THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 9, 2023 at 14:31 JST
A packed Tokaido Shinkansen platform at JR Tokyo Station on May 3 (Wataru Sekita)
Rail and road traffic during Golden Week recovered to pre-pandemic levels, according to Japan Railways and highway operators.
The number of rail passengers across the country during the April 28 to May 7 holiday period increased by 30 to 40 percent from the previous year.
This was backed up by data released by six JR companies on May 8.
The figure marked a 94-percent recovery from 2018. The average number of daily passengers was the seventh highest on record since 1990, when such statistics were first collected.
Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said it logged a 100-percent recovery from 2018. Its Shinkansen trains carried 3.567 million passengers during the holiday period, an increase of 1 percent from 2018.
Expressway operators said the average daily number of cars on 40 major routes across the country grew by 6 percent to 42,000 compared to the previous year.
The longest traffic snarl, stretching for 54 kilometers, was recorded May 3 near the Fujioka Junction on the outbound lanes of the Kan-etsu Expressway in Gunma Prefecture.
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