Trainspotting

Among the abundance of reasons I'll miss Tokyo, one stands head and shoulders above the rest: the efficient and cheap train network. The timetabling, connections and locality is genius, and more than makes up for the occassional busy carriage. Which is why the 14th June was a big date for the geek in me: the ninth and final Metro line opened. A few artist pictures here.


The Fukutoshin line connects Shibuya through the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro areas up North, travelling the whole West side of Tokyo and more. In fact, in 2012 or so, the line will join with my old line, the Toyoko, and run the way through; meaning that Yokohama, Shibuya and Shinjuku will be connected, cheaply and quickly. As Wikipedia write it's "conceived to relieve congestion along this busy corridor". It's a huge deal.


I checked out the hub station, at Shibuya, which connects to many of the other Metro lines. The Fukutoshin is located inside an oval blimp shape, with balconies over the train lines. Once on the platform, which has the half-height gates, for suicide prevention, you can walk over the uncovered railway lines which are lying in wait for when the Toyoko connects. Some of the actual trains are old recycled ones, but some have sleeker tops, all with the brown Fukutoshin theme.


Randomly, there are fire/emergency exit doors located around the station, which make little sense in context.


I'm a geek, but at least I wasn't alone, as most of the passengers were taking pictures around me.

This new development brings the total train lines in the Tokyo area to about 120.