Kirara Chan Bus(Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture)

Kirara Chan Bus is a community bus operated in Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture.
It is a community bus that cooperates with the local shops and runs led by regions, not by the administration led.
Tsuchiura City and Tsuchiura Chamber of Commerce and Industry support the project by operating "NPO Town Planning Activation Tsuchiura". Operation is entrusted to the Kanto Railway.

What is "Collaboration with grocery stores"?

Specifically, if you get on the community bus and shop at local shops (including supermarkets), you get the fare subsidy ticket for the community bus.
In this time, I actually tried using that mechanism and tried to explore the feasibility and future of the community bus that collaborates with the store.

Ride report

To Tsuchiura City in Ibaraki Prefecture

First of all, I will introduce the way I passed to Tsuchiura City.
Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture, is a city located on the coast of Kasumigaura. Tsuchiura City gateway arrives at the Tsuchiura station on the JR Joban Line, which takes about an hour by train from downtown Tokyo area. Commuting to Tokyo is also possible enough.
I headed to Tsuchiura Station directly from the school in Fujisawa city, Kanagawa prefecture. It took more than two hours to go there by the Odakyu Line, Chiyoda Subway Line and JR Joban Line.

Ride on from Tsuchiura Station

Arrived at Tsuchiura station, I got on the Kirara Chan Bus from the east exit, which I had examined in advance. Kirara Chan Bus arrives from both the west exit and east exit according to the destination, and it is a circulation type operation route.
There was a bench which seems to be handmade at the bus stop.

There was a bench which seems to be handmade at the bus stop. Delayed more than 5 minutes, Kirara Chan Bus came. There is a QR code of the bus location system at the bus stop, and you can immediately know the delay situation. Position information is a system whose accuracy is always displayed on the map and is constantly updated, I felt it is a system that is easy to understand and excellent in information provision.
The fare was uniform 150 yen.

The appearance of Kirara Chan Bus is as shown in the photograph. Unique wrapping is given.

“Tsuchiura Station East”	Time table

Appearance of Tsuchiura Station East	Bench at the Bus Stop

Kirara Chan Bus

Bus Location System The current location of the bus will be updated in real time.

During ride

When the bus departed from the bus stop, it passes through the Kasumigaura coastal road and proceed through the residential area.
After dropping the customer down in the residential area, the bus returned to the area around Tsuchiura station again, but it did not arrive at the near east exit, crossed the railroad, going to the west exit a while turning a little. I felt it was a slightly inefficient mode of operation.
The number of passengers felt like a state that a few people were on the bus.

I saw Kasumigaura from the bus.

Get of the bus

In order to get shopping at a local shop to get a discount ticket, I got off at the bus stop "Kawaguchi Town Mall 505 entrance".
You have to receive "Certificate of ride on the day" from the driver of the bus to receive a discount ticket.

"Kawaguchi Town Mall 505 entrance" bus stop	behind the bus There are many advertisements such as sponsorship companies.

Shopping at the grocery store

There are so many sponsor store, so I was lost as to what shops I would like to shop.
There was a leaflet of introducing the store inside the bus, so after watching it, I decided to go shopping at a local bakery shop and did some shopping.
It is a system that shopping more than 1000 yen and giving the above-mentioned "Certificate of ride on the day" to the store, people can receive a 100 yen fare subsidy ticket.
Since the expiration date is set by the end of each fiscal year, it can be used for the return bus or can be used for a bus going out on a different day.
After shopping, I walked to Tsuchiura Station.

I bought at a bakery in an area with many shops.	Purchased bread (The next day, photo taken at home)

Discount ticket “Kirara”	Behind of the “Kirara” The seal of the design on the left is affixed to the sponsorship store.

At the Tsuchiura Station

As mentioned earlier, there are many sponsorship stores. One of them is a large supermarket directly linked to the station, “Kasumi”.
You can get a discount ticket not only with small locally-based shops, but also when shopping at a large supermarket.
I felt it was very practical to be able to receive a discount ticket even though shopping at a supermarket which seems to be frequently used.
After that, I came home.

Supermarket directly linked to the station, “Kasumi”.

Consideration

As a community bus that we are implementing measures closer to "investment by shops" we propose on the "Solution Plan" page, this time we targeted "Kirara Chan Bus" for field investigation.
Indeed, the effort of getting a discount ticket by taking a bus and shopping at a store is a very wonderful initiative.
Also, as stated earlier, being partnered with large supermarkets directly connected to stations used by many people can be particularly appreciated as an effort to raise the use of community buses.

As Tsuchiura City, we aim to operate a community bus while building a mutual relationship with the local economy, it will be possible to operate more practical and sustainable.
Therefore, it can be said that such efforts should be introduced as much as possible nationwide.
In addition, from the viewpoint of "investment by shops", our proposal that has further stepped up is posted on the conclusion page.

Also, I think the community bus in Tsuchiura City is very good in terms of providing information to users. As I mentioned before, a very advanced bus location system was in place and the official website was also easy to understand timetables and route of operation. Everyone who is watching, how about trying access?

However, I thought that the community bus in Tsuchiura City had the disadvantage of "Route setting is bad ".
As mentioned in the ride report as well, routes that are not easy to use as a means of transportation, such as turning around at the station in front have been scattered over the route.
Therefore, they should change the route to be as linear as possible so that it should make it easy to use as a means of transportation to the station for residents who go out of town like "Mu-bus".