Off Peak MRT Travel (If there is such a thing?!)

[nakatago]

BTW I tried hard to catch a glimpse of this peak hr madness in the Tokyo subway but my friend told me that it happens only on the Yamamote line and that too only for a short duration during the "peakest" of the peak hour.

That's indeed where I've seen it. Yamanote between Shinjuku and Shibuya at about dinner time. Not as extreme as the video, but pretty crazy.

I've also seen it in Beijing along Line 1 during evening Rush Hour. Less people overall, but much more aggressive "stuffers". They weren't politely pushing, it looked more like they were tossing trash into a bin

The suburban lines are funnier: on your way to a station, you see an old, frail-looking grandma shuffling towards the train.

But then this old, sweet old lady ends up swathing away scores of people to get to her place in the train!

[katbh]

Just make sure that you go in with your stroller. Yesterday's newspaper had a piece about a lady pushing her stroller on the MRT and the doors closed between her and the stroller. The MRT does not have drivers and few platform guards - so not much hope of human intervention. It was just lucky that another passenger noticed that the baby was on the MRT with no one with the pram.....

[Strong Eagle]

The MRT does not have drivers .....

Only the circle line and the purple line don't have drivers... red and green lines do.

[Pennywhistle]

@katbh. Thank you for that VERY valuable piece of advice. Much appreciated. How horrible for the mum stranded at the station! That's heart attack stuff.

[bloodhound123]

BTW I tried hard to catch a glimpse of this peak hr madness in the Tokyo subway but my friend told me that it happens only on the Yamamote line and that too only for a short duration during the "peakest" of the peak hour.

That's indeed where I've seen it. Yamanote between Shinjuku and Shibuya at about dinner time. Not as extreme as the video, but pretty crazy.

I've also seen it in Beijing along Line 1 during evening Rush Hour. Less people overall, but much more aggressive "stuffers". They weren't politely pushing, it looked more like they were tossing trash into a bin

Their Shinkansen system is spectacular though. Runs like a MRT system with trains to places as far as 900 km at a very good frequency and to the minute punctuality. Japan Rail Pass is a boon for tourists. I did 80,000 yen worth of travel with the 1 week pass which costs around 28,000 yen.

Japanese probably realized that this is the only way to attract tourist inflow given their ongoing long stint with stagflation.