ホームドア 転落事故防止へ着実な整備を

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Sep. 19, 2011)
Speed up installation of railway platform doors
ホームドア　転落事故防止へ着実な整備を（9月18日付・読売社説）

Little progress has been made in the installation of platform doors at railway stations to prevent passengers from falling onto the tracks.
　駅のホームから転落する事故を防ぐホームドアの整備が進まない。

Despite strong calls from people including the visually impaired to install the doors, railway operators have been slow to respond because of such hurdles as the high costs involved.
　視覚障害者などが設置を強く求めているが、高額な費用などの難点があって、対応の遅れが目立つ。

A study panel of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry recently proposed that railway companies preferentially install the doors at stations used by at least 100,000 passengers a day. This proposal should be used as a springboard for encouraging installation of platform doors, also known as platform gates.
　国土交通省の検討会が、１日の利用客が１０万人以上の駅に優先的に整備するよう提言した。ホームドア設置促進の契機としたい。

For train users, safety at railway stations is a major concern. Railway operators must prioritize passenger safety over concerns about delaying train schedules. Every railway company must steadily boost efforts to install platform doors at as many stations as possible.
　利用客にとって、駅の安全性は大きな関心事である。利便性を追求するあまり、安全確保をなおざりにしてはならない。鉄道各社は着実に整備してもらいたい。

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Mere 5% have doors

The government and municipalities have been subsidizing part of the costs for installing the doors. Such subsidies should be increased to encourage more stations to equip platforms with the systems.
　政府や自治体は、設置費を一部助成しているが、さらに拡充して普及を後押しすべきだ。

A platform door is a barrier, usually about 1.2 meters high, between passengers and the train and tracks. The doors are designed to open and close automatically in sync with the train doors.
　ホームドアは、線路とホームの間を仕切る高さ１・２メートルほどの柵だ。停車した電車のドアと同じ位置に、自動的に開閉するドアが付いている。

Railway companies are obliged to install platform doors when they build new stations, but their installation at existing stations has been left up to the companies' discretion as a nonbinding goal. Only 500 of the nation's approximately 9,500 railway stations, or 5 percent, are equipped with platform doors.
　設置は、新設駅には義務付けられているが、既存の駅については鉄道会社の努力目標にとどまっている。全国９５００駅のうち、ホームドアが設置されているのは約５００駅だけで、全体の５％程度に過ぎない。

Although the ministry's study panel has called for priority installation of the doors at the 239 stations with 100,000 or more passengers a day, only 26 of the stations now have them.
　今回、整備対象とされた利用者１０万人以上の２３９駅を見ても、２６駅しか設置されていない。

Installation of the doors can cost several billions of yen per station if complete renovation of platforms is necessary.
　ホーム全体の改修が必要な場合、設置には１駅で数十億円の費用がかかるという。

In addition, there are a number of lines on which the locations and numbers of train doors differ depending on trains, such as limited expresses, commuter expresses and local trains, making it hard for railway firms to install platform doors that fit all doors of every kind of train.
特急や快速、普通など列車ごとにドアの数と位置が異なり、すべての車両に対応できるホームドアを取り付けるのが難しい路線もある。

There were 1,253 accidents across the country from 2002 to 2009 involving falls of passengers from platforms and passenger contact with trains.
　だが、転落や列車との接触など駅ホームでの事故は２００２～０９年に１２５３件にのぼる。

In January this year, a blind man was killed in Tokyo when he fell off a platform at Mejiro Station on JR East's Yamanote Line, and another blind man was killed in July after falling off a platform at Tsukushino Station on the Tokyu Denentoshi Line in western Tokyo. A brush with death on railway platforms can happen to people with various degrees of visual impairments, not only those who are blind.
　今年１月にはＪＲ山手線の目白駅で、７月には東急田園都市線つくし野駅で、いずれも全盲の男性がホームから転落して死亡した。ホームは、視覚障害者にとって「死と隣り合わせの場所」とさえ言われている。

But there have been almost no accidental falls at railway stations equipped with platform doors.
　一方で、ホームドア設置駅の転落事故数は、ほぼゼロだ。

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Users set to bear cost

JR East has been installing the doors at all stations on the Yamanote Line with a budget of 50 billion yen, probably because the railway operator concluded the doors are highly effective in preventing platform accidents.
　ＪＲ東日本が総額５００億円をかけ、山手線全駅で設置計画を進めているのも、その効果が大きいと判断したからだろう。

In a questionnaire given to train users recently by the transport ministry, about 60 percent of the respondents replied it is inevitable the public will have to bear part of the installation costs of platform doors in such forms as higher fares and taxes. A majority of people want railway station's safety enhanced even if it increases their financial burdens.
　国交省が駅利用者を対象に実施したアンケートでは、設置費の一部を料金値上げや税金で負担するのは「やむを得ない」とした回答が全体の６割を占めた。
　多少の負担があっても、駅の安全性を高めてほしいと願う人が多いことを物語っている。

To prevent the misery of railway accidents, it is very important not only to improve railway station facilities but also for railway firms and related organizations to make such day-to-day efforts as calling for disabled people to be heedful of possible dangers at railway stations.
　悲惨な事故を防ぐには、施設の整備に加え、障害者への声かけなど日常的な取り組みも大切だ。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 18, 2011)
（2011年9月18日01時11分 読売新聞）