Misashima Station

Transcription

Touring Various Stations Series No.63 Misashima station, located at Tokamachi City in Niigata prefecture, Japan, belongs to the Hokuetsu Express Hokuhoku line. This station opened on the 22nd March, 1997. The platform is inside the Akakura tunnel, which is the longest mountain tunnel in Japanese railways except JR lines. It has a daily ridership of 11 passengers in 2005. This time, I took the scenery of station, environs, and trains at the station, which has facilities corresponding to furious wind pressure created by passage of limited express train HAKUTAKA. Misashima station has one-story building with gable roof. The wooden boards on the wall is beautiful and it looks like a cottage. The station building is next the rotary and there are some parking space behind the building. The facilities behind the station building are the Hokuetsu Express Tsuike electrical substation and a transmission line tower of Tohoku Electric Power. A brush text written by the prefectural governor at the time Ikuo Hirayama is engraved on the stone monument in commemoration of opening Misashima station. This area is a birthplace of religious originator. There is a training hall whose distance of an hour’s walking to the south. Mountain forests surround the station. A narrow river streams across the road from the station. There are few houses around the station except a village west for about 600 meters. An information board of trekking to enjoy the rich natural environment (the required time is 2 hours and 35 minutes) is on the station building wall. This station name board whose text is written by an artist Tsurutaro Kataoka was made in 2007 in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of opening. There is a smoking area next to the entrance door. I feel it danger because the wooden boards are ignited by burning cigarette butt. Some grasses are planted around the water supply at the entrance. As “Heart Umbrella Activity”, there are free rental umbrellas at the entrance. Those who borrowed umbrella have to bring back it to the station where it was put or the nearest station on the Hokuhoku line unless it's really necessary. There are trash boxes on the opposite side. Passenger shouldn’t put any odiferous substances like used lunch box off into the boxes. The station completes with lavatories. This one on the left is a disabled-accessible restroom. In contrast to “station lavatory any one can use” in urban area, only people who are physically-challenged can use this room in principle. The lavatory on the opposite side is for male. The lavatory for female is installed innermost. There are 2 large kites on the timetable and fare information of the Hokuhoku line. Rapid and limited express trains pass through Misashima station. Only upbound and downbound local trains stop every hour basically. It takes 29 years from groundbreaking to opening of Hokuhoku line due to budget shortfall and hard construction that the route runs linearly through the mountains. This is why fare of the Hokuhoku line is far from cheap. Under the fare chart, there is an information about operation schedule of event train YUMEZORA, which screens during running through tunnel sections. Misashima station has no station staff. So passengers need to get boarding certification by this machine and pay fare at train or manned station. The space on the reverse side of timetable is used for information space of culture, industry and history of Misashima area and Tokamachi city. There is an introduction of Mithila Painting in tribute to the Mithila Museum in the mountain whose distance of an hour’s walking to the south. Mithila painting is a style of Indian painting practiced in the northeastern India and Nepal. Unfortunately, these exhibits are in a poor state of preservation, some of them are fallen and broken. This information space opens between 8:00 and 18:00. Misashima station has a well-known “too comfortable” waiting room on the ground. This waiting room can use between 8:00 and 18:00 same as the exhibition space. After 18 o’clock, delegated clerk comes and closes the shutter in front of the waiting room. The waiting room has opened longer at one time. However, the open time got shorter for a security reason because small fires occurred constantly. Then, let’s enter the much-talked-about “too comfortable” waiting room. The waiting room on the ground is a room with tatami flooring. So passengers can remove their shoes, lie back and relax until local train arrives. To anticipate the room used as local meeting place, there are panels in the middle of room to separate the room to half. Stove, which is essential instrument for heavy snowfall area, is installed in the room. To be ready for separated use of the room, there are 2 stoves respectably. Along with stoves, there are 6 folding tables… 6 cushions… a cabinet where some teacups, glasses and kettle are placed… a cabinet where visitor’s shoes and umbrellas can be placed… some station notebook where visitor’s feelings are written… ...and so on. These facilities are more than enough for local unattended station. Due to too comfortable room, a dispute has erupted over bad behavior of visitors, for example small fires