Hokuriku Shinkansen Extension Newly Seen Costing 1.7-7.9 T. Yen

Tokyo, June 19 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s transport ministry on Friday showed new cost estimates for eight candidate routes for the planned extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train line between Tsuruga Station in the central prefecture of Fukui and Shin-Osaka Station in the western prefecture of Osaka. Including future price rises, the estimated construction costs for the eight routes range from 1.7 trillion yen to 7.9 trillion yen. The estimates were presented to a meeting of a related committee between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party. The cost for the main candidate route, connecting the Fukui city of Obama and Kyoto Station in Kyoto Prefecture, located between Fukui and Osaka, is projected at 5.5 trillion yen to 5.8 trillion yen, up from the originally estimated 2.1 trillion yen and from 4.8 trillion yen to 5.2 trillion yen projected by the ministry in 2024. Least costly is the so-called Maibara route, which links Tsuruga with Maibara Station in Shiga Prefecture, south of Fukui and east of Kyoto, and allows passengers to transfer to the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, leading to Shin-Osaka, at Maibara. This route is now estimated to cost about 1.7 trillion yen. Of the eight candidates, the cost-effectiveness ratio, calculated by dividing profits by construction costs, is the highest for the Obama-Kyoto route, estimated at 1.1, when the calculation is made for the whole of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka stations. The ratio is put at 1.0 for the seven remaining candidate routes. Cost-effectiveness of over 1.0 is one of the conditions for the selection of an extension route. For sections for which construction has not begun, the estimated cost-effectiveness ratio is the highest for the Maibara route, at 1.0, while that for the Obama-Kyoto route stands at 0.5. Based on the estimates, the two ruling parties aim to narrow down the candidate routes by the July 17 end of the current parliamentary session. After Friday’s meeting, the LDP’s Shoji Nishida, co-head of the ruling coalition committee, told reporters that cost-effectiveness ratios are “reference figures” and that the parties concerned will choose an extension route comprehensively after conducting hearings with related municipalities. Meanwhile, the JIP’s Seiji Maehara, the other co-head of the committee, said his party wants to attach importance to the comparisons of the assessments for sections for which construction has yet to start. In 2016, the LDP and its then coalition partner, Komeito, decided to adopt the Obama-Kyoto route for the planned Hokuriku Shinkansen extension. The Kyoto prefectural and city governments, however, expressed concerns about fiscal burdens and possible negative impacts on the environment. The JIP, which formed the coalition with the LDP last year, proposed assessing the Obama-Kyoto and seven other routes as candidates. Approval from local governments along the possible routes would be necessary in the selection process. Excluding expenses to be borne by the Japan Railways Group side, two-thirds of the construction costs will be covered by the central government and the rest by local governments. But the Kyoto city government is reluctant to bear the burden. “If we think normally, it is unacceptable,” Kyoto Mayor Koji Matsui told the press Wednesday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]