2020 Volume 75 Issue 6 Pages I_239-I_247
These days, there is a lot of argument about whether to abolish local railways. Thus, this study aimed to make clear the relationship between abolishing local railways and social population change by age groupsaround stations, focusing on modal share just before abolition. Railways abolished between 1981-1990 and existing local railways in Japan were selected for analysis. The analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference in social population change of young people, including those who would graduate from high school within ten years between the case of abolition and that of continuation. Focusing on the modal share of railways and private cars just before abolition, it was revealed that there tended to be a difference in social population change of specific population groups between the case of abolition and that of continuation regardless of modal share. In addition, there was a difference in social population change in areas that had a higher modal share of private cars compared to those with a lower modal share of private cars. Finally, there was no clear difference in population change in areas that had a higher and lower modal share of railways.
