Akihabara Station

Coordinates: 35°41′54″N 139°46′25″E / 35.698240°N 139.773731°E / 35.698240; 139.773731

Akihabara Station 秋葉原駅
Electric Town Exit of Akihabara Station, August 2011
Location
Prefecture	Tokyo (See other stations in Tokyo)
Ward	Chiyoda
Neighborhood etc.	1 Soto-Kanda (JR Station) Kanda-Sakuma-chō (Tokyo Metro) Kanda-Hanaoka-chō (Tsukuba Express)
History
Year opened	1890
Rail services
Operator(s)	JR East Tokyo Metro Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company
Line(s)	Keihin-Tōhoku Line Yamanote Line Chūō-Sōbu Line Hibiya Line Tsukuba Express
Small bus terminal at this station

Akihabara Station (秋葉原駅, Akihabara-eki) is a railway station located in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward. It is at the center of the famous Akihabara shopping district specializing in electronic goods.

Lines

JR Akihabara Station Showa Dori Entrance (May, 2006)

JR East:

• Keihin-Tōhoku Line
• Yamanote Line
• Chūō-Sōbu Line

Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line No. 3 Entrance (Dec, 2006)

Tokyo Metro:

• Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line

Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company:

• Tsukuba Express

The above-ground section of the station is cross-shaped, with the Chūō-Sōbu Line tracks running from east to west, and the Yamanote and Keihin-Tōhoku Line (and Tōhoku Shinkansen, which does not stop at Akihabara) from north to south.

Station layout

JR East

There are two island platforms serving four tracks for the Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line on the 2nd level, and two side platforms serving two tracks for the Sobu Line Local service on the 4th level.

Tokyo Metro

There are two underground side platforms serving two tracks.

Tsukuba Express

There is an underground island platform serving two tracks.

Adjacent stations

History

Akihabara Station was opened in November 1890 as a freight terminal linked to Ueno Station station via tracks following the course of the modern day Yamanote Line.

It was opened to passenger traffic in 1925 following the construction of the section of track linking Ueno with Shinbashi via Tokyo Station and the completion of the Yamanote Line. The upper level platforms were added in 1932 with the opening of an extension to the Sōbu Line from its old terminal at Ryōgoku to Ochanomizu, making Akihabara an important transfer station for passengers from the east of Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture.

The huge growth in commuter traffic following the Second World War caused considerable congestion and was only relieved with the construction of the Sōbu line tunnel linking Kinshichō with Tokyo, bypassing Akihabara.

The Hibiya Line subway station was opened on May 31, 1962 with the line's extension from Naka-Okachimachi to Ningyōchō.

On August 24, 2005, the underground terminus of the new Tsukuba Express Line opened at Akihabara. The entire station complex, including the JR station, was also refurbished and enlarged in preparation for the opening of the Tsukuba Express.^[1]

Surrounding area

The main attraction is the Akihabara electronics retail district to the north and west of the station.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Akihabara Station.

• Akihabara Station information (JR East) (Japanese)
• Akihabara Station information (Tokyo Metro) (Japanese)
• Akihabara Station information (Tsukuba Express) (Japanese)