TOKYO: Giving a second life to abandoned railways as tourism resources has become a popular trend among Japanese local communities striving to bolster their economies.
With the central government’s support for cycle tourism, which is aimed at enthusiasts from at home and abroad, full-blown cycling trails have been built or are being planned across the country.
Nearly 10 of such roads involve discontinued railway routes at locations from Hokkaido to the north to Nagasaki and Oita to the south in the main island of Kyushu.
They once were among the number of tracks abolished over the decades as regional railways diminished their role as a means of mass transportation amid waves of motorisation, depopulation and a shift in industry focus more towards high-speed trains directly linking large cities.
Aside from these factors that have resulted in a significant drop in passenger numbers for local train services, natural disasters have forced some regional rails to be deserted without being restored due mainly to
cost problems.
Currently in Japan, there are about a dozen railway lines where services are suspended, partially or entirely, after they were struck by natural disasters including heavy rains, typhoons and earthquakes.
The future looks uncertain for some of those mostly deficit-ridden lines, and the railway operators and local governments concerned could seriously consider not only their fate but benefits from possible use of their facilities after discontinuation.
Offering a precedent for the conversion of an ill-fated railroad, one of the tourism promotion projects is underway in Nagasaki Prefecture aiming to establish a cycling road that can gain international recognition.
A 35-kilometer section of what once was a 78.5-km Shimabara Railway line is being rebuilt for a cycling route 16 years after the last train passed there to close its 80-year history.
A series of eruptions of a nearby volcano halted services in that section several times in the 1990s, although the passenger factor was a direct cause
for it to be cut indefinitely in 2008.
The city of Minamishimabara, which has jurisdiction for the areas encompassing the section in question, decided by 2019 to convert most of it into a path for cyclists and pedestrians.
The cycling road was partially opened in 2022 and is expected to be fully opened during the 2024 fiscal year starting in April, although snowballing construction costs are giving city authorities a major headache.
The city is home to ruins of Hara Castle, a World Heritage site and the scene of the Shimabara Rebellion, a fierce battle between peasants, most of whom were Christians, and the Tokugawa shogunate that took place nearly 400 years ago. There are also hot springs along the way.
“We want to attract people who enjoy cycling and stay in hot spring facilities,” Masahiro Yoshihara, a 42-year-old city employee, said. “Running on this road makes you feel a breezy sense of delight.”
Yoshioka served as a guide for a bicycle tour in a coastal section of the trail in early December, leadi
ng about 20 bicycle riders who also enjoyed drops-in at an observation platform and a souvenir shop, among other attractions.
Such a form of cycle tourism is drawing many enthusiasts due to a growing health awareness, not to mention the economic and environmentally friendly benefits.
The gentle gradients of roads originally laid out for trains make ideal cycling paths, with the advantage of utilising station huts and other existing facilities for rest stops and other purposes.
According to the central government’s White Paper on transportation policy, there were approximately 560 km of railroad lines in Japan that were discontinued between April 2010 and April 2023.
The government scheme for bicycle utilisation was approved by the Cabinet in June 2018, helping to encourage cycle tourism.
Even before the government endorsed its backing, a 180-km cycling course opened in Ibaraki Prefecture in 2016, featuring the abandoned tracks of the former Tsukuba Railway and a public road that runs along the Kasumigaur
a lakeshore.
The Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Ring Ring Road, located about one-hour drive from central Tokyo, is attracting many cyclists, and they generally appreciate its easy-to-access location and the retro-tinged atmosphere surrounding old-fashioned station buildings used as rest stops.
The Kubiki Cycling Road in the Joetsu area, Niigata Prefecture, stretches a little more than 30 km along the Sea of Japan coast. It was transformed from the railway tracks used for a Hokuriku Line section that was closed for rerouting.
The road has gained popularity among young enthusiasts for its public relations character, Kubiki Rin, which was created by students at a local vocational school and plays a major promotional role largely through social media.
Of these, the Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Ring Ring Road has been designated as one of the handful of the “National Cycle Routes” under the government-backed campaigns for creating cycling roads capable of meeting international standards and thus attracting cycling enthusiasts on
varied levels from in and outside Japan.
Other designees include the Shimanami Kaido Cycling Road, a 70-km toll road running along the expressway linking Hiroshima and Ehime prefectures across the Seto Inland Sea in western Japan, and the 403-km Tokapchi 400 route in Hokkaido that is laid amidst vast plains.
A 2021 survey by Roots Sports Japan, a Tokyo-based company promoting cycling and running sports, showed there were 13.82 million cycle tourism users in Japan during 2020 – 2021, with expectations high that there will be an influx of tourists from Europe where cycling is particularly popular.
“Areas around train stations originally had many shops, and converting these (abandoned tracks) into cycling routes is an effective means of promoting tourism,” said Masahito Ono, 59, a senior official in the office for promoting the use of bicycles at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Ono, who also heads the Sanso Network, an organisation that encourages leisure cycling, emphasised the
importance of creating environments that are easy for tourists to visit, featuring information signboards and other amenities.
Source: Emirates News Agency