Barriers For Yamanote Line Platforms

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: JR East to install platform barriers to prevent accidents, suicides on Yamanote Line
East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) will install barriers on all platforms of the Yamanote Line loop around central Tokyo to prevent people from falling or jumping onto the tracks, officials said. The railway intends to complete the work at the 29 stations by fiscal 2017, JR East officials said. The estimated cost of the project was not available. JR East has already installed similar barriers at nine stations on the Tohoku and Nagano Shinkansen lines. The Yamanote Line project will be JR East's first for a conventional line, they said. The barriers will open only after the trains arrive at the platforms. At the nine Shinkansen stations, no people have fallen or jumped on the tracks since the barriers were introduced in fiscal 2002. JR East will first install the barriers at two or three stations on the Yamanote Line on an experimental basis to check how train schedules may be affected by the safety devices. The company will also see if commuters are inconvenienced by the narrower platforms. JR East began considering the barriers after three people died at Shin-Okubo Station in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in January 2001. A man fell onto the Yamanote Line tracks, and two others, including a South Korean student, jumped down from the platform to try to rescue him. All three were hit by a train and died.

[Bucky]

The railway intends to complete the work at the 29 stations by fiscal 2017, JR East officials said. . . . JR East began considering the barriers after three people died at Shin-Okubo Station in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in January 2001. A man fell onto the Yamanote Line tracks, and two others, including a South Korean student, jumped down from the platform to try to rescue him. All three were hit by a train and died.

Good thing they are moving quickly to solve this problem. 2017? Sheesh that is nearly a decade away! Oh, and I guess they finally studied the problem long enough if they are responding to an incident from 2001:shakeh:.

I guess you can't accuse them of rushing into anything.

[Greji]

Good thing they are moving quickly to solve this problem. 2017? Sheesh that is nearly a decade away! Oh, and I guess they finally studied the problem long enough if they are responding to an incident from 2001:shakeh:.

Hmmm, 2001, 2017? Looks a bit quicker than usual, most be some political pressure to move on this baby!

[Mulboyne]

The congestion issue probably has them scratching their heads. Take for instance Shinjuku Station:



That's the Chuo line platform but the Yamanote platforms are set out much the same. The widest structures on the platform are the staircase and escalator exit behind the orange bento kiosk and the other at the left of the picture. You can see there's already not much space to pass alongside and Shinjuku is not alone in being set out this way.

[Kuang_Grade]

Well, that still allows plenty of time for Suicide Club 2: The Quickening to be made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDd42fb-Ixo

While the barriers will eat into the platform space, knowing that you won't knock someone onto the tracks may up the speed people can move at the narrow points on the platform, so it may not have a huge impact on throughput, but it will put and end to zipping along the edge of the platform to skirt the crowds.

[ttjereth]

The congestion issue probably has them scratching their heads. Take for instance Shinjuku Station:



That's the Chuo line platform but the Yamanote platforms are set out much the same. The widest structures on the platform are the staircase and escalator exit behind the orange bento kiosk and the other at the left of the picture. You can see there's already not much space to pass alongside and Shinjuku is not alone in being set out this way.

I've always been puzzled by the need to cram the bento shops and little baitens onto the already ridiculously overcrowded platforms. Would it really kill the commuters to have them say at the bottom of the steps leading to the platform? The whole letting people buy stuff just as the train doors are shutting then running into the train never seemed to quite agree with their whole "kakekomi jyosha wo yame kudasai" schtick.

[kurohinge1]

. . . East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) will install barriers on all platforms of the Yamanote Line loop around central Tokyo to prevent people from falling or jumping onto the tracks, officials said. . .

Flock me!

[Greji]

[quote="kurohinge1"]

Flock me!

]

You gotta send me that train's schedule.....

[IkemenTommy]

Well then.. I guess I'll have to choose to jump into the Chuo Line or the Tokaido Line tracks to kill myself after they build the barrier fence.

But seriously, if you were seriously considering to kill yourself, you can hop over the fence and still jump into the oncoming train. Just watch how it happens.

[ttjereth]

Well then.. I guess I'll have to choose to jump into the Chuo Line or the Tokaido Line tracks to kill myself after they build the barrier fence.

But seriously, if you were seriously considering to kill yourself, you can hop over the fence and still jump into the oncoming train. Just watch how it happens.

Aren't the barriers/fences floor to cieling?

[Mulboyne]

Aren't the barriers/fences floor to cieling?

The Tokyo subway system uses two kinds:





The JR networks tend not to use floor-to-ceiling gates. To date, they have been installed more commonly for Shinkansen line platforms and these are mostly the lower gates.

Yes, you could climb over it but it does act as a deterrent. Not all suicides are determined to throw themselves on the tracks: for some it is a very impulsive move and any kind of barrier which forces such a person to make an extra physical effort is often sufficient to stave of the impulse.

[Visitor K]

Aren't the barriers/fences floor to cieling?

not if they half-ass it like they did those bike lanes!

i have seen cities do it both ways, but since one of the main reasons for the barriers is suicide, i would hope that they extend them all the way to the ceiling, and i suppose they assume people dont have enough imagination to jump on the tracks between stops?

[Mulboyne]

This is what they'll look like. The barriers will be introduced on a trial basis at Ebisu and Meguro stations this year with full installation to begin from 2010 and to be completed by 2017.

[Visitor K]

"...and midget suicide was dramatically cut..."

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Yamanote Line train cars to go from 6 to 4 doors

East Japan Railway Co. has announced that all train cars with six doors on each side currently used on Tokyo's Yamanote Line will be replaced with cars with four doors by August 2011 following the installation of platform barriers and gates. Installation of platform barriers and gates will start from fiscal 2010 with the aim of preventing passengers from falling onto the track. The cars with six doors were first introduced in 1991 in to reduce congestion. But the congestion on Yamanote Line trains has ebbed recently and seats, which are folded up from the first train until 10 a.m. on weekdays, will remain down from Monday.

[Taro Toporific]

Yomiuri: Yamanote Line train cars to go from 6 to 4 doors...But the congestion on Yamanote Line trains has ebbed recently and seats, which are folded up from the first train until 10 a.m. on weekdays, will remain down from Monday....

REALLY?!
I was under the impression that Yamanote was as crowded as ever even with the addition of the parallel Fukutoshin Line(which is too deep to be convenient).

[FG Lurker]

I love those fold-up seats, they turn the trains into very realistic cattle cars. (Except that no one would subject cattle to such conditions.)

Fuck am I glad that a) I don't live in Tokyo, b) When I did have to commute in Osaka that I drove, and c) These days my office is close enough that I can walk.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

What I want to know is, how is this going to affect the Halloween Party?

[Christoff]

What I want to know is, how is this going to affect the Halloween Party?

it will provide a mechanism for the nichanners to rap the evil gaijin

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

it will provide a mechanism for the nichanners to rap the evil gaijin

Fair enough...after all, they are evil mother-fuck gaijin protestant who go against God.

[IkemenTommy]

What I want to know is, how is this going to affect the Halloween Party?

It won't because
1) the seats are up only during the morning rush hour (~9:30)
2) there won't be any more Halloween Parties like they used to prior to 2007

[Mulboyne]

Here's the installation under way at Ebisu station.

[Mulboyne]

The Ministry has announced it will prioritize the installation of platform barriers at station used by over 100,000 travellers a day. Between 2002 and 2009, there were 1,253 incidents of people falling onto the tracks or colliding with trains and 80% took place at 100,000-a-day stations. Shinjuku, Shinagawa and Kawasaki are stand-outs.

Source (Japanese)