As reported by the Asahi Shimbun (jp), this morning starting from around 10:30, JR line trains in and around Osaka and Nara were seeing pretty unusually long delays. “Pretty” long is an understatement, I feel. A 30 minute standstill? That’s not something you see often at all. I’ve never sat waiting on a train for more than 15 minutes, I’d say. Typically long delays come from suicides/human-on-the-rail incidents (人身事故), or severe weather issues, but today that was not the case.
So what was the disturbance that forced the train drivers to stop? Apparently people were sneaking into the area directly beside the tracks, setting up tripods and essentially preparing to snap some photos. First spotted by an out-of-service train driver between Nara’s Sango-cho (三郷町) and Osaka’s Kashiwara (柏原), the alert soon went out that someone carrying a camera had snuck onto the tracks. As station attendants arrived on the scene, they found some 50 people getting their equipment set up. Naturally this caused a disturbance to the rail company employees, and as their attempts to forcibly remove the photographers from the tracks were met with resistance from a few people, a police patrol car was eventually called in.
This whole mess naturally slowed the trains down for some time. Apparently 7 lines had to cease operation temporarily, 12 lines were delayed by one train, and in total 26 lines faced delays of up to 40 minutes.
So what was the reason for the clandestine photography operation?
This morning starting from around 11:30, JR was running a special train out of Shin-Osaka, around Nara and Kyoto, and event which takes place only a scant few times per year. It was a Japanese-style train (和風列車) called Asuka, and the location the photographers gathered was a picturesque spot selected by railway/train enthusiasts (鉄道マニア) as an ideal area to photograph the train, due to its tunnel and curve, running alongside a mountain. I have to admit, a tatami mat-floored train sounds like a fascinating sight.
I can appreciate an enthusiasm for whatever it is you have as a hobby, but this one’s getting a little out of hand! That kind of delay is crazy. I was actually riding between Nara and Osaka today, but fortunately that was on my trusty Kintetsu. I know I’d be irritated standing on a hot train for 40 minutes longer than necessary. The article makes it sound as if JR was used to this sort of reception for their special train-launch events, and I imagine they would be. There must be some way to reduce the fallout of these train-fans. Of course it’s difficult to predict where the photographers will gather, but a mob of 50 older gentlemen (I’m making generalizations) would stand out, I feel.