JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.6

Tokyu's underground station at Sangen-Jaya

Day 6 (7 May 2016)

On Saturday, the sky had cleared and it was a fantastic summer day ideal to explore Tokyo's surviving tram lines. I first took a Yurakucho train from Iidabashi down to Nagatacho, where I changed to the Hanzomon Line, which at Shibuya becomes the Tokyu Den-en-Toshi Line. Among the private railway companies, Tokyu is probably the one that most intensely uses the line codes on signage, this being the DT line. At DT03, i.e. Sangen-Jaya, I got out of the underground station, followed the signs to the SG line, but these signs became fewer and eventually I had to ask, as the terminus of the Setagaya Line is somewhere hidden behind some shopping centre. I actually came in from the wrong side, where the trams come out, but there is a side entrance on the arrival platform. The line has only 10 stops, but a day pass is sold at 320 Yen. It is not available from the ticket machines, but from the ticket window and they hand it out with an information brochure.

 Setagaya Line in Stuttgart livery between Shoin-Jinja-mae and Setagaya

The Setagaya Line is in fact more light rail than tram. It has its own exclusive right-of-way, though with many level crossings which are all protected with barriers. The stops have high-level platforms and with the rather modern rolling stock, it has a certain resemblance with some lines in Stuttgart or Frankfurt; this impression is even stronger when a vehicle in yellow (Stuttgart) or turqoise (Frankfurt) turns up, because each car has a different colour. With the nice weather and the sun in the right position for a morning tour, I stayed around for a while and got pictures of all cars in service that day. The journey is somewhat slow, though. The rolling stock is nice, but could do with an extra section in the middle as some arrived pretty full at the southern terminus, and this being holiday week. They run quite frequently, about every 6 minutes. If they wanted to increase headways, the single-track termini might cause problems. People get on through the front door and pay a flat fare of 150 Yen in cash, or if they use an IC card, it's just 144 Yen. Taking pictures along the line is very easy as the right-of-way is rather wide and no cars get in between.

Setagaya Line in Frankfurt livery at northern terminus, Shimo-Takaido

Unlike the southern terminus, the northern one is well integrated with the Keio station at Shimo-Takaido. But as I had been on that Keio line already, I returned two stops to Yamashita, which lies adjacent to Gotokuji, a station on Odakyu's Odawara Line. I knew that this line was directly linked to the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, but apparently not as much as other such interworkings. As Gotokuji is a local stop and all trains were shown as for Shinjuku, I took the next inbound train hoping that at the next major stop, which is the underground station Shimo-Kitazawa, I would be able to change to a Chiyoda Line train - but again all trains that stopped showed Shinjuku. 

Odakyu's tube station at Shimo-Kitazawa

I asked the assistant dispatcher who had previously told me to step behind the yellow line, if there was a Chiyoda train and he said something like Yoyogi-Uehara. I got on the next train, got off at Yoyogi-Uehara, queued orderly on the other side of the platform to board a Chiyoda Line train only to find out that the next one actually came from the Odawara Line. In the end, a very long trip for a short distance because I got off at Meiji-Jingu-mae to have a quick look at the Meiji Shrine.

Southbound Arakawa Line tram at Higashi-Ikebukuru

But my real next destination was actually the Toei Arakawa Line, the only real remnant of Tokyo's streetcar system. Therefore I headed north on the Fukutoshin Line to Zoshigaya and change to the tram, although the tram stop is actually called Kishibojin-mae, while Toden-Zoshigaya is one stop further north on the tram line. I first rode a tram south to the Waseda terminus, only three stops down, but without any connection to other rail services, and then worked my way up towards Oji, getting off at various stops to take pictures. 

