TTokyo

Tokyo’s busy Yamanote loop line to go driverless by 2035

  • September 10, 2025


Tokyo’s busy Yamanote loop line to go driverless by 2035

by biwook

10 comments

  1. Just sad. Those drivers (in general in Japan, not just Yamanote) are really passionate about their job and they do it lovely.

    I’m just afraid of the delays during rush hours, I mean, worse than they are today. Without a conductor (the person at the back), it’s already a mess given some testimonies I heard of people using Namboku and Oedo lines, can’t imagine without someone to supervise.

  4. >JR, seeks to fight growing labor shortages

    I think they misspelled: “shit wages”. There’s no labor shortage, just people want a life and a relatively good pay.

    >Affected workers will be reassigned to roles such as providing travel suggestions and addressing customer issues at stations.

    Groundbreaking. From driving to being useless in a station box. Wonderful.

    >Even after the driverless system is introduced, safety personnel will be onboard to handle any emergencies

    Uso. They are already One Man operation on some lines, I have a big, as **big** doubt about this statement. The conductor is already safety personnel as well as ponctuality.

  6. This means they’ll be removing the unique station jingles, by the way. No conductor = no one to push the button that makes them play. Instead, it’ll be the same jingle for all stations played by speakers on the train itself.

    https://soranews24.com/2025/03/08/japans-train-travel-soundscape-faces-crisis-as-jr-east-axes-special-station-departure-melodies/

    https://old.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/1gg6o33/the_familiar_train_departure_melodies_of_jr_east/

    The enshittification continues. Renationalize JR.

  9. This is kinda old news, also a driver will still be present and will have to press a „start“ button, but the train will drive and stop automatically (at least that‘s the plan). It‘s GoA2 of automation as in Victoria subway line in London.

  10. I can’t read the article.

    Most of the time automatisation is for increasing capacity. The computer computes the distance between the trains dynamically instead of using blocks and semaphores.

    In lot of cities, the trains switch to automatic once in the central section with the driver only overseeing the security of the train.

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