Japan's weird little trains

Obsessed with these, honestly.

For those who don’t know, Japan has the regular JR trains that resemble commuter trains in the West. These are long, with lots of carriages. Of course, there are also the Shinkansen bullet trains. But I’m really fond of the small, 1- or 2-carriage trains that run on eccentric routes through cities, sometimes even on city streets for portions of the journey.

These little train lines were created long ago, before railway standardization, and often operate on a different gauge than most mainline trains. Because of this, they tend to have winding routes through historic neighborhoods, where the stations feel molded into the surrounding houses and environment rather than standing as separate structures. With their narrow gauge and small size, they can make some absurdly tight turns for a train.

They often have their own niche tickets that exist only for that specific route. The conductors have unique uniforms. If this were the West, they probably would have been shut down long ago for being “inefficient,” since newer JR lines and metro systems cover the same areas with faster, larger trains. But this is Japan so they persist, with decent local ridership and, presumably, good management keeping the old trains rolling.

Japan is stuck in time, and sometimes, that’s a great thing.