Will it be impossible for travelers to visit local Japan in 10 years? (2)
Will it be impossible for travelers to visit local Japan in 10 years? (2) Table of Contents 1: Current situation of passenger bus operators 2: Discontinued passenger bus routes 1: Current situation of passenger bus operators A passenger bus is a bus that carries an unspecified number of passengers. Passenger buses include express buses and sightseeing buses that run between cities, but this section discusses passenger buses. The number of passengers declined by 19% between 2003 and 2019. This situation is similar to regional railways. Number of passengers carried by passenger buses (million) Source: Nihon Bus Association Due to a decline in the number of users and other factors, regional passenger bus operators continue to lose money, with the proportion of loss-making operators consistently exceeding 80%. Percentage of loss-making passenger bus operators Source: Nihon Bus Association 2: Discontinued passenger bus routes These difficult conditions have led to the continued closure of regional passenger bus routes, as well as regional rail routes. Between 2010 and 2020, 13,845 km of routes (an average of 1,259 km per year) were closed. In the same period, rail routes were closed down for a cumulative total of 407 km, so it