A while back we looked at the Yutorito Elevated Busway in the Japanese city of Nagoya – I recently came across another unique mass transportation system here – this one located on the island of Shikoku.
Shikoku is the smallest of Japan’s four major islands. It unfortunately has been coping with a problem affecting many of Japan’s more rural areas – dwindling population. That has many impacts, mass transit being one.
The area of Kaiyo along the southeast coast had been served by a public/private diesel-electric railcar service, but ridership had fallen to the point that it was no longer profitable, and the company was looking at ceasing operations. But it came up with an idea for a less expensive and more flexible alternative – the small dual-mode bus – one that could ride on both rails and roads. Service started in Dec 2021.
The DMV is a 2021 model Toyota Coaster minibus, the most popular small bus in Japan. It comes in several sizes; this one being a 16 passenger model. Engine is a 2.8 litre 1GD-FTV turbocharged four cylinder diesel, with 175 hp and 310 ft. lbs. of torque.
As you can see, the rail wheels were fitted underneath a front bonnet section added to the bus, along with another set in the back. The rail wheels are undriven – the rear rubber tires provide traction along the existing rail. This is the reason the bus is tilted up at the front – to put more weight and downward pressure on the rear axle. The video above shows a bus entering the rail section.
Its dual-mode operation allows it the flexibility to travel along a route that includes local schools, shopping locations, and a variety of tourist areas.
It markets itself as the “world’s only dual-mode bus”, which may be debatable, but this type of rail-road adaptation has been around for over one-hundred years for track maintenance and other support vehicles.
This map shows the rail (dotted) and highway (solid) portions. Total time for a one-way complete trip is ninety minutes.
So far the change from rail to DMV has proven financially viable – and an example for other areas facing the challenges of decreasing population and its impact on public transportation.
Bus/trains were fairly common in the ’30s. They had hydraulically controlled guide wheels, so the driver could drive on roads when roads were usable, then jump onto the tracks at a grade crossing, lower the wheels, and run on the tracks to the next stop.
Karrier built an experimental road-rail bus in 1931. It looked much like an ordinary bus as the rail wheels were behind the road ones, each set on a rotary cam mechanism. Perhaps if it had used just guidance wheels as this one does it would have been more sucessful as it apparently suffered from a lack of adhesion.
https://www.thesahb.com/snapshot-298-1931-karrier-ro-railer/
I visited Shikoku in 2012 – drove from Osaka in a rented Prius. I wish I’d known about the bus/train. SHikoku is a beautiful place, sub tropical, [ to me anyway coming from chilly Scotland] and not a Gaijin in sight apart from my smiling self.
Toyota Coaster are very common here but not in rail capable configuration, thats a clever idea, the narrow gauge rail system here use Japanese trucks converted to rail use as maintenance/inspection vehicles but no buses, yet.
This is how George C. Scott did it in The Flim-Flam Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8H0Iz2gaiU
Wonderful post, as per the Brophy Standard.
What does one call this, btw? A brain? A truss?
In our old VW splittie, on ye olde crossplies the width of diet biscuits, I swear there were times when we’d be driving in tram-track areas – most major inner-city roads hereabouts – and having wobbled into a perfect fit of the tracks, we’d take turns we didn’t mean to. “Looks like we’re not going to Thornbury today, they haven’t changed the points”, my dad would yell whilst wrenching uselessly at the wheel. “Poor grandma.”
Come to think of it, this terror only happened when heading to his mother-in-law’s place this way, which seems now to be a bit suspicious, but I’m digressing.
I never made it to Shikoku when I was living in Japan. The problem I had travelling in Japan was the same problem Japanese people have: everyone in the country went on holiday at exactly the same time. For that reason, hotel prices soar during holidays like Golden Week. I had the misfortune to travel in Japan for the August 15 O-bon festival. The trains and stations were absolutely packed. It was actually easier and cheaper to travel abroad. My stops of choice were Korea and the Philippines.
Thanks for an interesting article, and very timely as it looks like we will be on Shikoku next March. As a train guy I will be looking to get a ride on this if it works into our plans.
For those interested you can get a Japanese N gauge (1:150, not the regular 1:160 n scale) model of these although only static https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11045703
They might be right, I know of an Eastern European rail line that uses a converted Ford Transit, but that is a rail only vehicle. Roadrailers are usually maintenance vehicles so these may be the only ones in scheduled passenger service.
So I posted a link to this article on a Japanese N gauge forum and then someone posted a video of a fully motorized version, complete with lights. It works in both modes, including the transition between road and rail, and is controlled by Bluetooth.