ＪＲ西日本も一時帰休検討　コロナで鉄道利用落ち込み

　ＪＲ西日本は１８日、新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大に伴う緊急事態宣言の再発令を受けて、社員の一時帰休を検討することを明らかにした。長谷川一明社長は同日のオンライン記者会見で「年末、年明けから再度利用（状況）が厳しくなってきており、一時帰休の可能性を探っていきたい」と述べた。
　政府の観光支援事業「Ｇｏ　Ｔｏ　トラベル」で回復傾向にあった旅客需要は、足元の感染再拡大で低迷。山陽新幹線の利用状況は、昨年１２月に前年の４０％、今月は１４日までで２９％の水準にそれぞれ低下した。長谷川氏は、関西圏にも同宣言が適用されて初の週末となった１６～１７日の新幹線・在来線特急の利用について「さらに５～７ポイント下がっている」と説明している。
　感染急拡大で旅客需要が落ち込み、ＪＲ西は新幹線や臨時特急の一部で運休を決めた。業務量の低下などを踏まえ、一時帰休の実施時期を探る。一時帰休をめぐっては、ＪＲ東海が２５日から来月末まで、１日当たり４００人規模で実施する。（2021/01/18-18:18）

West Japan Railway Co. , or JR West, will consider putting employees on temporary leave again following the declaration of a fresh state of emergency over the novel coronavirus, it has been learned.
   "We will study the possibility of conducting a furlough scheme" as demand has been falling back since late last year, JR West President Kazuaki Hasegawa said in an online press conference on Monday.
   JR West put a furlough program in place from May 16, 2020, through the end of July the same year, the first such measure for the railway operator since it and other Japan Railways (JR) Group firms were born out of the 1987 breakup and privatization of the Japanese National Railways, in the wake of a plunge in the number of passengers amid the epidemic.
   Passenger demand at JR West, which had been recovering since the Japanese government launched the Go To Travel campaign last July, has been decreasing again recently due to a resurgence of the coronavirus. The number of passengers for its Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train line dived 60 pct from a year before in December last year and about 70 pct in the first 14 days of this month.
   Hasegawa said that the number of passengers on the company's Shinkansen and other express trains dropped further on Saturday and Sunday, the first weekend since the fresh coronavirus state of emergency was declared for three prefectures in the Kansai western Japan region, the main service area for JR West.