occurred constantly as I mentioned before. Unfortunately, visitor’s behavior was so bad that the room was closed many times. Platform of Misashima station is located at a place 10.1 meters below ground, so passengers need to use the stairs. The station has a rich waiting room on the ground but there are no elevators and escalators as is to be expected. In contrast to wooden station building on the ground, the path for the underground is constructed by bare concrete. The cold stairs make me feel like to escape from the ground world to the underground shelter. Climbing down stairs, we can see a metallic windbreak door to withstand the severe wind pressure from the tunnel. To prevent severe wind from blowing through, the door on this side doesn’t open when the door on the platform side opens. So if passengers want to board train, they need to enter through the door before train arrives. When passengers stand inside the white line, the windbreak door opens with orotund sound. Compared with the windbreak door on the stair side, one on the platform side has wears because the door has been exposed by wind pressure and humidity change. Just like the windbreak door on the stair side, door by the platform doesn’t open when the door on the stair side opens. To protect passengers from train passing at high speed through the tunnel, this windbreak door by the platform never opens normally. Even if passenger approach the door, only the sensor acts but the door doesn’t open except when local train arrives. At the beginning of construction, it is not so firm and employed manually-powered spring door. However, on the 1st October, 1996, half year before opening, when trial running train passed through the station at 140km/h before the door glasses weren’t set, 24m/s storm wind was recorded at the stairs. Furthermore, on the 27th February, 1997, 1 month before opening, when an experiment that both doors open and train passes at high speed was conducted, the window glasses on the waiting room on the ground were crushed because of severe wind pressure. This is why the windbreak doors were replaced to firm metallic automatic doors and both doors upgraded not to open coinstantaneously like airlock. Passengers can check the train situation in real time by the navigation system on the Hokuhoku line. Since Misashima station is located belowground and mobile phone reception is out of service area, the tablet shows train situation but the system wasn’t shown. There is a waiting room in the space between 2 wind break doors. Since the waiting room is in the special environment of tunnel, a dehumidification machine is operating at full capacity to decrease humidity. There is a station stamp on the dehumidification machine. There are a timetable and operation information about event train YUMEZORA on the wall where wooden bench are installed. There is a tourist information around Misashima station on the wall by the entrance door of the waiting room. There are a comment box and an answer board from Hokuetsu Express on the wall on the opposite side of bench. There are many comment about limited express HAKUTAKA, which is cash caw of Hokuetsu Express and will be abolished on the 14th March, 2015, when the Hokuriku Shinkansen extends to Kanazawa. When local train arrives, the display changes from “the door doesn’t open until train arrives” to “train arrived and please board”. The green lump on the door lights on and the windbreak door by the platform can be opened simultaneously. The station has a track with a 45-meter-long platform in the Akakura Tunnel. Passenger can stand on the platform within 2 minutes after train arrives. If they stay on the platform, station staff of Tokamachi station, who monitors the station remotely, urges them to exit from the platform. The best part of Misashima station may be a scene and draft sound of high-speed passage of limited express train HAKUTAKA. The announcement that “train passes at high speed” and “do not enter the platform” is unique, which can’t use on other railway lines. Along with the sound of thud, draft begins to stream. These shows train entered the tunnel. Soon train passes at high speed. It is very dangerous. Absolutely never enter the platform. Unless the windbreak door is out of order, passengers can’t enter the platform. Nevertheless, announcement keep saying “absolutely never enter the platform”. For your information, the door can be opened with a button next to the door when passengers go from the platform to this path in emergency situations. To tell the truth, the maximum speed of limited express train HAKUTAKA can reach at 150km/h in this single-track tunnel due to air resistance. Even though the train can’t reach 160km/h, which is allowed maximum speed within the Hokuhoku line, the pushed air sound is awful. I shudder to imagine that the storm, which was crushed the window glasses on the ground at one time, may blast us off without the windbreak door. After passage of train, draft begins to stream into the platform. The wind streaming keeps until train run through the tunnel. The Akakura tunnel itself is the longest mountain tunnel in Japanese railways except JR lines. So it takes about 4 minutes until the station become quiet again.