Fukuoka City Subway

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Type 2000 trainset.
Type 2000 trainset.

The Fukuoka City Subway (福岡市地下鉄 Fukuoka-shi Chikatetsu?) serves Fukuoka City, Japan. It consists of three subway lines, the Kūkō, or Airport, Line (空港線), the Hakozaki Line (箱崎線) and the Nanakuma Line (七隈線).

The lines are operated by Fukuoka City Transportation Bureau (福岡市交通局 Fukuoka-shi Kōtsūkyoku?). Unlike most other public operators in Japan, the bureau only operates subways, without any bus lines.

All the stations of the subway lines are equipped with automatic platform gates. All the lines are automatically operated by ATO system, although a driver does ride a train as a precaution. The lines will introduce Hayakaken, a smart card system in spring, 2009, that will succeed the current prepaid magnetic card systems.

Contents

[edit] Lines

Fukuoka City Subway lines and services
Color Name First section
opened
Last ex-
tension
Length
km/miles
Stations served Journeys

per annum (000's)

Red Via trackage rights JR Kyūshū Chikuhi Line N/A[1] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Line 1 Kūkō Line 1972 1993 13.1/8.1 13 108,040
Blue Line 1 Kūkō Line 1982[2] 1983 8.1/5.0 9
Line 2 Hakozaki Line 1982 1986 4.7/2.9 7
Green Line 3 Nanakuma Line 2005 - 12.0/7.5 16 N/A

[edit] Airport rail link

Visitors travelling to Fukuoka by Shinkansen (bullet train) disembark at JR Hakata Station. They can then transfer to the Fukuoka City Subway system by changing to Hakata Subway station, located under the JR Hakata station.[1] Fukuoka Airport is also linked to the Fukuoka City Subway. Downtown Fukuoka City can be reached in about 10 minutes by subway, making Fukuoka Airport one of the most accessible major-city airports in the world.

[edit] Station logos

For the ease of users who can't read Japanese, subways in Japan often employ station-numbering scheme, which is to apply single letter for each line (such as "K" for Kūkō Line) and number each station (like "K01" for Meinohama Station, "K02" for Muromi Station, and so on). Fukuoka City Subway, however, does not employ this system. Instead, it employs unique logo for each station, much like Mexico City Metro. Fukuokakūkō Station (Airport), for instance, has a logo symbolizing an airplane. [2]

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Between Chikuzen-Fukae Station and Meinohama Station
  2. ^ Between Meinohama Station and Nakasu-Kawabata Station