Older Arakawa Line streetcar on short street-running section near Askuayama

In fact, in part the Arakawa Line also resembles a light rail line with its own right-of-way for most of its route, just a few sections interfere with road traffic. There are, however, numerous level crossings, many of them just for pedestrians, and I think all or most are protected by automatic barriers, so you hear the bell every few minutes with the barriers coming down. Interestingly, there's not just a light the blinks, but also an arrow indicating from which side a tram will pass - all very useful also for the waiting photographer, not only to get his camera ready, but also to be aware that a tram might come from the opposite direction. The vehicles, however, are not really light rail-like, although they actually have a medium-high floor. But otherwise they are just too tiny to be acceptable as light rail cars. In fact, I can't understand how they can bother to purchase so small cars. In most cases it should be possible to extend the platforms to accomodate at least an articulated car. But they have just been through a fleet renewal, so this situation will probably persist for the next 30 years. Like on the Setagaya Line, you get on at the front to pay the driver (I purchased a 400 Yen day pass - another line, another day pass...), and you get off at the rear. Some stops even have modern next-tram indicators, which show where the next tram is right now, or the next trams, if they are very close. But most people don't look at these, and just try to squeeze into an already full tram, which is then even more delayed, while another, mostly empty tram is already arriving. So this was the first rail line in Japan I have seen with regular irregularities. 

Arakawa Line tram in retro style at Machiya-ekimae

After having done loads of photos of all different types and liveries, I couldn't be bothered to ride to the very end of the line, instead got off at Machiya-Ekimae to change to the Chiyoda Subway Line, which would take me to Kita-senju, as yet another rail line was waiting for me.

Tsukuba Express at Kashiwanoha Campus

At Kita-senju I got on the Tsukuba Express Line, and I was quite happy when I realised that this line is indeed fast. In fact, technically-speaking, it appeared to be the best rail line in the Tokyo area. It's a kind of hybrid between a metro and a suburban railway and as such reminded me of BART in San Francisco. The route is completely separate from other railways, partly underground, though mostly elevated, and the trains sort of glide through the suburbs at speeds up to 120 km/h or so. Surprisingly, the line is operated manually, not in ATO. So while I was quite impressed by the quality of the train ride, the surface stations looked rather plain, whereas the underground Akihabara terminus in the city centre is quite appealing. 

Tsukuba Express city terminus at Akihabara

They also operate express trains, but local trains stop everywhere between the Tokyo terminus at Akihabara and Moriya every 10 minutes. And that's how far I travelled. To avoid paying high fares, I stayed inside the system for a while and tried to take some shots at the end of the platforms, and eventually returned and continued into the city. Maybe this was too long for a ride from Kita-senju to Akihabara, so the ticket barriers didn't let me pass with my PASMO card. I went to the ticket window and the guy checked it and mumbled some words in a language still unknown to me after three weeks and we somehow agreed that everything was OK...

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.5 | Continue to Tokyo Part 2.7 (last)

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.4

Inbound Keio train arriving at Tama Center - with the Tama Monorail viaduct passing above - no luck with a 2-train photo though...

Day 4 (5 May 2016)

Thursday started again as a very sunny day, and after having conquered the south and the east of the metropolitan area, it was time to go west for the Tama Monorail. I took a Shinjuku Line train out from the Subway system to Sazakusa, the first surface station on what is Keio's New Line, virtually an underground extension of Toei's Shinjuku Line (or seen the other way round, the Shinjuku Line is merely an underground city extension of the large Keio network). From there an express train which was bound for Hashimoto, but I got off at Tama Center, where I could have travelled also on an Odakyu train via a different route to catch the Tama Monorail at its southern end. 

 Tama Monorail's impressive Tama Center station as you approach from the Keio/Odakyu station 

This is actually one of their most impressive stations, I suppose (I didn't see the others from outside). Although there is a day pass just for the monorail, I did it the 'cheap' way and just used my PASMO card, although I got off several times along the route, rode to the end and finally returned to Tachikawa, to be charged 400 Yen, the maximum single fare on that line. From Tama Center, the train was packed with families, as this is holiday week in Japan, and many used the day to go to the zoo (Dobutsu-koen), four stops further north. The trains ran every 8 minutes, and at most stations you can take quite good photos from the opposite side platform. 

