Tokyo Subway

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Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line subway train departing Hiroo Station

Saikyo Line at Shinjuku Station

Tokyo subway map (not entire rapid transit system), 13 lines with transfer stations

Tokyo subways are by no means the entire rail system, for that please see separate article Transportation in Greater Tokyo.

The Tokyo subway (東京の地下鉄 chikatetsu) is a integral part of the world's most extensive rapid transit system in a single metropolitan area, Greater Tokyo. The subway system itself does not extend far outside the city (23 wards), it is meant to serve the central business centers only, but is nevertheless one of the more extensive in the world. It is heavily complemented by suburban railway and other rail lines.

1 Networks
2 Subway to Suburban Service (Through Lines)
3 History
4 Payment System
5 Usage and Network Statistics
6 External links

[edit] Networks

The two primary subway networks are operated by:

Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd. Formerly Teito Rapid Transit Authority (Eidan), the company operates eight lines. The lines are called Tokyo Metro. Tokyo Metro Line 13 phase 2 is under construction, phase 1 is operating. The minimum price for one ride is 160 yen.^{[citation needed]}

Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation. An arm of the government of Tokyo-to operates four lines. These lines carry the name Toei (都営) which means "operated by the [Tokyo] Metropolitan Government." The minimum price for one ride is 170 yen.^{[citation needed]}

Notes:

There are 13-14 lines, but depending on how you count. Yamanote Line is operated by JR East, but is often put on Tokyo subway maps and often considered a subway line. With 8 Metro and 4 Toei, the up and running phase 1 of Metro Line 13, and Yamanote, you get 14 lines.

Yokohama City operates its own subway network in the Greater Tokyo area, but is not considered a "Tokyo subway". For more info, see separate article Yokohama Subway.

[edit] Subway to Suburban Service (Through Lines)

Tokyo subways often have direct subway to suburban railway service and vice versa. The subway cars come up above ground and simply continue on suburban tracks, no reboarding is required. Some website use terms like "Through Lines" or "Direct Service".

Such subway to private operators which offer the service include:

Subway to JR East lines
Subway to Keio lines
Odakyu and Chiyoda Line (subway).
Subway to Tobu lines

Often such lines require a bypass of the terminal stations, for example, Chiyoda Line bypasses Shinjuku Station (Odakyu terminus) and connects at the next express stop, Yoyogi-Uehara Station.

For respective details, please see Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd or Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation or links above to private railway operators.

[edit] History

Train at Shinjuku station

In 1927, Japan and Tokyo's first subway line opened. However, this is not to be confused with the first urban railway, which opened in Tokyo in 1885.

In 1995, Aum Shinri Kyo, a doomsday cult, attacked the subway system with sarin nerve gas at Kasumigaseki Station and a few others, leading to about 10 deaths and hundreds of sick.

On April 1, 2004, the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) was privatized and renamed the Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd (東京地下鉄株式会社, Tōkyō Chikatetsu K.K.). The company also uses the name Tokyo Metro (東京メトロ) in Japanese for promotional purposes. The privatization affected only the TRTA, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government continues to operate its own Toei lines separately.

[edit] Payment System

The separate administration of two metro systems has these ramifications:

The same ticket cannot be used on both systems. An additional 90 or 100 yen is charged to switch to the other system regardless of the length of the ride. However, the PASSNET system gets around such issues, by allowing one stored-fare card to be used on most of the rail operators in the Greater Tokyo Area (with the noticeable exception of JR East which uses its own Suica system). The introduction of PASMO in 2007 will finally produce one unified stored fare for most of the Tokyo transit system.

The two systems represent the metro network differently in station, train and customer information diagrams. For example, the Toei map represents the Toei Oedo Line as a circle in the centre; the Tokyo Metro's map saves the central ring line for the Marunouchi Line and the JR Yamanote Line.

[edit] Usage and Network Statistics

Currently (as of September 2005), subways in Tokyo have 168 train stations, 14 lines, with an average of 5.69 million passengers per day. They employ 8,721 staff, and the busiest station is Shinjuku (which is also the world's busiest (3.47 million per day in 2004, including many non-subway passengers), and second largest.^{[citation needed]}

There are over 20 million daily rail passengers in Greater Tokyo, so subways account for a little more than a quarter of all rail ridership in the metropolitan area by passenger number. (Note: many passengers use both subways and other systems)^{[citation needed]}