Keihan Electric Railway will be able to provide access to Yumeshima after the opening of a casino resort on the artificial island in Osaka Bay, the Keihan group chief said in a recent interview.
Keihan Holdings plans to extend the Keihan Nakanoshima Line, currently running between Temmabashi Station and Nakanoshima Station in the city of Osaka, to Kujo Station on Osaka Metro's Chuo Line, the only train line in the city that provides direct access to Yumeshima, where the 2025 World Exposition is being held.
Admitting that the Nakanoshima line extension will not be completed prior to the scheduled opening of the casino-featuring integrated resort facility, called IR, in 2030, Keihan Holdings President Yoshihiro Hirakawa said, "We'd like to finish working out all details of the extension project before the IR opens and have trains run on the extended section several years after the opening."
Meanwhile, Hirakawa expressed a willingness to capitalize on the existing Keihan railway system to bring IR visitors to Kyoto, north of Osaka, and to redevelop a street between the Kyoto Station square and the Nidec Kyoto Tower under Keihan operation into "a green belt where pedestrians can get relaxed."
Hirakawa also revealed a plan to partially automate train operations to cope with a labor shortage at the railroad unit. Stressing that there are no obstacles to introducing the semiautomatic system, he said, "All we have to do is determining when (to launch the project)."
Speaking about the hotel business, Hirakawa said the group, which currently runs hotels in Kyoto and Osaka as well as major cities in the eastern half of the Japanese archipelago, aims to make forays into not only the Shikoku and Kyushu southwestern regions but "all core cities across the country."
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