Tama Monorail - out of the front window view near Otsuka-Teikyo-Daigaku

Sometimes I had to run over to the otherside for a picture as I was visiting in the morning. Compared to the strange seat arrangement I would see two days later on the Tokyo Monorail, the Tama Monorail looks like a normal metro train inside. The ride is smooth, but somewhat slow. The route is not as spectacular as that of the Shonan Monorail, but still provides nice views of the surrounding suburbs. The trains are quite appealing in their strong orange livery. Orange and green are also the basic colours found in the stations, but once again colours were used only to make the stations fancier, but not to help passengers. In Tama, the tones change from orange in the south to green in the north, with little squares of darker tones being added station after station. So, while this looks good, it does, of course, not help in any way to distinguish the stations, as the differences between neighbouring stations are hard to tell. 

Tama Monorail - fancy station marker and colours, but not really helpful

And while other stations are spaced at quite regular intervals, Tachikawa has a stop just north and just south of the railway station, so I guess most passengers take the JR Chuo Line to continue towards Tokyo (well, Tama is in fact also Tokyo).

I did the same, but as I wasn't aware I jumped on an express to find out that it does not stop at Nishi-Kokubunji, the interchange with the JR Musashino Line, a sort of outer circular line through the northern suburbs. As my next destination was Omiya, I had to return one stop to change to a Musashino Line train north to Musashi-Urawa, an interchange with the JR Saikyo Line. At that station I was joined by Craig Moore, who happened to be in Tokyo for a few days and who has been feeding my website with lots of metro pictures he took on his frequent trips to Asian cities. He had been to Tokyo often, but never made it out to the "New Shuttle" in Saitama. In fact, I was wondering how he knew about it as it is not even included on UrbanRail.Net, as I had only learned about it a few months ago when we started to prepare our Tokyo book. But the "New Shuttle" is just another of several rubber-tyred metros I have already seen on this trip, but being far out in the suburbs, no one has ever claimed it. 

"New Shuttle" side by side with Shinkansen

The funny thing about this one is that it is attached to the Shinkansen viaduct, with the "track" in each direction aligned on the outside of the Shinkansen route. In fact, a few days later, on my way to Sendai, I could see some of the stops from the Shinkansen, and the pink train was just passing by. Where the Shinkansen splits, with one route heading west to Nagano, and the other north to Sendai, the "New Shuttle" becomes single-track along the south side of the Nagano Shinkansen, but with passing loops at all intermediate stops. As we arrived there in the early afternoon (I have got the impression that Japan is actually in the wrong time zone, the sun is always much further in the west as one would suspect!), the northbound route on the western side of the Shinkansen was perfect to take some pictures from the end of the platforms (about every other station has stairs at the northern end, but the other ones are perfect), although you only get shots from the rear of the train, of course. At Omiya they actually turn around in the loop, but for the outer end, they still have cabins at both ends. I made Craig jump off the train rather often, as the "New Shuttle" has a very varied fleet, at least all cars are painted in different colours, so I wanted to get as many as possible - and I think I got all that were in service that afternoon. Unfortunately, the larger series does not have a good design for people who want to look out the front window, as there is only a small glass window between passenger department and driver's cabin and at a rather low level. By the time we got to the end of the line, the sun had actually arrived so far west that it was possible to get a good shot with a train arriving, and not just a train, but the only one of a new series, which looks quite stylish (but I'll have to reserve that photo for the book, of course....). 

"New Shuttle" - front of new train

By the way, as it is difficult anyway to take pictures from street level as the line is rather high up, we didn't leave any station; instead, with had bought the cheapest ticket for 190 Yen, which was then rejected by the machine when we wanted to exit again at Omiya. But Craig, an expert in those things, went to the ticket clerk and asked for a stamp on it, I did the same, and the guy looked very confused, but did what we wanted and let us go out. I normally wouldn't do it, but I have been getting tired a bit of that Japanese fare "disintegration" that in the end you pay much more if you rely on several means of transport (and I'm not talking about excessive train spotters!).

