Shibuya Station

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Shibuya Station viewed from the east

Shibuya Station (渋谷駅, Shibuya-eki^?) is a train station located in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. With 2.4 million passengers on an average weekday in 2004, it is the third-busiest commuter rail station in Tokyo (after Shinjuku and Ikebukuro), handling a large amount of commuter traffic between the center city and suburbs to the south and west. The station is located at 35.658212° N 139.701569° E.

[edit] Lines

A Ginza Line train arriving in Shibuya. Shibuya is the only place where the line, Tokyo's oldest subway, runs above ground.

JR:

• Saikyō Line / Shōnan-Shinjuku Line - also used by Narita Express trains
• Yamanote Line - unusual platform configuration, with both train lines on the same side (east) of platform

Private railways:

• Keiō Inokashira Line - terminal station
• Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line - through service with Hanzōmon Line
• Tōkyū Tōyoko Line - terminal station

Underground (subway):

• Tōkyō Metro Ginza Line - terminal station
• Tōkyō Metro Hanzōmon Line - through service with Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line
• Tōkyō Metro Line 13 - under construction, to open in 2007; will have through service to Tōkyū Tōyoko Line beginning in 2012

Note that there is no direct connection between the two Tōkyō Metro lines, or between the two Tōkyū lines.

[edit] Layout

The statue of Hachikō is a famous meeting place.

The main station building is occupied by a Tokyu department store. The Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, originally built and operated by a Tokyu keiretsu company, uses platforms on the third floor. The JR lines and Tōkyū Tōyoko Line use parallel platforms on the second floor, while the Tōkyō Metro Hanzōmon Line and Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line share platforms underground, and the Keiō Inokashira Line uses platforms on the second floor of the Shibuya Mark City building to the west of the main station complex. The Tōkyō Metro Line is scheduled to open in 2007, and the Tōyoko Line station will thereafter be moved underground to allow through service between the two lines starting in 2012.

There are six exits from the main JR/Tōkyū/Tōkyō Metro complex. The Hachikō Exit (ハチ公口, Hachikō-guchi^?) on the west side, named for the nearby statue of the dog Hachikō and adjacent to Shibuya's famous scramble crossing, is a particularly popular meeting spot. The Tamagawa Exit (玉川口, Tamagawa-guchi^?) on the west side leads to the Keiō Inokashira Line station.

[edit] History

Bus terminal on the west side of Shibuya Station

Shibuya Station first opened on March 1, 1885 as a stop on the Shinagawa Line, a predecessor of the present-day Yamanote Line. The station was later expanded to accommodate the Tamagawa Railway (1907; closed 1969), the Tōkyō Line (1927), the Teito Shibuya Line (1933; now the Inokashira Line), the Tōkyō Rapid Railway (1938; began through service with the Ginza Line in 1939 and formally merged in 1941), the Den-en-toshi Line (1977) and the Hanzōmon Line (1978).

[edit] Trivia

There is an underground river running under the station, to the east and parallel to the JR tracks. Unlike most other Japanese department stores, the east block of Tokyu department store (which constitute the east exit of the station) does not have retail space in the basement because of this. An escalator in the east block built over the river stops a few steps above floor level to make space for machinery underneath without digging. Rivers are deemed public space by Japanese law, so building over one is normally illegal. It is not clear why this was allowed when it was first built in 1933.

[edit] Adjacent stations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shibuya

[edit] External links

• JR East Shibuya Station map - in Japanese

Coordinates: 35°39′18.698″N, 139°42′16.672″E