A light rail line that would connect nearby rail stations to visitor areas at the base of Japan's iconic Mount Fuji has gotten preliminary approval by Yamanashi Prefecture officials, but there are still obstacles ahead.
The new rail line would replace an existing toll road used by cars and buses to bring visitors to the mountain; once built, only emergency vehicles would be able to use the road. The project is partly a response to Unesco, which mentioned concerns about pollution and exhaust gases when it designated the mountain a World Cultural Heritage in 2013.
An estimate by the working group that developed the plan expects about three million passengers a year would use the line between Mount Fuji and Fifth Station, where the railroads connect. They estimated a construction cost of about $1.3 billion. There would be an as yet unspecified public-private partnership involved.
Some concern was raised at the hearing on the plan over pricing, which the working group set at about $95 round trip. A round-trip bus ticket from Central Tokyo to the mountain costs half that, and less than half that for a bus ticket from Fifth Station to the mountain.
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