Nippori-Toneri Liner - best shot I managed to get from platform end at Nishi-Nippori

Being so successful with the Tama Monorail and the "New Shuttle", we thought we could still have a go at Toei's Nippori-Toner Liner. But this line is very railfan unfriendly! Stupidly, you can't even take pictures at the end of the platform, because they have put some film over the glass windows! So the only option to get a train photo is from the front or rear window of the train you're in. Being operated in driverless mode you can actually sit in the driver's seat (very uncomfortable, though) and try your luck. Because on most stretches there is a kind of walkway between the tracks.

Nippori-Toneri Liner - typical view from front of train

Nippori-Toneri Liner - bad view from end of platform glass panel showing new train

Anyway, the sun was already getting too low for a good photo, and we were getting tired and headed back to the hotel, to enjoy a proper Japanese meal that evening (I'm proud I managed to eat it all with chopsticks!).

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.3 | Continue to Tokyo Part 2.5

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.2 (feat. Chiba)

Crowds of people moving between Tokyo main station complex and the Keiyo Line underground station

Day 2 (3 May 2016)

The second day started with another agglomeration of crowds, first on a fully packed Chuo train into Tokyo station, then an endless flow of masses down into the Keiyo Line station, some 400 m, to get a train to Disneyland. With the bad experience on the Enoden on the previous day, I just tried to get a few nice pictures of the Disney Monorail, but didn't even try to get a ticket to ride on the circular route. Maybe it would have been easy, but maybe not. And there were full train loads arriving from Tokyo and the other direction.

Disney Monorail, also accessible without a ticket for the theme parks

So I moved on to more deserted places, first Chiba, which looked like everybody had gone on holiday. At Minato-Chiba I was certainly not the first who tried to get a perfect picture with a JR Keiyo Line train and the Chiba Monorail side by side in the same shot, but it would be a miracle, with JR arriving every 15 minutes and the Monorail with irregular headways (line 1 every 15 minutes and line 2 every 12 minutes!). So I put the camera on the railing at the end of the platform, and hopefully I can merge the images to get the perfect picture. After getting a day pass for 620 Yen from the machine, I jumped on the first train available only to get off at the next station for some nice outdoor shots. The shorter Line 1 to Kencho-mae (in fact, the line numbers are not visible anywhere) was barely used that day, I think there were only two trains shuttling back and forth. The view down into the street as it heads for Chiba station is amazing because the train kind of flies above the streets. Also the junction east of Chiba is stunning, a super-structure which certainly from street-level looks a bit too much. Later the line down to Kencho-mae has a certain Wuppertal feel as it runs above a canal.

Wuppertal in Japan?

By the way, compared to Wuppertal, where the Schwebebahn has on one arm that runs on a single wheel - I mean several wheels, but all in one row - the Chiba suspension railway runs more quietly, doesn't swing so much from one side to the other, I would suppose it even has some special counter-wheels to prevent that, just when it switches from one track to the other it gets a bit more Wuppertal-ish. What was more annoying was some abrupt braking as if an automatic brake was applied as soon as the manually driven train reached the allowed speed.

Young female driver operating the quiet shuttle to Kencho-mae

Later I took the entire Line 2 out to its eastern terminus. This line was quite well used, no surprise it serves a typical day-out destination, the Chiba Zoo (Dobutsu-koen). On the way back I got off at Tsuga to take a JR Sobu Line train back towards Toyko.

 Shin-Keisei Line: pink route through the western Chiba suburbs

But that was not the last special transport system of the day. Though due north from Tsuga, it required a bit of a detour to get there. I decided for the pink Shin-Keisei Line from Shin-Tsudanuma to Kita-Narashino to see a bit of the Toyo Rapid Line, which in reality is a suburban extension of the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, but in Japan it can't be called just that. Trains on this line, however, run only every 15 minutes, but it deserves the adjective "rapid", and the underground stations I came through looked quite pleasant. And it's also expensive, for 5 stations I had to pay some 450 Yen on my PASMO card. 

