Japan’s ‘Little Trains that Could’ battle for survival

The News Craving

By PHILIP FONG / AFP TO GO WITH JAPAN-TRANSPORT-DEMOGRAPHICS-ECONOMY,FOCUS BY HIROSHI HIYAMA In the driver’s seat of a two-carriage train, Katsunori Takemoto puts on his white gloves and checks the antiquated gauges before setting out alongside cabbage fields in Japan’s rural Chiba. In the driver’s seat of a two-carriage train, Katsunori Takemoto puts on his white gloves and checks the antiquated gauges before setting out alongside cabbage fields in Japan’s rural Chiba. Like many small railway lines across Japan’s countryside, the 60-year-old trains that ply this route are a loss-maker, but Ta…

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