The government is working to expand the cargo transit system across the nation to provide large containers for international maritime transportation on overland rail lines. To this end, it plans to begin feasibility trials with Japan Freight Railway Co. within this fiscal year to examine operational and other issues.
The move to use freight railways to transport maritime containers is designed to enhance the response to the so-called 2024 problem in logistics, where the transportation capacity is feared to decrease due to stricter regulations on overtime work by truck drivers.
Most marine containers comply with international standards that set the height at about 2.9 meters and the length at about 12.2 meters - larger than the railroad containers currently in use across the country.
Although marine containers are larger than 30 centimeters taller, there is a possibility that they may not fit through tunnels if they are carried on ordinary railroad freight cars. For this reason, tunnel ceilings are not used, except in some areas where tunnel ceilings are high enough.
To transport cargo in maritime containers arriving for transshipment, cargo is transferred into railroad containers or loaded onto trucks.
Japan Freight Railway's low-floor freight cars will be tested in the planned feasibility trials. The floor level for loading containers was lowered by 26 centimeters by making the wheels smaller than those of conventional cars. One freight car can carry a marine container.
Four low-floor freight cars have already been constructed, and the government plans to test them on routes connecting the Tokyo metropolitan area with cities on the Sea of Japan coast to see if they can safely pass through tunnels in various regions even when loaded with tall marine containers.
The government is also investigating other concerns with low-floor freight cars, such as the potential for damage to the cargo they carry, and conducting a survey to determine the demand for integrated sea-land transportation, in which marine containers are carried by rail directly without transferring the cargo.
The creation of rail lines leading to ports and facilities to load marine containers onto freight cars will also be an issue to be considered in the future.
A freight rail line is common in portyards, where marine containers can be craned directly from ships onto rail cars.
But the construction of rail lines in Japan is not progressing. The transport of cargo from ships to freight stations relies on trucks, but if the shortage of drivers becomes more serious, truck transport at ports could also be bogged down.
The government needs to act quickly to prevent a clogged logistics network.