KAMAISHI, Iwate Prefecture--A local railway operator here that won the hearts and minds of the nation with its tireless efforts to rebound from the earthquake and tsunami disaster three years ago is set to resume full services on April 6.
KAMAISHI, Iwate Prefecture--A local railway operator here that won the hearts and minds of the nation with its tireless efforts to rebound from the earthquake and tsunami disaster three years ago is set to resume full services on April 6.
The Sanriku Railway Co. has countless fans around the nation because of its one-car trains that many equate with the charms of rural life in an earlier age.
Most of its lines and stations in Iwate Prefecture, which is part of the Tohoku region, were wiped out in the tsunami generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.
While Sanriku Railway is viewed as a symbol of rebuilding efforts in northeastern Japan, the company faces an uphill battle to remain solvent following an exodus of local residents due to the catastrophe that claimed close to 16,000 lives and left nearly 3,000 missing in Tohoku.
At the same time, the railway company can count on a huge outpouring of support from rail buffs and people sympathetic to its plight. It was thrust into the national spotlight after the popular "Amachan" series aired by Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) featured a rail operator based on the company.
Operations of the 15-kilometer route between Kamaishi and Yoshihama stations on the 36.6-km South Rias Line coastal route resumed on April 5 for the first time since the disaster. The 10.5-km run between Tanohata and Omoto stations on the 71-km North Rias Line along the coast will resume on April 6.
Tsukasa Kawabata was among 30 or so local residents and tourists who boarded the first train departing from Kamaishi Station at 6:10 a.m. The 73-year-old had to move into temporary housing in Kamaishi after his home was swept away by the tsunami.
Kawabata decided to ride by train to see the rebuilding of local communities for himself.
“It is very nice that there is a train service since I cannot drive a car,” Kawabata said. “It is also uplifting.”
The single-car train reached Sakari Station at 7:04 a.m. after picking up passengers at Heita, Toni and Yoshihama stations--for the first time since the disaster disrupted services at those stations.
The reopening was eagerly awaited by other local residents, among them Chonoshin Sawada, 85, and his wife Tamako, 85, in Ofunato, also in the prefecture.
“It will be easier for us to go to a hospital in Kamaishi,” said Tamako. “We are very attached to the railway and will follow the company’s progress just as we did in the past.”
For 10 years up to 2010, the couple used to wake each day at 4 a.m. to sweep Horei Station at the South Rias Line at the request of officials of what was then the town of Sanriku.
The Sawadas like to believe their home was spared because of the Sanrikyu Railway.
With the approach of towering tsunami, the couple headed for higher ground and watched the waves pound the line’s embankment.
Three months after the disaster, the couple resumed their cleaning activities at Horei Station.
Junichi Konno, chief of the operation section at Sanriku Railway, said the company still faces an array of challenges even though the decision has been taken to return to full service.
Konno, 53, joined Sanriku Railway as the first batch of employees when the train operator was established in 1984 as a joint public-private venture.
Back then, the annual number of passengers exceeded 2 million, which was beyond its capacity at times.
“Some high school students commuting to their school could not get aboard,” Konno recalled.
But the number of passengers shrank year after year in the face of depopulation stemming from the declining birthrate, as well as the spread of car use.
The company has operated in the red since fiscal 1994.
The earthquake and tsunami caused a terrible toll to the company’s facilities. Damage was found at 317 sites, including bridges, train stations and track.
In fiscal 2013, only 500,000 people used the company’s service, less than 60 percent of pre-disaster levels.
But that figure is higher than that of the previous year due to the airing of the NHK drama.
Rebuilding efforts stalled in many places across Iwate Prefecture, prompting an exodus of people. Another factor was that many residents made plans to move to higher ground out of concern over tsunami in the future, which meant they are more likely to travel by car than train.
“It will be a challenge to keep offering the service, but we want to remain a company that is loved by local people,” Konno said.
Even as far south as Tokyo, the famed railway company has its fans.
In the capital’s posh Ginza district, Yoko Otani, proprietor of Otani, a restaurant serving Kyoto cuisine, pitched a Sanriku railway trip to guests while handing out brochures.
Otani, 61, started the effort after she learned that one of the regulars at her restaurant headed a group of people rooting for the embattled railway company.
Keiichi Enomoto, one of her repeat customers, said he plans to take a trip on the railway late this month with two friends.
“I want to see how much rebuilding was done in the Sanriku area,” said Enomoto, 75.
About 8,000 people from around Japan took the train when the railway company offered runs under a program to get passengers to see how the rebuilding efforts had progressed in local areas.
Chiharu Arai, a Midorioka high school student from Ibaraki Prefecture who visited the Sanriku area in November on a school excursion, said she is determined to return to the stricken area in the future.
Arai, 17, said she felt a connection with the affected communities when she saw the devastation.
“I want to take a Sanriku railway trip several years from now to see how the local communities have been rebuilt,” she said.
(This article was written by Tateki Iwai and Hiroaki Abe.)