Do you know the song “Ferry to Matsuyama” by Kozo Murashita that begins with the phrase “Such a painful time to say goodbye ……”? Matsuyama Port (Matsuyama Kanko Port) in Ehime Prefecture, the ship’s destination, was once one of the largest terminals in the Seto Inland Sea, with nearly 100 ferry and high-speed boat departures and arrivals per day. It is no wonder that the terminal building was so imposing before it was rebuilt some 20 years ago. However, with the passage of time, the terminal has lost its liveliness, and now only a few boats a day depart from and arrive at Hiroshima and the offshore islands, and even if we discount the fact that Hiroshima and Ehime prefectures are connected by a bridge following the opening of the Nishi-Seto Expressway (Shimanami Highway) in 2006, the terminal has fallen too quickly as a ferry terminal. The comfort and convenience of boat travel has improved with the launch of a succession of new vessels, including Setonaikai Kisen’s AIVINT (launched on May 24), Sea Paseo, and Ishizaki Kisen’s SeaMAX. But why has the Matsuyama Kanko Port, the gateway to the 500,000-city Matsuyama, fallen into decline? Let us explore the possibility of its revival in the future, as well as the possibility of reviving the Matsuyama Sightseeing Port through the extension of the railroad line.
Why not realized? Takahama Line Extension The reasons why the seemingly easy extension of the Takahama Line has not been realized are probably “topography,” “entities to bear the burden,” and “decline of the route. A survey conducted by the prefectural government in 2005 estimated that extending the line would cost “4.95 billion yen for elevated construction and 1.38 billion yen for a DMV (dual-mode beagle) that runs on the road. Iyo Rail has taken a stake in “Matsuyama Kanko Port Terminal Corporation,” which manages the current terminal building completed in 2000, and has also secured space for boarding at the current building. The biggest challenges are “whether to cut the mountain or somehow go on the road” and “who will bear the cost of this? The DMV vehicles that would serve the Takahama Line, which is used by 10,000 passengers a day, have not yet been developed for Japan. In that case, the construction cost would be 4.95 billion yen in real terms, more than double the cost at this time of the year. Iyo Rail knows that the ferry service will be more convenient with the extension, but the distance is too short to justify the additional fare. Matsuyama City also does not want to spend 10 billion yen on a limited amount of land for a large-scale construction project that would involve cutting down mountains. In the meantime, the decline of shipping routes coincided with the full passage of the Shimanami Kaido, and the number of vessels arriving at and departing from the tourist port has also declined dramatically. When there were 100 daily departures and arrivals, there might have been a good reason for extending the line, but the number of departures and arrivals has dropped to less than half, and the Matsuyama Kanko Port is no longer the “gateway to Kansai and Kyushu”. The current situation is that “extending the railroad line and putting it right in front of the ferry terminal,” which is not easy to do at other ferry terminals, is not likely to happen. This would mean that Matsuyama Kanko Port would be “disadvantageous for cargo transport, and access for passengers is also delicate. Another factor in the decline of the tourist port is the traditional heavy-handedness of Matsuyama City, which took little action when Ehime Hanshin Ferry, Kansai Kisen, and Matsuyama Kokura Ferry withdrew from the port in the past and did little to develop port sales activities to find alternative companies. In other words, the city was 30 years too late in suggesting the extension of the port.
© Source travel watch