Hiroshima Commuters’ Inconvenience Continues

July 24, 2018

Hiroshima- Commuters in Hiroshima Prefecture are suffering from prolonged inconvenience caused by torrential rains two weeks ago, with local train services on West Japan Railway Co. or JR West, lines still widely unavailable and a trunk road remaining partially closed.

On the mudslide-hit Kure Line, the section between Hiro Station in the city of Kure and Hiroshima Station in the western Japan prefecture's capital will not be reconnected until November. Replacement bus services are being offered.

Full restoration of the Sanyo Line, whose roadbed was swept away by rain, is also expected to come in November.

Complete recovery is expected to take more than a year for the Geibi Line, which lost a bridge in the downpours.

Meanwhile, a toll road connecting Hiroshima and Kure remains partially closed. Its operator hopes restoration work will be finished in November.

Midori Kano, a third-year student at Hijiyama Girls' Senior High School in Hiroshima, normally takes a Kure Line train at Tenno Station in Kure to go to school. With the train services suspended, she stayed at a school dormitory for a week, she said.

After the summer holiday ends, Kano will have to commute by bus as train services will remain suspended. It takes two hours for her to go to school by bus, or twice the time of commuting by train. "It's a pain, but you've got to deal with it," she said.

A 73-year-old resident of Hiroshima's Aki Ward drives to Sanyo Line's Kaitaichi Station, to which train services are available from Hiroshima, every day to pick up a niece. Trains cannot come to his nearest station until mid-August.

"I have to be patient," he said.

Local companies have been taking measures to ease the commuting difficulties.

Mazda Motor Corp.  now allows employees who usually commute on local rail lines to the company's headquarters or plants in Hiroshima to use the high-speed Sanyo Shinkansen Line or their own cars.

For those who choose to use cars, the company is recommending ride-sharing to avoid causing congestion.

Bicycles and used vehicles attract high demand in the prefecture, now that a number of residents have seen their cars submerged in floods and public transportation services disrupted.

A used vehicle retail store in Hiroshima was swamped by a crowd of people on Sunday.

"We're selling more vehicles than a year earlier," said the president of the retail group.

A household goods store in Kure has so far sold 50 to 60 bicycles per day, four to five times the usual level. Motor-assisted bicycles are popular among long-distance commuters, the store's chief added. Jiji Press