Subway & commuter railway station density in central Tokyo

[Vapour]

The area covered is 5180 m x 4480 m = 23,2 km2

[Nick]

Just amazing.

Tokyo defintiely and probalbly Osaka in number two,has the highest desitiy of public rail transport in the world.I can think of a few cites like New York,London and Paris what have two systems going.But Osaka and Tokyo seem to have about 3 or 4 layers of rail blanketing the city

[raymond_tung88]

Any pictures of the stations and cars? Is Tokyo's subway connected to Yokohama's?

Oh and I've always wanted to know this... Is Osaka the 2nd largest city in Japan or is Yokohama. I've heard that the boundary between Tokyo and Yokohama is so hard to tell that it just constitutes as one BIG city.

[Vapour]

In terms of city proper population, Yokohama is 1 million larger than Osaka. In terms of metro areas, Yokohama is Tokyo. Then #2 Osaka, #3 Nagoya.

[Frungy]

The subway lines in Tokyo connect directly to the private railway commuter lines. The commuter lines are not like the ones in the US, with station spacing miles apart- instead, stations are spaced much like the dense subway network. Imagine the LIRR or Metro North in New York dipping into the subway network, allowing you to go from the suburbs directly to Wall Street with no transfers.

This is why a car is not needed in Tokyo. Every neighborhood has a station nearby, and every line connects with any other line, with lots of outer ring lines as well as the radial lines to downtown.

[Nick]

Very true indeed.The applies to Osaka as well.

[AG]

Photos and movies of trains on JR's mammoth Tokyo rail network:
http://www37.tok2.com/home/cityhunter8107/

[AG]

Also Tokyo JR images here: http://homepage3.nifty.com/meganenoyamazen/newpage4.htm

I think this is the Keiyo line, 201 series:




205 series:




103 series:


Oddity:

Narita Airport Express:


Yamanote line 205 series:


Yamanote line E231-500 series:


209 series:


E231:


209-1000 series:

[Rail Claimore]

I saved both links.

[Brillemeister]

Originally Posted by AG

Photos and movies of trains on JR's mammoth Tokyo rail network:
http://www37.tok2.com/home/cityhunter8107/

So how does one get to the movies?

[AG]

You'll see on the left there are several links. The ones above the image are those that lead to photos and movies of trains. From there, u can pic any page of any sort of train listed, those with P have photos (all of them) and those that have movies also have an M next to the P. When scrolling through the images of media, those that are movies have movie written in front of an image. Click on one of those ones, and from there you have a choice of Window Media, Quickplayer or MPEG (usually prefer Window Media), so click on one of those three choices. From there a new window should pop up with text written in Japanese across it. To get the movie you must click on the highlighted Japanese words.

[demanjo]

I am so amazed by this whole Tokyo system.
I am travelling to Tokyo later this year for the first time in a long time... so the first time i really have the responsibility of communiting etc...

I've gathered there are lots of different owned/guage/train lines and such?
Is it a hassle to get places in this city? Do you have to continually change trains?
Im lost just looking at the maps!

[TRZ]

Originally Posted by Frungy

The subway lines in Tokyo connect directly to the private railway commuter lines. The commuter lines are not like the ones in the US, with station spacing miles apart- instead, stations are spaced much like the dense subway network. Imagine the LIRR or Metro North in New York dipping into the subway network, allowing you to go from the suburbs directly to Wall Street with no transfers.

This is why a car is not needed in Tokyo. Every neighborhood has a station nearby, and every line connects with any other line, with lots of outer ring lines as well as the radial lines to downtown.

Not quite every neighborhood, and there are lines that do not connect to other lines, even if they cross over each other. It is an extremely dense network, but understanding the maps can be a little difficult if you are not paying close attention, some stations are particularly complicated (like one example, you have walk through via another train line's platform to get to the platform for the line you are transfering to (e.g. Nagatachou/Akasaka-mitsuke station (a 2-in-1 station)).

As for ring lines, there are a few, but I wouldn't say "lots". The ones that I would count as ring/circle lines are the JR Yamanote line, the Toei Oedo line, the JR Musashino line, the Yokosuka-Sobu Rapid line (happens to be the same as Yokohama-bound branch of the Narita Express), and the JR Saikyou-Kawagoe line.

Originally Posted by demanjo

I am so amazed by this whole Tokyo system.
I am travelling to Tokyo later this year for the first time in a long time... so the first time i really have the responsibility of communiting etc...

I've gathered there are lots of different owned/guage/train lines and such?
Is it a hassle to get places in this city? Do you have to continually change trains?
Im lost just looking at the maps!

The fare system can be a pain, and depending on your route could become expensive if you require multiple companies' lines. The first thing to beware of is the subway system. There are two subway companies in Tokyo which require separate (although they can be integrated for cheaper) fares. The Tokyo Metro comprises 2/3s of the system (and later will include the now under construction Meiji Line (line no 13)), and the remain third is run by Toei (Toei lines in my experience are mostly useless, by and large, except for the Toei Oedo line). Watch your fare tables and transfer gates. Use the Passnet (or Pathnet?) card to let the system calculate your fare automatically between almost all non-JR systems in the Tokyo area. Carry an english copy of a transit map on you, prefereably a bilingual one, as the maps provided in stations by the fare-vending machines are often only in Japanese.

The gauges are different as well. Toei Oedo line uses the same gauge as the Shinkansen, as do the Ginza and Marunouchi lines, while the Toei Shinjuku line uses the same as the Keio Line's (Keio's track gauge is a total anomaly and seems to be unique in the country, I have no idea why it is like that), while most other subway, private, and JR lines are on Narrow Gauge.

However, you can get pretty much ANYWHERE with two transfers (3 trains), or perhaps one more if transfering to an express (1/2 a transfer =P). There are exceptions, but a majority of all lines lead to one of the following; Shinjuku(Ikebukuro,Shibuya), Tokyo(Otemachi), Nagatachou, Ueno, or Yokohama stations.