Bus will rescue drunken festive revellers on Tokyo trains

  • The special bus service is being organised by transport bosses for the 4th year 
  • It will pick up worse-for-wear passengers who are stranded in town of Takao
  • Special service will then take worse-for-wear revellers back to Hachioji suburb
  • There party-goers can either make their way home or check into a cheap hotel  

Many a drunken reveller has fallen asleep on the train forcing them into a lengthy and expensive journey home after missing their stop.

But help is at hand. For those who live in Tokyo, anyway.

Transport bosses there have decided to help party-goers who nod off by chartering buses to take worse-for-wear passengers who find themselves stranded at the end of a train line back towards the city. 

The ‘oversleeping rescue bus’ that will take drunken revellers who have missed their train stop back into the city 

For the fourth year running, the ‘oversleeping rescue bus’ is being organised by Nishi Tokyo Bus to coincide with the height of end-of-year drinking parties in Japan. 

The bus will be waiting at the end of the JR Chuo train line, which connects the centre of the Japanese capital with the western suburbs, for those who have snoozed on the last train.

That’s because the station at the end of the line is Takao, which is in the foothills of a mountainous region, and has few transport links.

There, the rescue bus will pick up sleepy passengers and take them to Hachioji, a more developed neighbourhood, with places where workers can pay for a hotel until morning, according to Rocket News.

The bus is set to run in the early hours of December 9, 16 and 23 and costs passengers 880 yen (£6).

Passengers wait for trains at a Tokyo station. It is coming up to the height of Japan's end-of-year drinking parties 

Passengers wait for trains at a Tokyo station. It is coming up to the height of Japan’s end-of-year drinking parties 

Last year, the bus carried a total of 75 passengers on its three days in operation and even took 32 people back to Hachioji on its busiest night.

But one thing is for sure, anybody wanting to catch the rescue bus can pretty much guarantee it will leave on time – as Japan is renowned for its punctuality.

Earlier this month, a Japanese railway operator issued a deep apology for the ‘tremendous nuisance’ caused by a train departing 20 seconds late – despite having received no complaints. 

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