My focus today--and I promise this thread won't be long--is on the sheer scale of the Tokyo rail networkpic.twitter.com/OXDDnmuCPH
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My focus today--and I promise this thread won't be long--is on the sheer scale of the Tokyo rail networkpic.twitter.com/OXDDnmuCPH
To serve a metropolitan area with more residents than the state of California involves 158 lines run by 48 rail companies.
Every day, 40 million people use this network--that's 14.6 billion passengers per year.
Paris Gard du Nord, with some 520,000 daily passengers, is the 24th busiest station in the world...and the busiest outside of Japan.
The busiest station, Shinjuku, pulls 3.64 million per day, or 1.3 billion per year.
Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Yokohama, and Tokyo stations also all pull over 1 million passengers every day.
The main operator in the area is East Japan Railway, or JR East. It accounts for over 15 million passengers per day, 5.6 b/yr
The next busiest operator, Tokyo Metro, is one of two subway companies serving Tokyo--6.3 mil/day, 2.3 bil/yr
Tokyo Metro is a private company, whereas its competitor, Toei Subway, is run by the city government.pic.twitter.com/xO7kqAIyUq
After Tokyo Metro, the next busiest operator is Tokyu Corp, with 2.9 mil/day - 1.0 bil/yrpic.twitter.com/LhIqB7x0aV
Tobu Railway comes in 4th; its vast suburban network draws 2.4 mil/day - 863 mil/yrpic.twitter.com/RFU1SxeBCq
After Tobu, the Toei Subway makes a showing with 2.3 mil/day - 849 mil/yr This is the only publicly-owned company that even ranks...
My favorite operator, Odakyu, ranks 6th in the area with 1.9 mil/day - 710 mil/yrpic.twitter.com/EaRnltvKli
Next is Odakyu's great rival, Keio: 1.7 mil/day - 630 mil/year Keio's trains feature prominently in Miyazaki filmspic.twitter.com/3gdHCA486q
Seibu Railway: 1.7 mil/day - 618 mil/year famous for their bright yellow trains, but also for the "Smile Train"pic.twitter.com/rNw6jWFpb2
Keikyu Railway uses standard gauge trains, like USA, and serves Haneda Airport. 1.2 mil/day - 441 mil/yearpic.twitter.com/JH1DdOG9d0
Keisei, serving Narita Int'l Airport with their "Skyliner," also uses standard gauge. 712,000/day - 260 mil/yrpic.twitter.com/TYkXTNCKW3
Finally, Sotetsu, the smallest of the "major" operators: 624,000/day - 228 mil/yrpic.twitter.com/zNj239ZHTa
These top 11 rail operators account for a combined 37 million riders every day, 92.5% of all rail ridership in the region.
And this concludes today's trainpoasting. See you again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKxxK9Cb6fk …
Appendix: someone made a tribute to that song using Japanese toy trains:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdh_j-yWtQ …
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