Odakyu Electric Railway

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Near Higashi-Kitazawa Station, with romance car Odakyū 20000 series RSE (Left) and commuter car Odakyū 9000 series (Right)

The Odakyū 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 Romance car series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone. The Odakyū Group comprises 108 companies (as of October 2005), and includes Enoshima Electric Railway, Hakone Tozan Line, Tachikawa Bus and Tokai Bus.

[edit] History

The 83 km 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, Odakyū merged with the Tokyo-Yokohama Electric Railway company (now Tōkyū), 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. Odakyū restarted Non-stop Limited Express service between Shinjuku and Odawara in 1948. In 1950, Odakyū trains ran through to Hakone-Yumoto on Hakone Tozan Line. Odakyū uses narrow gauge (1067 mm) tracks, but Hakone Tozan Railway is on standard gauge (1435 mm), so one track of the section from Odawara to Hakone-Yumoto (6.1 km) was changed to a dual gauge system. It operated the first Romance Car Odakyū 1710 series for Limited Express in 1951.

After the 1950s, due to rapid Japanese economic growth, Odakyū 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 the delay of improvements from the railway company. Odakyū began construction on the - "Shinjuku Station Great Improvement Project" setting 5 lines and 10 platforms long enough for 10 standard commuter cars (Romance Cars excepted, they have 11 cars) with service on the Chiyoda Line, among others. Plans for a four-track system in 1964 were prevented by residents of Setagaya Ward in Tokyo, as such the system remains uncompleted. The Setagaya Residents' opposition set the stage for a long-term and remarkable case in the courts and legislature. Odakyū 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, Odakyū has been adding track in both directions from Izumi-Tamagawa Station, on Tama River, the border station of Tokyo, to just outside of Setagaya-Daita Station for expanding the availability of express trains, especially for morning commuter service. The lines between Setagaya-Daita and Higashi-Kitazawa Station are still under construction, hoever. Odakyū announced that the bottle-neck will be resolved by 2013.

Odakyū has shown its high potential technology for mass and rapid transport. It operates all sections of its lines as double (or more) tracks from the day service begins, except for a few rare instances. It sometimes is regarded as a bypass route for the Tōkaidō Main Line from Tokyo to western Kanagawa, also going out to further areas away from Tokyo, although not through Yokohama in wartime. The Romance Car Odakyū 3000 series SE was tested at speeds of up to 145 km/h in 1957, achieving a world record for narrow gauge (1067 mm) lines at the time. These tests also provided important data on high-speed electric multiple units (EMU), which Japanese National Railways(JNR) used for its limited express EMUs, 151 series, and 0 Series Shinkansen introduced in the early 1960s.

[edit] Odakyū Group

Today, Odakyū is a diversified corporation with operations in real estate, finance (credit card), fiber optic networking, personal storage, and travel sales, railways, bus service. It also owns 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 Odakyū Group has department stores by Shin-Yurigaoka, Shinjuku, Machida and Fujisawa stations. Odakyū also runs a number of large hotels, including Odakyū Southern Tower in Yoyogi, as well as others in Shinjuku and Izu Peninsula. It also owns a chain of supermarkets called Odakyū OX across west Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture, as well as a chain of convenience stores (Odakyū MART) and kiosk outlets (OX SHOP) found in various Odakyū line stations. Odakyū , like many railway companies in Japan, also operates a set of feeder busses all throughout the line that complement city bus services, called Odakyū Bus.

Odakyū 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] Operation Lines

• Not including the connecting branch between Odawara Line and JR-Central Gotenba Line near Shin-Matsuda Station.
• Odakyū operated Mukogaoka-Yuen Monorail Line, between Mukogaoka-Yuen and Mukogaoka-Yuen-Seimon (1.1 km, 2 stations), from 1966 to 2001, using a Lockheed Corporation style monorail system.

[edit] Through Lines

• Some Odakyū 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 Odakyū trains continue on to the Hakone Tozan Line (Odawara Station - Hakone-Yumoto Station).
• Limited Express Asagiri uses the connect branch to JR Central 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 the connecting branch line just before Shin-Matsuda from Shinjuku, and stops at Matsuda on Gotenba Line. Matsuda and Shin-Matsuda are treated as one station.
• "Homeway" runs only evening every day, after 18:00 from Shinjuku. There is no service to Shinjuku.

[edit] Odakyū railway on the computer

The Odakyū 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 2000 series commuter trainset and the Odakyū 7000 series LSE Romance Car trainset. Several "activities", or scenarios, are included.

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

[edit] See also

• Odakyū 30000 series 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

• Odakyū Electric Railway
• Evolution of Railway Technology (prominently mentions Odakyū 3000 series SE Romance Car trainsets)