The number of passengers carried by 16 Japanese private railway operators rose by 1.2% to 5.17 billion in April-September, spurred by foreign tourism and urban redevelopment. This is the fifth time in a row for passenger growth experienced in the first half of the fiscal year but represents a slowdown from a year earlier, when traffic grew by 3.5%.
The data covers nine companies operating in the Tokyo metropolitan area and five in the Kansai region centering on Osaka, as well as Nagoya Railroad and Nishi-Nippon Railroad. Passenger traffic increased at every company except Nishi-Nippon, which was hit hard by the earthquakes in April.
The first three operators in terms of passenger growth were Tokyo Metro (+2.1%), Keisei Electric Railway (+1.8%) and Keikyu (+1.6%). Ridership among passengers without commuter passes, such as tourists, climbed by 0.9% to 2.1 billion. Commuter ridership increased at all 16 companies. Total commuter traffic rose by 1.4% to 3.07 billion riders.
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