For Japan’s train commuters in the years following World War II, buying a ticket could be a stressful experience. Today it’s not difficult to go online and reserve a seat, but 65 years ago, travelers faced long queues at the ticket window and limited ways to find out if seats were available. Reservations were handwritten in a paper ledger, and there were plenty of accidental double-bookings. Travelers had no real way to know if they’d have—or could get—a reservation once they reached a ticket window.
All that changed in 1960, when the Japanese National Railways (JNR), which operated the country’s system, partnered with technology company Hitachi to introduce the world’s first fully automated railway booking system: the Magnetic-electronic Automatic Reservation System-1.
MARS-1 gave JNR the ability to reserve up to 3,600 seats per day for travelers across four routes between Tokyo and Osaka. Bookings could be accepted up to 15 days in advance. Passengers no longer had to gamble on availability, because reservations were confirmed in seconds. Riders traveling in groups could even reserve seats next to each other, ensuring families could stay together during the journey.
The system has been commemorated as an IEEE Milestone for its role in transforming railway ticketing in Japan, and even in other countries.
As of press time, the dedication ceremony was being planned.
Introducing computers to Japan
After the end of World War II, Japan’s economy began to recover relatively quickly, thanks to sweeping economic reforms that led to an industrial boom by the mid-1950s. Thanks in part to its economic growth, Japan invested heavily in its rail infrastructure, making trains more efficient and convenient for daily commuters and for long-distance travelers. As ridership soared, the inefficiency of the country’s railroad ticketing system quickly became apparent.
JNR’s research institute took on the task of finding a solution. One of its engineers, Mamoru Hosaka, was already studying how computers could help automate certain tasks. Hosaka received the 2006 IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Award for his work on what later became MARS-1.
In 1954 he successfully persuaded his colleagues and company executives to green-light a study into using computers to control railway systems, according to his Computer Society biography.
Three years later, he shifted his focus and formed a team to investigate developing an automated reservation system using magnetic drum memory with a Bendix G-15 computer. Widely used in the 1950s and 1960s, magnetic drum memory stored information on the outside of a rotating cylinder coated with magnetic iron.
“The technical achievements of MARS-1 and its successors reached well beyond the railway. They were foundational to the development of real-time transaction systems that shape modern life.”
Hosaka and his team designed a prototype system composed of custom control circuits that could rapidly retrieve and update seat information for four new express trains that connected Tokyo and Osaka. For each reservation, the system verified seat availability, issued confirmation slips, and updated the records—all within seconds.
The design was handed off to engineers at Hitachi in Tokyo, who developed a working system—MARS-1—two years later. It was first installed in 1960 at Tokyo Station and was one of the earliest large-scale deployments of a computerized system that captured, processed, and stored routine business transactions in real time.
Streamlining reservations made rail service more efficient and reliable, which was critical for workers, students, and families traveling between growing cities.
Scaling up for the bullet train
Although the launch of MARS-1 was regarded as a major success, the system quickly revealed its limitations. By 1964, Japan was preparing to launch the world’s first high-speed rail line—the Shinkansen—(another IEEE Milestone)—known as the bullet train. The Shinkansen would reduce the travel time from Tokyo to Osaka from nearly seven hours to a little more than three. With the capacity for more trips per day, MARS-1’s initial throughput of 3,600 daily bookings could no longer meet demand.
By October 1965, the upgraded MARS-102 system was installed in 152 stations across Japan. It consisted of three computers. The first searched trains, schedules, fares, and other tables. The second searched for and booked vacant seats. The third, and main computer, managed and controlled the system’s overall processing sequence. The computers exchanged data using a shared magnetic core memory unit, according to the Information Processing Society of Japan’s Computer Museum website.
The MARS-102 could process up to 150,000 seats, about five times more than the previous system. Engineers continued to make upgrades, and by 1991, the system supported daily sales of more than 1 million tickets.
Inspiring reservation systems worldwide
MARS-1’s influence extended far beyond Japan. The system pioneered many of the principles that later underpinned global reservation systems. Sabre, developed by American Airlines in the early 1960s, used similar real-time transaction concepts for airline reservations.
MARS-1 also paved the way for transaction-processing computers found in e-commerce, banking, and stock exchanges. Banks adopted comparable architectures for their ATM networks. Hotel chains developed automated room-booking platforms to process thousands of simultaneous transactions.
“The technical achievements of MARS-1 and its successors reached well beyond the railway,” the Milestone proposers wrote. “They were foundational to the development of real-time transaction systems that shape modern life.”
A plaque recognizing the MARS-1 as an IEEE Milestone is to be installed at the Railway Technical Research Institute, in Tokyo. It will read:
In 1960 Japanese National Railways introduced Magnetic-electronic Automatic Reservation System-1 (MARS-1), the first automated railway booking system. Initially supporting real-time reservations of 3,600 seats per day and up to 15 days in advance, it later adopted a task-sharing multicomputer architecture that could support additional routes including the bullet train in 1965. Continually upgraded, it supported daily sales of more than 1 million tickets by 1991 and reshaped worldwide rail ticketing.
Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the Milestone program recognizes outstanding technical developments around the world. The IEEE Tokyo Section sponsored the nomination.
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