Outer terminus for the Toyo Rapid Line, actually the end of the Tozai Metro Line

From the end of that line two stops further out on a Keisei Local I arrived at Yukarigaoka to see the Yukarigaoka Line! 

Old-fashioned peoplemover through a Chiba new town

This is probably the oldest and least-known of all rubber-tyred guided transit systems in Japan! Luckily there was a yound guy at the entrance, because like the SkyRail near Hiroshima, this system is not prepared for foreigners. It does not accept IC cards, and the ticket machines are only in Japanese. Well, you have to put 200 Yen into the slot and then press the key that says "200", and you get a tiny Paris-style ticket. It's difficult to get a view out the front window as they front is inclined and low. I took a trip around the racket-shaped route and got off one stop prior to the departure point, took some photos and walked through a department store back to the Keisei station. Unfortunately, there was no staff at that stop, so the ticket barrier swallowed my ticket.... Eventually, the Keisei Main Line and the JR Chuo-Sobu Local brought me back to my temporary home at Iidabashi.

Go back to Tokyo Part 2.1 | Go to Tokyo Part 2.3

JAPAN - Tokyo Part 2.1 (feat. Shonan)

Returning to Tokyo after more than two weeks (read about my initial impressions here) through the southern parts of the country already felt like coming back home, no need for new orientation which a new city always requires before one gets settled (and it's already time to move on...). Anyway, with a full week ahead, I still felt stressed wondering if I would manage to do everything I still wanted to do. To avoid getting from one thing to the other in a very confusing way, I'm writing this down in a more diary-style way:

Day 1 (2 May 2016)

Shonan "Schwebebahn" near northern terminus at Ofuna

I started the first day by taking a JR train down to Ofuna, south of Yokohama, to explore the Shonan region. The Shonan Monorail was fun to ride. This is actually a single-track Schwebebahn, a bit like the H-Bahn at Düsseldorf Airport or the one at Dortmund University, but with a driver and even a conductor on board. The choice of this mode was probably correct considering the many curves and gradients the railway has to negotiate. As PASMO is not accepted yet, I bought a single ticket from end to end (unfortunately on exiting, the machine eats the ticket, so if you want to keep it, you'd better exit through the manned gate and ask if you can keep it!). And stupid as I am, I didn't double-check in our own book to see that I should have bought a Shonan Explorer ticket at the JR station, this would have given me a day pass for the Monorail and the Enoden for just 700 Yen, besides the local JR lines, but for these I had my Rail Pass anyway.

Due to the alignment described above, the ride is a bit shaky, but not too much. The funny thing about this line is that the intermediate stations apparently have no ticket gates, so the conductor has to check tickets, and therefore he jumps out of his rear cabin, and if the exit happens to be at the wrong end, he runs forward, and later back again. While I was looking whether any of the stations would be a good point to get off for a few photos, we had already arrived at the southern end in Enoshima. The terminus is something like on the third floor of what from the outside looks like a rather pathetic building.

 Enoden at Hase station - not a common view, but a funny coincidence

From the terminus you just follow the crowd down the road and if you happen to be there in holiday season like me (most Japanese have their Golden Week right now), you'll see a huge crowd trying to get tickets or waiting for the next train of the Enoshima Electric Railway (short Enoden). I got my day pass easily from the machine, but first went down to the beach (honestly, I'd rather keep to my Spanish beaches also in the future...) and then returned to the street-running section to the east of Enoshima station. Luckily, I didn't have much difficulty to jump on a westbound train at Koshioge, the next stop east of Enoshima, so I'd be on the train before the busiest station. But things got much worse later on, when after a few shots along the coastal route I needed to go to Kamakura. Hase station was at the verge of collapsing (there is an important Buddha statue nearby), so I walked to the next stop, squeezing myself into the next train as if I were on the Ginza Line during rush hour and eventually made it to Kamakura. For obvious reasons, I just wanted to escape the holiday crowd, and left all possible sightseeing for another trip.

