http://www.asahi.com/travel/rail/news/TKY201105280472.html(asahi.com)
With the extension of Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa, the third sector supposed to operate parallel conventional rail line transfered by JR held the briefing sessions about the future of Hokuriku Line. The first session was in Joetsu and the second was in Itoigawa.
Although the company showed concrete plan for train operation, inhabitants in the two cities had different thoughts about the problem.
The disputing line consist of Naoetsu〜Myoko-kogen and Naoetsu〜Tomari.100 inhabitants took part in the respective briefing session.
The president of the company stated "The operation aims at passengers around Toyama and Nagano, where a lot of passengers are expected. After the separation from JR, we are to revise the diagram in order to make the line useful for local people."
Concretely speaking
(1) More trains will run in the morning to meet the demand of commuters heading for offices, schools or hospitals.
(2) Shortening the time required for tranfer to JR at Naoetsu. Starting one man operation per train for reducing the cost. The area of the operation(Western limitation:Tomari and Southern limitation:Myoko-kogen) was also posed.
At both of the briefing sessions, inhabitants were concerned about high possibility of deficit. On the other hand, useful access to neighboring prefectures such as direct service to Toyama was requested at the briefing session in Itoigawa, while useful access in the prefecture was requested at the briefing session in Joetsu.
An attendance from Joetsu said "I was appreciated that detail information about operation was revealed.".
But, other attendance from Itoigawa said "I can't agree with the necessity of transfer when going to Toyama.".
More briefing session is going to be held in Myoko on June 3.
