JAPAN | Urban Transport Compilation

[quashlo]

New East Exit at Hanshin Sannomiya Station opens: Part 1

Must say I’m very pleased with the results… Overall interior design is quite similar to the Namba Line stations. I assume Hanshin does the architectural design in-house (?), but in any event, the end-result is quite nice. They managed to make a very low ceiling at the concourse level feel pretty open with creative elements like embedding the departure boards in the ceiling and using wave-form ceiling panels. The faux brick actually looks good, too.

Kōbe Shimbun video report on opening day (2011.03.20):



Another video with some better clips of the platform:



A video construction update:
0:05 Start out at the West Exit, Tracks 2 and 3. This end of Platform 2 has been boarded up.
0:15 Track 2 will eventually be a stub track, while the previous stub track (Track 3) will become a through track.
0:30 Track 2, behind the fencing. They’ve already begun demolishing a portion of the platform here.
0:40 Wall panels are progressing along Track 3.
0:50 An overview of the Ōsaka (east) end of the station. Quite a bit of difference between the east (new) and west (old and historic) ends.
1:20 Signage is Hanshin’s modern standard, similar to the Namba Line. This is Platform 3, and we can see they’ve temporarily blotted out the arrowheads since it’s still a stub track at the moment.

[quashlo]

New East Exit at Hanshin Sannomiya Station opens: Part 2

A few photos to finish it off:
Source: http://building-pc.cocolog-nifty.com/map/

Only a small exit at the moment (four gates).



Departure boards on the concourse level are two-row, full-color LEDs:
11:12 Local for Kōsoku Kōbe
11:16 Through-service limited express for Himeji







Concourse, outside the faregates. This not only houses the ticketing area but also doubles as an underground connection north-south between the JR station, Mint Kōbe, the Hanshin station, and the south area (Sogō department store, etc.).



Only three TVMs at the moment, but it’s been built for expansion. The spaces to the side of each pair of TVMs are for the station staff to pop out of the wall to assist you in case you have a question or they detect something faulty with the machine. This is why in most stations, the TVMs are placed adjacent to the manned ticket gate.



Hankyū–Hanshin brand convenience store



The north end of the connecting passage ties into Mint Kōbe, a vertical mall next to the station.





Exit A23, one of the new exits. This is on the south side of Mint Kōbe.



Following the connecting passage on the southwest end takes us to the existing underground mall on the south side of the Sannomiya Station complex.



The other new exit, on the south side of the main road.



Like other large underground complexes, exits within a certain area are grouped by letter and then given a unique number. They’ve gone one step further for Sannomiya and color-coded the letter groups.

[Equario]

quashlo, thanks for update!

The design of the exit remains me the interior of spaceships that I certainly admit

[Falubaz]

Kobe metro:

[Falubaz]

[Woonsocket54]

Originally Posted by quashlo

I'm a bit curious what they specifically had in mind here... Chicago may just be more of the standard bilevel commuter cars, but not exactly sure what the St. Louis prospect is.

Amtrak intercity rail Chicago-St Louis

[quashlo]

Do you have a source for that?

Not doubting you, but just curious... The article is written a bit ambiguously, but I interpreted it to mean "contracts between [with] Chicago" and "contracts between [with] St. Louis".

[quashlo]

Next, a series in Kyūshū, starting with the renovated JR Hakata Station in Fukuoka.

The West Exit station plaza has been completely redesigned.

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Hakata, together with Tenjin, are the two “hubs” of Fukuoka. JR service, however, is all out of Hakata, including commuter EMUs, intercity limited expresses, and the Shinkansen.

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Hakata Bus Terminal
This serves local buses, as well as intercity buses to the rest of Kyūshū and to Honshū. This is a major terminal for Nishitetsu Bus (bus subsidiary of Nishi-Nippon Railroad, Fukuoka’s sole major private railway) and JR Kyūshū Bus. The upper floors are retail.

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[quashlo]

Taxi pool

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Space efficiency

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There is an underground mall at the West Exit that connects with the Fukuoka City Subway Airport Line. In the future, the West Exit will also house the proposed extension of the City Subway Nanakuma Line from Tenjin Minami via Canal City Hakata.

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[quashlo]

The station plaza is carefully designed and compact, helping to deal with the large flows of taxis, buses, and pedestrians. The latest redesign has reduced the number of curb cuts, streamlining pedestrian circulation.

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Peering onto the platforms.
Depending on the operator, the ends of the platforms may be designated as “smoking areas”.

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An 817 series commuter EMU in the distance.
I’m quite fond of this (older?) style JR Kyūshū signage, and much prefer it to the modern all-blue style that they seem to be installing everywhere.

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The second-floor promenade outside the new West Exit station building, known as JR Hakata City. This is one of the largest single station tenant buildings in Japan.

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[quashlo]

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The south end of the station plaza has been completely converted to a pedestrian and open space, including a small undulating canopy and megascreen.

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[quashlo]

This was a well-used space… Lots of passengers came here to rest or to take in views of Fukuoka.

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These porcelain tiles can be found all over the station… They’re modeled after the Arita-yaki, a style of porcelain-making that is native to Kyūshū.

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Hakata Hankyū department store

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Hakata used to be a separate city from the rest of Fukuoka, and the main station still retains its old name.

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[quashlo]

Public art on one of the canopy columns featuring a map of Kyūshū

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The new station building was designed by Mitooka.

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[quashlo]

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[quashlo]

Special dedication plaque with the name of everyone who worked on the JR Hakata City project:

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The new third-floor concourse

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I suspect these were new station staff getting a tour of the facilities.

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[quashlo]

Full-color LCD departure boards

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I always find JR Kyūshū’s commuter services interesting… The Kagoshima Main Line services in particular are quite frequent (of couse, not Tōkyō levels) and cover long distances. Arao is two-thirds of the way to Kumamoto.

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At the north end, the services reach as far as Mojikō in Kita-Kyūshū, at the very northern tip of the island and just across the straits from Shimonoseki and Honshū.

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[krnboy1009]

Does every stations have English time tables and information boards?

[quashlo]

Unless you are out in the boonies somewhere, most stations nowadays have electronic departure boards in the station concourse and on the platforms, and virtually all of these are programmed for both Japanese and English.

[Northridge]

Originally Posted by Falubaz

Why is there metal on the inside of the window?

[Falubaz]

Window blinds.