Enoden's Kamakura terminus with loads of people trying to exit the station

Instead I headed for the third curious rail line in the area, the Seaside Line, yet another rubber-tyred driverless guided transit system. I went from Kamakura via Ofuna and the JR Negishi Line to Shin-Sugita, the northern terminus of the Seaside Line. 

Seaside Line: Rubber-tyred driverless line at Namikikita

The name suggests quite a lot, and in fact the southern third of the route is quite nice with views of the harbour and Kanazawa bay, but the rest is rather dull, alongside a major motorway or through industrial estates. Like with similar systems in Hiroshima or Osaka, the ride is not bad, but not too smooth either.

Seaside Line: alignment on the southern stretch

Previous stop: Nagoya | Go to: Tokyo Part 2.2

JAPAN - Kobe Subway & Guided Systems

Subway train at Tanigami terminus, 7 km beyond the line's actual terminus

While in Osaka for a total of five nights, I went on a daytrip to nearby Kobe (28 April 2016). Osaka and Kobe are linked by three parallel railways, so I had to make my choice. As I had already been on some Hankyu trains, I decided to take a Hanshin train, also because it would take me directly to the Rokko Liner, one of the two automatic guided transit systems I wanted to check out. Still in the morning rush hour (yes, trains also get pretty packed in the outbound direction) I jumped on a Limited Express at Umeda, realising later inside the car that actually all trains stop at Uozaki, where transfer to the Rokko Liner is provided via an encased elevated walkway.

Rokko Liner at Sumiyoshi terminus

Although the weather was looking rather horrible and not inviting to leave a station to take pictures from outside, I still decided to get a combined 1-day ticket for Rokko and Port Liner for 1200 Yen. Having looked at the options on the internet the day before, this was not too difficult at the machine, because this is the first system I find in Japan where ticket offices are not permanently staffed. Again, if someone wanted to just ride the train it would probably be enough to get the cheapest ticket, ride to the end of the line and then back to the other end, Sumiyoshi, which is an interchange with the JR line. Trains were running every few minutes and were quite busy. Although the last stop is called Marine Park, there is not much there, but the view from the elevated route is quite nice, especially the harbour crossing with its red suspension bridge where the guideways for either direction diverge to run alongside car lanes on the outer side of the bridge structure. And while the other stations have a simple, though rather wide island platform, the staton south of this bridge, Island Kitaguchi, has a sort of V-shaped platform. The stations are numbered R01-R06, and can also be identified by a symbol, like in Fukuoka. The symbol's pale colour is also visible in the line diagram above the platform screen doors, but this colour is not seen elsewhere in the station.

Portliner approaching Naka-koen

Technologically, the Rokko Liner as well as the Port Liner are similar to Yurikamome in Tokyo, i.e. a driverless train or rubber tyres. Like in Hiroshima, the ride is not bad, but could be smoother. Inside, the cars feel too small, as they only have a very narrow gangway between carriages, not really an open-space design.

While the Rokko Liner operates in the eastern suburbs of Kobe, the longer Port Liner actually starts at Kobe's main transport hub Sannomiya, right next to the JR station and near the Hankyu station, the underground Hanshin station and the two subway stations. The Port Liner uses rather new rolling stock in 6-car formation, whereas the Rokko Liner only has four cars in each train. Initially both systems had a similar route length, with the Port Liner running in an anti-clockwise loop around the new development area on Port Island. Later a branch was added, which has become the main line. Maybe 2 out of 3 trains go to the airport, with the other one doing the loop and returning to Sannomiya. The Port Liner is pretty slow on its first section as it winds its way through some elevated motorway junctions before it catches full speed across the harbour. As a result of its expansion, most stations have side platforms (as initially on the loop they only had a platform on one side). Naka Koen has three platforms, i.e. two side platforms on the same level on the main route, plus another half-island platform on top of the main inbound track for trains returning from the loop. The inbound guideways merge only north of Naka Koen station on the approach to the harbour crossing. At either end of the main line, trains can switch to either side before entering the station, there are no sidings beyond the termini. At Kobe Airport they seem to normally use the southern guideway. On the loop, Naka Futo actually features an island platform, too, I suppose the eastern track is only used by trains entering from the depot. As with the Rokko Liner, despite the new trains, the ride is a bit humpy, the concrete guideway showing its age and having been repaired in some sections, so again, a bit like a bus on an irregular roadway. Stations here are numbered P01 etc, and the numbers are even announced in English along with the station name.

