Ginza Line

The Ginza Line is one of the earliest high speed railway lines in Japan. It was started by a Japanese businessman, and it is currently owned and operated by Tokyo Metro. Despite being one of the earliest high speed railway lines, it is also one of the slowest, running at a maximum speed of 80 km/h. It, along with the Marunouchi Line, uses a 6 car train platform causing every trip to be packed to the brim.

About

The Ginza Line runs every 2 minutes in the morning and every 2 minutes and 15 seconds in the evening, mostly due to overcrowding during peak hours. The longest it takes to get a train is during the afternoon when it comes every 3 minutes.

The Ginza Line uses 38 different 6 car trains. Almost every Ginza Line train travels to every station, though two morning trains skip stop at Ueno rather than making it all the way to Asakasa. The stations the trains travel to also tend to be not very deep underground. Other stations that have been built since then can be found far deeper underground.

The guiding color for the Ginza line is orange, and the stations are marked with a “G.”

History

The beginning of the Ginza line started when a businessman named Noritsugu Hayakawa took a trip to Europe and noticed the success of the London high speed railways in controlling the flow of traffic. In 1920, he decided to start the Tokyo Underground Railway, which ultimately became a part of Tokyo Metro. Construction was started on the Ginza Line in 1925.

It took 2 years for the first part to be completed (trom Ueno to Asakusa), but by 1927, the track was operational. The entire trip only took 5 minutes, but it became not only a mode of transportation but an attraction as well, and people often waited as long as 2 hours to get a chance to ride on the short trip. The popularity of the Ginza line lead to the creation of the Marunouchi Line in order to reduce the amount of people stuck waiting for the trip. Since the majority of the track was completed by 1934, only a few additional stations have been added to the trip, as those that run the Ginza line have tried to keep the track’s integrity.

The rail was not named the Ginza Line until the Marunouchi Line was created, in order to help distinguish the two. The Ginza Line was privatized in 2004.

Route

Despite its short distance, the Ginza Line still has 19 different stops. Starting at Shibuya and ending at Akasaka, the Ginza Line stops at:

• Shibuya Station
• Omotesandō Station
• Gaienmae Station
• Aoyama-itchōme Station
• Akasaka-mitsuke Station
• Tameike-Sannō Station
• Toranomon Station
• Shimbashi Station
• Ginza Station
• Kyōbashi Station
• Nihombashi Station
• Mitsukoshimae Station
• Kanda Station
• Suehirochō Station
• Ueno-hirokoji Station
• Ueno Station
• Inarichō Station
• Tawaramachi Station
• Asakusa Station

External Links

• Tokyo Metro and Ginza Line Information