Hankyu and Hanshin will carry out the plan to ban smoking all the platforms in their areas. The ban will begin from September 1st.
Both companies used to allow passengers to smoke on parts of platforms except for morning and evening.
By the way, Hankyu is under constructing smoking rooms which prevent smoke from leaking out of the rooms. 12 stations in which smoking rooms are to be constructed will be the only areas we can smoke .
Forbidding all the smoking areas had already been carried out on mail railway lines in Kanto district by April,2009. In Kansai, JR west did in July,2009 and Nankai did in this April.
When I take pictures of trains, I often stand on an edge of the platform. But,it smells bad because smoking area is apt to be designated on an edge of the platform. I agree with Hankyu's strategy.
