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The business records of private railways in fiscal 1973 are shown in Table
I-(I)-8.
The fourteen major railways gave poor business showings in fiscal 1973 owing
to levelling-off of the transport demand on one hand and an increase in the
labor cost as a result of a sharp increase in the pay levels of their employees
and an increase in the capital cost accompanying the construction work for ensuring
safety and increasing transport capacity on the other. The deficit of the revenue
and expenditure of private railways and tramways continued to increase from
\18,300 million in fiscal 1971 to \34,200 million in fiscal 1972 to \56,400
million in fiscal 1973. If this situation continued further, not only the facility
investment for ensuring safety and increasing transport capacity would meet
a serious obstacle but also the existence of the private railway and tramway
industry itself would be jeopardized.
Medium and small private railways were often located in sparsely populated
regions and their business showings continued to become worse year by year owing
to the decline in the transport demand of passengers and a sharp rise in expenses
including the labo rcost. To cope with such a difficulty, various aid measures
were carried out which included subsidies and tax reductions. Nevertheless,
improvement on their business condition were very difficult and six companies
covering the distance of 87.3 kilometers terminated their train Services during
the fiscal 1973.
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