A private railway is a railroad run by a private business entity (usually a corporation but not need be), as opposed to a railroad run by a public sector .
11-766: The Tobu Nikko Line ( 東武日光線 , Tōbu Nikkō-sen ) is a 94.5-kilometre (58.7 mi) railway line in Japan operated by the private railway company Tobu Railway . It branches from Tōbu Dōbutsu Kōen Station in Miyashiro, Saitama on the Skytree Line , extending north to Tōbu Nikkō Station in Nikkō, Tochigi . The line has two branch lines: the Utsunomiya Line at Shin-Tochigi Station in Tochigi , Tochigi, and
22-862: A joint-stock company , or in Japanese: kabushiki gaisha (lit. stock company), but may be any type of private business entity. Although the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies are also kabushiki gaishas, they are not classified as private railways because of their unique status as the primary successors of the Japanese National Railways (JNR). Voluntary sector railways (semi-public) are additionally not classified as shitetsu due to their origins as rural, money-losing JNR lines that have since been transferred to local possession, in spite of their organizational structures being corporatized. Among private railways in Japan,
33-455: A major strike protesting the breakup (and layoffs of tens of thousands of employees) of JNR in 1985. Though private railways such as industrial railways have existed in Japan they are not deemed shitetsu nor mintetsu in Japanese, as their purpose is not public transit. Tokyo Metro is a member of Japan Private Railway Association but is under special laws and its stock is owned by
44-694: The Japan Private Railway Association [ ja ] categorizes 16 companies as "major" operators. They are often profitable and tend to be less expensive per passenger-kilometer than JR trains that also run less dense regional routes. Private railways corporations in Japan also run and generate profits from a variety of other businesses that depend on the traffic generated through their transit systems: hotels, department stores, supermarkets, resorts, and real estate development and leasing. Japanese railways, whether government run, semi-public, or private business, are subject to
55-618: The Japanese Government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (pending privatization). The Japan Private Railway Association counts Tokyo Metro as one of the 16 major private railways. In the United States , a private railroad is a railroad owned by a company and serves only that company, and does not hold itself out as a "common carrier" (i.e., it does not provide rail transport services for
66-813: The Kinugawa Line at Shimo-Imaichi Station in Nikkō. As of March 2013, stops and service patterns are Notes: The Nikko Line opened (dual track and electrified) on 1 October 1929. In 1943, the section north of Kassemba was reduced to single track and the recovered rails used to build the Tobu Kumagaya Line . Electric limited express services first started operating from February 1949. From October 1960, new 1720 series "Deluxe Romance car" EMUs were introduced on limited express services to and from Nikko. From 1 June 1990, new 100 series "Spacia" EMUs were introduced on limited express services, and
77-804: The Japanese government after the Ministry of Defense . The ministry oversees four external agencies including the Japan Coast Guard , the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Japan Tourism Agency . MLIT was established as part of the administrative reforms of January 6, 2001, which merged the Ministry of Transport , the Ministry of Construction , the Hokkaido Development Agency [ ja ] (北海道開発庁 Hokkaidō-kaihatsu-chō ), and
88-483: The general public). Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism ( 国土交通省 , Kokudo-kōtsū-shō ) , abbreviated MLIT , is a ministry of the Japanese government . It is responsible for one-third of all the laws and orders in Japan and is the largest Japanese ministry in terms of employees, as well as the second-largest executive agency of
99-493: The maximum speed of these was raised to 120 km/h in 1992. A connecting track at Kurihashi was built to the JR-East Tōhoku Main Line ( Utsunomiya Line ) from 18 March 2006, allowing through-operations of Nikkō and Kinugawa limited express services to/from Ōmiya , Ikebukuro , and Shinjuku . From 17 March 2012, station numbering was introduced on all Tobu lines, with Tobu Nikko Line stations adopting
110-455: The prefix "TN" in orange. The former Skytree Train and 300 series limited express trains, Rapid , and Section Rapid services were discontinued from the start of the revised timetable on 21 April 2017. Private railway In Japan , private sector railway ( 私鉄 or 民鉄 , Shitetsu or Mintetsu ) , commonly simply private railway , refers to a public transit railway owned and operated by private sector, almost always organized as
121-753: The regulations enforced by the Railway Bureau [ ja ] of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism . They may join unions such as National Railway Workers' Union and General Federation of Private Railway and Bus Workers' Unions of Japan , but their abilities to call a strike is severely limited by government legislation; there is very little tolerance for railway work stoppage. Employees of private railways may legally strike but its unheard of in Japan. There have only been two notable railroad strikes in Japanese history, both by employees of government run entities (government employees are legally barred from striking): One in 1973, and
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