The Yamanote Line is a railway loop line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan
Railway Company. It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines,
connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres, including
Marunouchi, the Yūrakuchō/Ginza area, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro
and Ueno, with all but two of its 29 stations connecting to other railway or
underground lines. As an official line name, "Yamanote
Line" indicates the tracks between Shinagawa and Tabata that are used by
local trains on their own tracks as well as the parallel Yamanote Freight Line
which is used by Saikyō Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line trains, some
limited express services, and freight trains. However, in everyday usage the
"Yamanote Line" refers to the entire 34.5 km loop line served by local
trains. Service outline
Trains run from 04:26 to 01:18 the next day at intervals as short as 2.5 minutes
during peak periods and four minutes at other times. A complete loop takes 59 to
65 minutes. All trains stop at each station. Trains are put into and taken
out of service at Ōsaki and sometimes Ikebukuro. Certain trains also start
from Tamachi in the mornings and end at Shinagawa in the evenings. Trains which
run clockwise are known as sotomawari and those counter-clockwise as
uchi-mawari. The line also acts as a fare zone
destination for JR tickets from locations outside Tokyo, permitting
travel to any JR station on or within the loop. This refers to stations on the
Yamanote Line as well as the Chūō-Sōbu Line between Sendagaya and Ochanomizu.
The line colour used on all rolling stock, station signs and diagrams is JNR
Yellow Green No.6, known in Japanese as "Japanese Bush Warbler green".
Ridership An estimated 3.68 million passengers
ride every day on Tokyo's Yamanote Line, with its 29 stations. For comparison,
the New York City Subway carries 5.08 million passengers per day on 26 lines
serving 469 stations, and the London Underground carries 3.36 million
passengers per day on 12 lines serving 275 stations.
Name "Yamanote" literally refers to inland,
hillier districts or foothills. In Tokyo, "Yamanote" lies along the western
side of the Yamanote Line loop. The word consists of the Japanese morphemes yama,
meaning 'mountain', the genitive suffix no, and te, meaning 'hand', thus
literally translating as "mountain's hand", analogous to the English term
"foothills". Yamanote-sen is officially written in
Japanese without the kana no, which makes its pronunciation ambiguous in
print. The characters 山手 may also be pronounced yamate, as in Yamate-dōri,
which runs parallel to the west side of the Yamanote Line. The Seishin-Yamate
Line in Kobe and the Yamate area of Yokohama also use this pronunciation.
After World War II, SCAP ordered all train placards to be romanized, and the
Yamanote Line was romanized as "Yamate Line". It was thus alternatively known
as "Yamanote" and "Yamate" until 1971, when the Japanese National Railways
changed the pronunciation back to "Yamanote." Some older people still
refer to the line as the "Yamate Line". Station list
Stations are listed in order clockwise from Shinagawa to Tabata, but for
operational purposes trains officially start and terminate at Ōsaki.
Clockwise: Shinagawa → Shibuya → Shinjuku → Ikebukuro → Tabata → Ueno →
Tokyo → Shinagawa Counter-clockwise: Shinagawa → Tokyo →
Ueno → Tabata → Ikebukuro → Shinjuku → Shibuya → Shinagawa
All stations are located in the special wards of Tokyo.
All trains on the Yamanote Line are local trains that stop at all stations.
The "(R)" mark denotes stations where cross-platform transfers to
Keihin-Tōhoku Line rapid services are possible.
Rolling stock As of April 2015, the line's services
are operated exclusively by a fleet of 51 11-car E231-500 series EMUs, which
were phased in from April 21, 2002. These trains originally each included
two "six-door cars" with six pairs of doors per side and bench seats that were
folded up to provide standing room only during the morning peak until 10 a.m.
From February 22, 2010, the seats were no longer folded up during the morning
peak, and all trains were standardized with newly built four-door cars by 31
August 2011. This was due to reduced congestion on the line as well as
preparation for the installation of platform doors on all stations by 2017.
The E231 series supports a new type of traffic control system, called digital
Automatic Train Control, which will help reduce one round trip to a very short 58
minutes. The series also has a more modern design and has two 15-inch LCD
monitors above each door, one of which is used for displaying silent
commercials, news and weather; and another which is used for displaying
information on the next stop along with notification of delays on Shinkansen and
other railway lines in the greater Tokyo area. The E231-500 series trains are
based at Tokyo General Rolling Stock Centre near Ōsaki Station.
New E235 series 11-car EMUs are scheduled to be phased in on the line
from autumn 2015, eventually replacing the E231 series trains by 2020.
= Former = DeHo 6100 series
MoHa 10 63 series
72 series 101 series
103 series 205 series
= Timeline = History
The predecessor of the present-day Yamanote Line was opened on 1 March 1885
by the Nippon Railway Company, operating between Shinagawa Station in the south
and Akabane Station in the north. The top part of the loop between Ikebukuro
and Tabata opened on 1 April 1903, and both lines were merged to become the
Yamanote Line on 12 October 1909. The line was electrified in 1909, the
same year the Osaki - Shinagawa section was double-tracked, with the loop
completed in 1925 with the opening of the double track, electrified section
between Kanda and Ueno on 1 November, providing a north-south link via Tokyo
Station through the city's business centre. A parallel freight line, also
completed in 1925, ran along the inner side of the loop between Shinagawa and
Tabata. During the prewar era, the Ministry of
Railways did not issue permits to private suburban railway companies for
new lines to cross the Yamanote Line from their terminal stations to the
central districts of Tokyo, forcing the companies to terminate services at
stations on the line. This policy led to the development of new urban centers
around major transfer points on the Yamanote Line, most notably at Shinjuku
and Ikebukuro. The contemporary Yamanote Line came into
being on 19 November 1956 when it was separated from the Keihin-Tōhoku Line
and given its own set of tracks along the eastern side of the loop between
Shinagawa and Tabata. However, Yamanote Line trains continued to periodically
use the Keihin-Tōhoku tracks, particularly on holidays and during
off-peak hours, until rapid service trains were introduced on the
Keihin-Tōhoku Line in 1988. A major explosion on the Yamanote
Freight Line in Shinjuku in 1967 led to the diversion of freight traffic to the
more distant Musashino Line. To address severe undercapacity, the freight line
was repurposed for use by Saikyo Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line trains, as well
as certain limited express trains such as the Narita Express and some liner
services. Likewise, there are currently plans to connect the Tohoku Main Line
and Joban Line to the Tokaido Main Line via a new Ueno-Tokyo Line link to
provide further relief on the busiest portion of the Yamanote Line today, the
southbound segment between Ueno and Okachimachi.
Automatic train control was introduced from 6 December 1981, and digital ATC
was introduced from 30 July 2006. Future developments
In January 2012, it was announced that a new station would be built on the
Yamanote Line and Keihin-Tohoku Line between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations,
becoming the first new station on the line since Nishi-Nippori was built in
1971. The distance between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations is 2.2 km, making it
the longest stretch of track between stations on the Yamanote Line. The new
station will be constructed on top of the current 20-hectare railyard which is
undergoing rationalization and redevelopment by JR East; it would be
roughly parallel to the existing Sengakuji Station on the Toei Asakusa
and Keikyu Main lines. The Yamanote Line and the Keihin Tohoku Line tracks will
be moved slightly to the east to be aligned closer to the Tokaido Shinkansen
tracks. The area on the west side of the yard made available will be redeveloped
with high-rise office buildings, creating an international business
center with good connections to the Shinkansen and Haneda Airport. The new
station is scheduled to open in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics to be held in
Tokyo. See also
Osaka Loop Line References
External links Stations of the Yamanote Line