Photo/Illutration Safety gates on an unstaffed platform in Isahaya Station along the Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen Line in Nagasaki Prefecture (Provided by Kyushu Railway Co.)

Safety concerns have arisen since Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) withdrew personnel from most of the station platforms for Shinkansen bullet trains to improve business efficiency and profitability.

Platforms at 14 of the 17 stations along the Kyushu Shinkansen Line and Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen Line are now unstaffed, including Isahaya Station in Nagasaki Prefecture on the Nishi-Kyushu section.

There, a woman, 68, was seeing off her daughter on the evening of May 7, the last day of the Golden Week holiday period.

The daughter, on her way to Hakata Station in Fukuoka, was in the rear part of the bullet train. The mother was waving goodbye from the platform when the safety gates closed on the lower part of her body.

She quickly pulled herself away, but the gates again closed on her body, injuring her ribs and legs.

She sought help from a station employee at the wicket and was taken to a medical center where she was treated for a sprain.

According to JR Kyushu’s Nagasaki branch, no employees are deployed to the Shinkansen platforms at Isahaya Station.

Train conductors control the safety gates and are supposed to watch for passengers entering and exiting the carriages.

Asked about the accident, a JR Kyushu representative said the gates closed after it was confirmed that no one was within them, but a check was not made for people on a trajectory to enter them.

“We express our apology,” the official said. “We will be providing all crew members with comprehensive guidance on security check procedures.”

The injured woman said she “inappropriately stepped forward to send off my daughter due to my narrow visual field.”

But she also expressed anxiety about the platform.

“Big problems on those unmanned platforms may not be handled promptly,” she said.

SENSE OF SECURITY

The first unstaffed bullet train platforms in Japan were at Shin-Tamana Station in Kumamoto Prefecture in 2016 on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line.

By May this year, JR Kyushu was assigning workers to platforms at only Shin-Tosu Station, Kumamoto Station and Kagoshima-Chuo Station on the line.

Platforms at Hakata Station on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line and Sanyo Shinkansen Line are still staffed with officials from West Japan Railway Co. (JR West).

JR Kyushu has not disclosed its criteria for creating unstaffed platforms, but it says proper safety measures are in place.

Yoichi Kanayama, a special research professor of public transportation studies at the University of Toyama, said a remaining challenge is ensuring train crews can quickly respond to emergencies.

“Shinkansen are apt to have more cars than conventional trains in rural regions,” Kanayama said. “The question is how effectively conductors can detect and deal with problems on platforms.”

Referring to the recent accident, Kanayama suggested possible countermeasures.

“Cameras should be installed so that crew members can immediately grasp the situation, and a mechanism under which station workers can rush to unmanned platforms is essential,” he said.

Kanayama said railway companies should quell passengers’ fears about platform safety, given that more stations on conventional lines are being operated without permanent staff.

Transport ministry data showed that 4,564, or 48.2 percent of all 9,465 stations in Japan, were being operated without specialized personnel as of March 2020, up 5 percentage points over 20 years.

“Transportation systems should offer passengers a feeling of security, not to mention preventing derailments and accidents,” Kanayama said.

SAFETY STEPS

JR Kyushu is the only Shinkansen operator that has unstaffed bullet train platforms.

It said it has taken proper approaches, such as arranging for “conductors to readily confirm platforms’ safety” and “upgrading relevant equipment.”

The stations’ announcements urge passengers to stay away from platform safety gates when trains approach and depart, the company said. And it has installed monitors that help conductors ensure safety before opening or closing the gates.

JR Kyushu said station staff regularly patrol unmanned platforms, too.

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