Odakyu Electric Railway

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Near Higashi-Kitazawa Station, with romancecar Series 20000 RSE (Left) and commuter car Series 9000 (Right)

The Odakyu Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (小田急電鉄株式会社, Odakyū Dentetsu Kabushiki-gaisha^?), or OER, is a major private railway company in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its Romancecar series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone. The Odakyu Group comprises of 108 companies (as of October 2005), and includes Enoshima Electric Railway, Hakone-Tozan Line, Tachikawa Bus and Tokai Bus.

[edit] History

The 83km line from Shinjuku to Odawara opened for service on April 1, 1927. Unlike the Odawara line, rarely were pre-WWII Japanese private railways constructed with double-track and fully electrified from the first day of operation. Two years later, April 1, 1929, the Enoshima Line was added.

The original full name of the railroad was Odawara Kyūkō Denki Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha, but this was often shortened to Odawara Kyūkō (Odawara Express). The abbreviation Odakyū was made popular by the title song of the 1929 movie Tokyo Kōshinkyoku and eventually became the official name of the railroad (Seidensticker, 1990).

On May 1, 1942, Odakyu merged with the Tokyo-Yokohama Electric Railway company (now Tokyu), which controlled all private railway services west and south of Tokyo by the end of World War II. The company regained its independence on June 1, 1948, and it obtained a large of Hakone-Tozan Railway stocks, instead of separating Keio Inokashira Line for Keio Corporation. Odakyu restarted Non-stop Limited Express service between Shinjuku and Odawara in 1948. In 1950, Odakyu trains ran through to Hakone-Yumoto on Hakone-Tozan Line. Odakyu holds narrow gauge (1067 mm) tracks, but Hakone-Tozan Railway is on standard gauge (1435mm), so one track of the section from Odawara to Hakone-Yumoto (6.1km) was changed to be dual gauge system. It operated first Romance Car Series 1710 for Limited Express in 1951.

After the 1950s, due to rapid Japanese economic growth, Odakyu was faced with an explosive increase of population along with its lines. Commuter passengers had to use very crowded trains every morning, and complained strongly with delay of improvements from the railway company. Odakyu did many constructions - "Sinjuku Station Great Improvement" in twice for setting 5 lines and 10 platforms, each has enough length for 10 commuter cars (Romance Car consists 11 cars), though service for Chiyoda Line, and so on. But, four-track construction planning from 1964 was prevented by inhabitants movement in Setagaya Ward in Tokyo, so it's not still completed. This is famous for long-term and remarkable registlative case in court. Odakyu could not take main part of transport from Tama New Town Area, though Odakyu started the oparation of Tama Line in 1974.

In the last ten years, Odakyu has been adding track in both directions from Izumi-Tamagawa Station, on Tama River, the border station of Tokyo, to the just before of Setagaya-Daita Station for expanding the time of express train, especially for morning commuter service. But, as that opposite movement, it's still now under construction the section between Setagaya-Daita to Higashi-Kitazawa Station. Odakyu announces this bottle-neck will be resolved in 2013, but it's not secured yet.

Odakyu has shown its high potencial technology for mass and rapid transport. It operates all sections its lines as double (or more) tracks from opening day (except in a few case). It sometimes regareded as a bypass route of Tōkaidō Main Line from Tokyo to western Kanagawa or more far area, not through Yokohama in wartime. Romancecar Series 3000 SE ran in test as 145km/h in 1957, it was the world record on narrow gauge (1067 mm) railroad. This test brought important data about high-speed electric multiple unit (EMU), Japanese National Railways(JNR) used for its EMU limited express car, series 151, and series 0 in Tōkaidō Shinkansen, 1964.

[edit] Odakyu Group

Today, Odakyu is a diversified corporation with operations in real estate, finance (credit card), fiber optic networking, personal storage, and travel sales, railways, bus service. They also own several recreational facilities, including a golf course, campground, hot springs resort, and sailing resort, all of which are situated to bring more passengers onto the railway network.

The Odakyu group have department stores by Shin-Yurigaoka, Shinjuku, Machida and Fujisawa stations.　Odakyu also runs a number of large hotels, including Odakyu Southern Tower in Yoyogi, as well as others in Shinjuku and Izu Peninsula. They also own a chain of supermarkets called Odakyu OX across west Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture, as well as a chain of convenience stores (Odakyu MART) and kiosk outlets (OX SHOP) found in various Odakyu line stations. Odakyu, like many railway companies in Japan, also operate a set of feeder busses all throughout the line that compliment city bus services, called Odakyu Bus.

Odakyu is listed on Section 1 of Tokyo Stock Exchange, and is a company on Fortune magazine's Global 500 list.

[edit] Lines

Odakyu has three railway lines, and through service to four lines of other companies.

[edit] Opetation Lines

• It's not counted the connect branch between Odawara Line and Central JR Gotenba Line near Shin-Matsuda Station.
• Odakyu operated Mukogaoka-Yuen Monolail Line, between Mukogaoka-Yuen and Mukogaoka-Yuen-Seimon (1.1km, 2 stations), from 1966 to 2001. It used Lockheed Corporation style monorail system.

[edit] Through Lines

• Some Odakyu trains from the Tama Line (and a little of Odawara Line, from Hon-Atsugi Station) continue on to the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line and Jōban Line (Yoyogi-Uehara Station - Ayase Station - Toride Station).
• Some Odakyu trains continue on to the Hakone-Tozan Line (Odawara Station - Hakone-Yumoto Station).
• Limited Express Asagiri uses the connect branch to Central Japan Railway Company Gotenba Line, and runs between Shinjuku and Numazu Station 8 times on a day.

[edit] Train Classification

• Only "Limited Express" is charged, and used by Romancecars. The others are free, and used by commuter cars.

[edit] Limited Express Service

Commuter service is shown in each lines pages.

• "Asagiri" runs on connect branch line just before Shin-Matsuda from Shinjuku, and stops Matsuda on Gotenba Line. Matsuda and Shin-Matsuda are treated as one station.
• "Homeway" runs only evening every day, after 18:00 from Shinjuku. No service is going to Shinjuku.

[edit] Odakyu railway on the computer

The Odakyu Railway has been included in several Japanese language train simulator programs as well as the English language Microsoft Train Simulator program. Microsoft Train Simulator includes the railway's Odawara and Hakone-Tozan lines, collectively referred to as the "Tokyo-Hakone" route. You can drive two of the trains that travel on the line; the Series 2000 commuter trainset and the Series 7000 LSE Romancecar trainset. Several "activities", or scenarios, are included.

Various Odakyu addins are available for the BVE Train Simulator, a freeware cab view train simulator for Microsoft Windows.

[edit] See also

• Series 30000 EXE

[edit] References

• Seidensticker, Edward (1990). Tokyo Rising : the city since the great earthquake. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-394-54360-2.

[edit] External links

• Odakyu Electric Railway
• Evolution of Railway Technology (prominently mentions Odakyu 3000 SE Romance Trainsets)