Hanshin train terminating at Kobe's Sannomiya underground station

Before exploring the Subway proper, a short note on Kobe's Passante, a railway tunnel running rather parallel to the main Subway line, the Kobe Kosoku Line, which was built by a third-sector company, but is shared by three different private railways, the Sanyo, Hanshin and Hankyu Railways. Together they provide quite a metro-style service. Adding Kasuganomichi on the Hanshin route, there are nine underground stations in sequence. The Hankyu route joins the Hanshin route just before Kosoku Kobe station.

Sanyo train at Kokosu Kobe on Kobe's "Passante"

Older Subway train at Shin-Nagata

So while the suburban lines join to form a metro in the city centre, Kobe's main Subway line has a rather suburban character, especially along its western leg, the Seishin part of the Seishin-Yamate Line. Distances between stations here are rather long and many sections are on the surface, though interrupted by some tunnels due to the hilly terrain in the Kobe hinterland. The line colour green is also visible in the livery of all the trains of which there are at least three different generations, all looking a bit dated now. I was quite impressed by the design of the first station I saw, namely Itayado, with its wall panels imitating wood:

Itayado station on Seishin-Yamate Line

 Most other stations also have the flair of the 1970s or 1980s, some could do with a little refurbishment. The last station on the western leg, Seishin Chuo, somehow reminded me of Stockholm, a partly underground layout with two island platforms and a medium-sized shopping centre on top with a big concrete square in the middle. On one side there is a large bus terminal. Towards the other end, Sannomiya seems to have been refurbished not too long ago, with whitish enamelled panels providing a well-illuminated space. Here the respective platforms lie on top of each other (to Shin-Kobe on the upper level). Although not really included in my Subway-only day pass I had acquired for 820 Yen (by the way, this is not available from the ticket machine, just from the person at the counter!), I rode the train all the way out from Shin-Kobe to Tanigami, a 7 km tunnel through a mountain range. As long as you don't exit the station no one cares. You can actually change to a Shintetsu train at the same platform without having to pass through a ticket gate.

 < Subway logo - white U on blue blackground looks familiar....

While the Seishin-Yamate Line is a standard metro (using a kind of Madrid-style tram-like overhead catenary), the newer Kaigan Line is another of those linear motor metros I have now already seen in Fukuoka and Osaka. Again, the trains rattle too much for a modern metro system, a bit like a cheap low-floor tram with loose wheels. This one is also manually driven and has no platform screen doors, but unlike the Seishin-Yamate Line, which still has a conductor in the rear cabin managing the doors, the Kaigan Line features one-man operation. The easternmost of just four cars is reserved for women at all times! The Seishin-Yamate Line has such a car somewhere in the middle. I haven't seen it in rush hour, but during the day it was very little used. Like the Nanakuma Line in Fukuoka, it is badly integrated with other transport at Sannomiya, again you have to walk through a shopping mall to transfer. So, again, I wonder why they chose this technology instead of making it compatible with other lines.

Shin-Nagata, the nicest station on the Kaigan Line

In Kobe, unfortunately it is impossible to get proper maps, not even for the two Subway lines alone. A railway network map showing all different services is urgently needed here.

Previous stop: HIROSHIMA | Next stop: OSAKA

LINKS

Kobe at UrbanRail.Net (feat. map)