu in March removed all its staff from the 12 stations on its Kashii Line in Fukuoka Prefecture.

In the representation, the citizens’ group demanded that all stations on the Kashii Line be staffed and be stations that are barrier-free.

A JR Kyushu official said that passenger service and safety at unstaffed stations can be improved through over-the-phone support and the use of surveillance cameras.

Pointing to the fact that the company showed reluctance to respond to local residents’ concern about railroad trespassing by children near unmanned stations, the citizens’ group countered that the quality of the company’s passenger service is declining.

JCP Majima said that the company’s stance to ignore the decline in service quality may lead to a severe accident and called on the company to revise its profit-oriented policy and listen to train service users and residents in a sincere manner.

A representative of the citizens’ group said, “To allocate sufficient staff to a station is the most effective measure to assure passengers’ safety and realize a people-friendly railway station. This is acknowledged even by the national government. We’ll launch a signature collection campaign in order to push JR Kyushu to abolish unstaffed stations.”

Past related article:
> Unstaffed train stations will not ensure passenger safety: JCP lawmaker [March 12, 2015]