The District of Joban Misato City Railway

Misato City Railway

From The District of Joban

Misato City Railway (美里都市鉄道, Misato Toshi Tetsudo), also known as Mitetsu or MCR, was the first urban railway company in the Lamtsu area. The company operated from 1948 until it's acquisition by Harmony Rail Transit (Lamtsu) in 2012. Although the 2 companies have no relation to each other, many consider Misato Railway Transport to be the modern-day incarnation of MCR.

Network

Railways

At its peak, Misato City Railway operated 295.6 km of narrow-gauge railways in the Lamtsu area. The figure reached it's peak in 1998, shrinking down to 127.5 on 6th May 2012, the last day of it's operation.

Misato City Railway only operated passenger services.

The first 3 lines were built under the direct supervision of Hideo Sogo, and as such they have a significantly different character from the 3 other lines. All of these lines were sold to Harmony Rail Transit (Lamtsu) in 2012.

Trams

Misato City Railway also bought the Misato City Tram in 1984, as Hideo Sogo's last act as company chairman.

The Misato City Tram network reached its peak in 2006 under the chairman Hiroshi Yamaguchi, who pushed for a return to the founding principles of Misato City Railway, which was to provide common, rapid transit that was affordable to most people. Under his direction, the tram network reached 23km, triple of that which still remains today.

  • Misato City Tram (18km)
    • 1. Misato-Lamtsu (4km)
    • 2. Obaira-Moseushi (3km)
    • 3. Misato-Otaki (3km)
    • 4. Obaira-Yamate (6km)
    • 5. Misato-Nyuzen (2km)
  • Yokohama Tram (5km)
    • Minami-Yokohama - Higashi-Yokohama (5km)
  • Holy Railroad (1km)
    • Akasaka-Mishato City (1km)

Sections of the Misato City Tram that used to run on viaducts have since been converted for use by other lines (Ome Line) or demolished entirely (Misato-Nyuzen). The Obaira-Yamate section was also closed down.

Buses

Misato City Railway operated several bus services to bridge areas not connected by the railroad. There were 16 unique bus services in total.

Ships

Before the purchase and dissolvement of the company in 2012, the Misato Ferries were operated by Misato City Railway, to connect areas the railroad could not and prior to the construction of the Misato Strait Viaduct, carry trains from Tsubetsu to Akasaka station on Tai Hing island. The ferry services have since been handed to the Misato Ferry Corporation.

History

1947-1984: The Sogo Era

In 1947, Hideo Sogo, a chief engineer for the Central Region of Kowloon �Canton Railway Company, stepped down to found his own railway company in the neighboring kingdom of Sorano. Unlike all the other railway companies in the world at the time, Shinji Sogo wanted to focus on mass passenger transit, which meant building lines with stations that were in expensive urban land, close to one another, with far lower fares and with service at intervals of less than half an hour. As he had been an excellent employee at KCRC up till that point, his boWhen his proposal was first brought to the banks of Lamtsu, where he planned to pilot his design, he was laughed out of the building for almost all of them, saying that a railroad to transport the common people would have to charge fares so low that the company would not be profitable at all. However, he found a benefactor in the United Lamtsu Bank who managed to grant him a huge sum of 50,000¥, and at an interest rate of 25%. If the company was to fail, he would have to spend the rest of his life working to pay it off, even with a high salary from KCRC.

MCR was founded in 1948 as “Misato New City Railway (美里新都市鉄道, Misato Shin-Toshi Tetsudo) started with a small line from the foothills of Lamtsu to Hitawa district. This line ran along the base of many hills for much of its route, so it was called the Yamate Line (山手线). The line proved to be a success, and within 7 years, all the costs of construction had been recuperated and the line paid off. The line initially operated with JGR class 5500 locomotives repurposed for greater bursts of power, designed by Hideo Sogo, with the piston cylinders imported from the UK. At this time, the banks had picked up on the idea of an urban transit system and offered Hideo multiple larger loans at a far lower interest rate. This spurred the rapid expansion of the MCR network for the next 20 years. The Tozai Line was opened in 1954, from Lamtsu to Otaki, and the Yamate Line was extended to Otaki as well later that year. This development slowed down significantly in 1968, after the Namboku Line was completed. This is because the Kujukuri Line was a miscalculated attempt to reach out more to the suburb of Tai Hing, and the non-frequent service made it stand out significantly from the rest of the lines. This made it far less popular, and the line did not turn a profit for the entirety of its operation.

Harmony Rail Transit started operations in the region in 1982, with the completion of the underground Sakuho Line subway, operating as a bypass to the Yamate Line. Hideo Sogo stepped down as Chairman in 1984, after negotiating the purchase of Misato City Tram Corporation, adding the extensive urban tram network to MCR's existing almost monopoly.

1984-1997: The Nakamura Era

After Hideo Sogo's departure from MCR in 1984 and his death in 1987, the next chairman of MCR, Kenta Nakamura, completely turned around the MCR finances. At the time of his departure (Hideo Sogo), MCR was running a deficit of 1.3 million every year. Kenta Nakamura is widely considered to be the person who killed MCR, as he instituted many cost-cutting measures that resulted in the significant popularity of Harmony Rail Transit and Lamtsu Metro in comparison to the MCR network. However, there is much debate as to how necessary the measures he took were, and whether the company would have gone bankrupt without those policies. He slashed the frequencies of the lines from 5 minutes to 10, to the point where it would be faster to walk on some areas of the network, especially in the inner city. To cope with increasing costs, fares were hiked significantly, with an increase of 140% on the MCR network from 1989 to 1997. During this era, no new lines were opened, and all projects were cancelled due to MCR's debt.

However, this is also seen to be the Golden Era of the network in a different way. In this era, trains ran with delay margins only seen again in the HRT Hiroshi Era , and crowding was at an all-time low, with 5 minute service restored to the network by 2003. The stations built during this era are also considered to be the grandest for their time, with Hikawa, Oshamambe and Yamate being prime examples of stations built during this era. Generation 2 stations were the only stations to be exempted from the 2022 Lamtsu Railway Rebuild as they were clearly designed for the future. However, due to the fare hikes and an existing poor reputation, Nakamura resigned from the company in 1997, taking responsibility for MCR's poor reputation in the eyes of the public.

1997-2012: The Yamaguchi Era

After the poor handling of the company's reputation in 1997, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, the new chairman, had a focus on improving the MCR inner network, and not constructing any newer lines to preserve the financial state of the company. As a former engineer in the Misato City Tram cooperation, Hiroshi would often personally oversee the construction of the tramways, which made him very popular. Fares were also frozen at 1997 levels, and this was balanced out with an increased ridership on the lines. He oversaw the partial merger of HRT (Sorano) with HRT (Lamtsu) and MCR in 2008, which led to MCR acquiring the Seiyo and Lamtsu Main Lines. However, these idealistic policies led to a downward trend in MCR's finances, and Hiroshi Yamaguchi negotiated MCR's sale to HRT in 2012, for 700 million.

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