I found this REALLY cool and interesting, thank you for sharing
I love all the steel girder work, the symbiosis of the steel, the train, the station, the roofs. Absolutely beautiful
Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
11–20 of 128 posts
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#12If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
> I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and they were still packed. I mean they are much better, but this is only true to a point. You can't get better than…
The Yamanote is mostly quadruple-track, although the commuter line uses only two of those. Trains run every two minutes at peak hour, and each train has 11 carriages, giving the system ridiculous capacity.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#13If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
What's also amazing is how well everything is working. They're are on time and stop at the exact right spot: the doors do open precisely where they're meant to.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#14Leaving this here: https://youtu.be/sPjhUaJJ22c?si=Qn2ecmu0panbA9mG
Kore wa Yamanote-sen desu ka?
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#15If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
It's a fun experience just being in the absolutely packed rush hour Tokyo trains. Although I don't have to worry about claustrophobia since I'm 6'3 tall and I'm able to look out above the heads of everybody else.
Yeah, I travel to Japan frequently (in fact, my next trip is next week!) and I'm also tall. I love Japan, and I love Tokyo's public transportation. However, one of the things I don't like are the jammed-packed rush hour trains in Tokyo. It could be very uncomfortable. I try my best to plan my itineraries in such a way where I could avoid that commute as much as possible.
Complaints aside, I love Tokyo's train and subway network! I can get around easily, with most places being no more than a 20-minute walk away from the nearest train/subway station, and many of the lines that connect central Tokyo to its neighbors have express routes that skip many stations along the way. Some lines even have special cars with reserved seats that cost extra. I sometimes take them whenever they are available; they make for a very comfortable ride.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and they were still packed. I mean they are much better, but this is only true to a point. You can't get better than…
The Yamanote is mostly quadruple-track, although the commuter line uses only two of those. Trains run every two minutes at peak hour, and each train has 11 carriages, giving the system ridiculous capacity.
the commuter line only uses two of those but this is a bit misleading because there are other parallel rail lines over much of its length running right alongside.
there used to be not as many, but the Yamanote was so overcrowded that they constructed additional pairs of tracks to reduce the amount of people who needed to change trains onto the Yamanote.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#17If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
It's great to use as a tourist. Very easy to get where you want and top notch frequency. One thing I thought was interesting is that transit advocates in the California I was visiting from push for free transit and transit sucks balls here while Japan generally was fee-paid transit and their transit ruled. I frequently travel to Hong Kong and I moved to California from London and so I looked them up and they hadn't t…
Another big difference between transit in Tokyo versus transit in California: in Tokyo many of the lines are owned and operated by private companies. JR East used to be part of Japan National Railways, but the Japanese government privatized JNR in 1987, and it was split into several regional companies. There are other private companies that operate commuter rail lines, such as Tokyu (which played a major role in the development of Shibuya as well as suburban areas in Yokohama such as Tama Plaza), Odakyu, Keio, and Keikyu. The subway lines tend to be publicly-owned, however, such as the Tokyo Metro subway system, the Toei subway system, and the Yokohama Municipal Subway. Many of these subway lines seamlessly flow into privately-owned and operated lines from the companies previously mentioned; for example, the Tokyu Den-en-Toshi line, which connects the suburban areas of Machida and Yokohama to Shibuya, becomes the Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line once it reaches Shibuya.
Many of the private train companies have other businesses. For example, Tokyu Group (https://tokyugroup.jp/en) operates many companies, such as department stores (including the famous Shibuya 109), hotels, grocery stores, and even a hospital. Tokyu used to own a fantastic chain of stores called Tokyu Hands, which is hard to classify but sells a variety of goods, but Tokyu sold it a few years ago.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#18If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
It's great to use as a tourist. Very easy to get where you want and top notch frequency. One thing I thought was interesting is that transit advocates in the California I was visiting from push for free transit and transit sucks balls here while Japan generally was fee-paid transit and their transit ruled. I frequently travel to Hong Kong and I moved to California from London and so I looked them up and they hadn't t…
Most commuter train lines in Japan are part of integrated conglomerates of complementary businesses. JR East, which runs the Yamanote Line, also operates shopping malls, hotels, gyms, and other retail facilities at and near their stations. Many suburban lines, such as Tokyu and Hankyu, also have large real estate businesses along the train lines. The rail lines make the businesses more accessible, and the businesses boost rail usage. That symbiotic profitability has developed over many decades and would be very difficult to create from scratch.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you associate free transit with "trying to kill transit"?
Not OP, but somebody still has to pay for the transit. And a "free" service is politically much more vulnerable than one that is partly being paid for by the users because it involves taxes and redistribution. It adds pressure for each (annual) budget discussion.
That "politically vulnerable" point is good. Almost all public transit ends up heavily subsidized, so the argument for free is that it's not a huge difference, and it reduces the costs involved in collecting fees / enforcement etc. But yeah, it's easier for political winds to blow against it.
Re: Tokyo's oldest train line – in pictures
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's great to use as a tourist. Very easy to get where you want and top notch frequency. One thing I thought was interesting is that transit advocates in the California I was visiting from push for free transit and transit sucks balls here while Japan generally was fee-paid transit and their transit ruled. I frequently travel to Hong Kong and I moved to California from London and so I looked them up and they hadn't t…
Another big difference between transit in Tokyo versus transit in California: in Tokyo many of the lines are owned and operated by private companies. JR East used to be part of Japan National Railways, but the Japanese government privatized JNR in 1987, and it was split into several regional companies. There are other private companies that operate commuter rail lines, such as Tokyu (which played a major role in the…
It's important to note that private companies in Japan didn't always function as fully independent entities from the government (obviously there is going to be rent-seeking as almost always happens), there is a pretty complicated history of post ww2 industrial + government growth that had some form of public good (or social contract whichever you prefer) baked into it.
It's interesting that you mention it was privatized in 1987, which corresponds to the economic bubble that was happening from 1986 to 1991, which burst leaving a so called "lost generation" of people growing up in basically stagnation. And from what I understand the Japanese economy is still not the rocket ship it once was..