Even in minus 12 degrees Celsius, students commute to school 40 km away! Demand for buses to school The buses are busiest when they depart from Itutora Station at 6:13 a.m. for Higashi-Sukagoshi Station (connecting to the train bound for Furano Station). Minami Furano high school students commute to Furano City, 40 km away, by connecting the bus and train. There are several parking spaces around Ikutora Station, and cars picking up and dropping off children arrive one after another before 6:00 am. In winter (12 degrees below zero on this day), they seem to wait in their cars until just before the buses arrive, and when the time comes, they all jump out and board the buses one after another. According to the administrative data (Kamikawa Regional Public Transportation Plan 2020), 28 students a day commute to Furano City from Minami Furano Town, but on this day there were about 40 people on the bus. Later, a local resident told us that many families send their children to Furano on the substitute bus from Ikutora Station only during the winter, and then pick them up and drop them off in Furano City during the summer. The bus also takes children to Minami Furano High School, located about 500 meters from Ikutora Station. The substitute bus stops in front of the school before 8:20 a.m. (The bus departs from Furano Station at 7:18 a.m. and stops only on weekday mornings. The bus stops in front of the school before 8:20 a.m. (from Furano Station at 7:18 a.m.; the bus only stops on weekday mornings), and this service seems to be highly utilized. During weekday morning hours, school buses from various other directions and buses from Shimukappu Village to the south arrive and depart one after another in front of the high school. The sidewalks are narrowed by snow, and the high school students are grateful to not have to walk from Ikutora Station to the school. For this type of commuting route to school, the train is a more comfortable ride and takes slightly less time. However, this section of the Nemuro Main Line has been suffering from poor performance since before the suspension, with “152 passengers per day and an annual deficit of 970 million yen,” and JR Hokkaido has stated that “it is difficult for us to maintain the line on our own” (the railroad company’s management efforts alone are not enough to maintain the line. The company was notified early on by JR Hokkaido that it could not maintain the line on its own (the line could not be maintained by the management efforts of the railway company alone, and would either be discontinued or subsidized). In addition, the cost of restoration from the torrential rains alone required an investment of 1.05 billion yen. Considering the local burden of restoration, the company could not afford to restore the railroad just because there were 30 or 40 users of the substitute bus service, especially in winter.
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