Photo/Illutration Passengers crowd Shinkansen bullet train platforms at JR Tokyo Station on Aug. 11. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Both road and rail travel were down as this year’s Bon season was drawing to a close, compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The six Japan Railway companies on Aug. 18 released their passenger figures for the period between Aug. 10 and 17, showing only about 84 percent usage compared with 2018.

The 46 main routes of those companies, including Shinkansen bullet train services, drew a combined 9.355 million passengers.

The figure represented an increase of 37 percent over 2022.

It emerged that 1.588 million passengers used the Tohoku Shinkansen, which was 86 percent of the 2018 figure, while 2.685 million passengers took the Tokaido Shinkansen and 1.386 million opted for the Sanyo Shinkansen.

In late July the six companies said reservations had reached 92 percent of the figure for 2018.

However, powerful Typhoon No. 7 led operators of the Tokaido and Sanyo bullet train lines to suspend their operations Aug. 15. The arrival of the typhoon prompted many people to alter their travel plans.

The four expressway companies released their average daily traffic volume for major sections between Aug. 9 and 16. The total came to 44,100 vehicles, an increase of 7 percent over 2022.

The operators reported 261 traffic snarls of 10 kilometers or more and 14 that extended for 30 km or more over the period. Both were increases over last year.

But compared to 2019, traffic volume fell by 11 percent and the number of traffic jams of at least 10 km was also down by 42 percent.

An official with Central Nippon Expressway Co. said traffic volume in the first half of the Bon season was close to that of pre-COVID-19 years, but that the approaching of Typhoon No. 7 led to a major drop in traffic in the latter half of the season.

(This article was written by Yukihito Takahama and Ayateru Hosozawa.)

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