Information
Subway
JR East
Tokyo Subway
(From Wikipedia)
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The
Tokyo Subway
 (地下鉄
chikatetsu) is one
of the world's most extensive metro/subway systems. The two primary
networks are operated by
- Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd
(formerly Teito Rapid Transit Authority [Eidan]), 8
lines. The lines are called Tokyo Metro in English.
- Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau
of Transportation (Toei), 4 lines. The lines are called Toei
Subway in English.
Several other railways in the
capital, notably the Tokyo Waterfront Railway, also qualify as metro
(subway) by most definitions.
The Tokyo Subway often has
direct service to other types of train lines including JR and
private lines such as the Keio, Odakyu, and Tobu lines.
It is important to not confuse
the Tokyo Subway with Japan Rail (JR), which charges a separate fee
from the Toei and other private lines.
On April 1, 2004, the Teito
Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) was privatized and renamed the Tokyo
Metro Co. Ltd (東京地下鉄株式会社,
Tōkyō Chikatetsu K.K.). The company also uses the
name Tokyo Metro (東京メトロ)
in Japanese for promotional purposes.
The privatization affected
only the TRTA, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government continues to
operate its own Toei lines separately. (The word toei (都営)
means "metropolitan-operated.")
The separate administration of
two metro systems in the same city causes several inconveniences for
customers:
- The same ticket cannot be
used on both systems. An additional 90 or 100 yen is charged to
switch to the other system regardless of the length of the ride.
- The two systems represent
the metro network differently in station, train and customer
information diagrams. For example, the Toei map represents the
Toei Oedo Line as a circle in the centre, implying a key
function for Tokyo's whole public transport system; the Tokyo
Metro's map saves the central ring line for the marunouchi line
and JR Yamanote Line.
Currently (as of September
2005), there are 168 train stations operated by Tokyo Metro, with an
average of 5.69 million passengers per day. They employ 8,721 staff,
and the busiest station is Shinjuku (which is also the world's
busiest, and second largest, with an estimated traffic of 2 million
passengers per day).
East Japan
Railways
(From Wikipedia)
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See
here for copyright and licensing conditions
JR East was incorporated on April 1, 1987
after being spun off from the government-run Japanese National
Railways. Although this was a nominal "privatization," the
company was actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of the
government-owned JNR Settlement Corporation for several years, and
was not completely sold to the public until 2002.
Following the JNR breakup, JR East assumed
responsibility for passenger operations on former JNR lines in the
Greater Tokyo Area, the Tohoku region and surrounding areas.
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