Template:Short description Template:Expand Japanese Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox rail line

File:Tokyo Metro Ginza Line Trains-2017-05-13.webm
Tokyo Metro Ginza Line trains coming and going during the reconstruction of Shibuya Station in 2017

The Template:Nihongo is a subway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by Tokyo Metro. The official name is Template:Nihongo. It is Template:Cvt long and serves the wards of Shibuya, Minato, Chūō, Chiyoda, and Taitō. It is the oldest subway line in Asia, having opened in 1927.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The line was named after the Ginza commercial district in Chūō, Tokyo, under which it passes. On maps, diagrams and signboards, the line is shown using the color orange, and its stations are given numbers using the letter "G".

OperationsEdit

Almost all Ginza Line trains operate on the line's full length from Asakusa to Shibuya. However, two trains depart in the early morning from Toranomon, and some late-night trains from Shibuya are taken out of service at Ueno. Along with the Marunouchi Line, it is self-enclosed and does not have any through services with other railway lines.

On weekdays, trains run every 2 minutes 15 seconds in the morning and evening peak and every 5 minutes during the daytime. The first trains start from Shibuya and Asakusa at 05:01, and the last ones reach Shibuya at 00:37, and Asakusa at 00:39.

HistoryEdit

File:Groundbreaking ceremony of Tokyo Underground Railway 2.jpg
The groundbreaking of the line on September 27, 1925

The Ginza Line was conceived by a businessman named Noritsugu Hayakawa, who visited London in 1914, saw the London Underground and concluded that Tokyo needed its own underground railway. He founded the Template:Nihongo with Baron Furuichi Kōi in 1920, and began construction on September 27, 1925, after raising ¥6.2 million of the ¥35 million initially required to fund the project.<ref name="90th-2017">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Far Eastern">Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Ginza line in early Showa era.jpg
Ginza Line in the 1920s, with a Nomura Securities advert on the wall

Originally, the Ginza Line was proposed to open from Shimbashi to Asakusa all at once, but because of a recession following the Great Kanto Earthquake, it became difficult to raise funds for the line. The portion between Template:STN and Template:STN was completed on December 30, 1927, and publicized as "the first underground railway in the Orient".<ref name="90th-2017" /> Upon its opening, the line was so popular that passengers often had to wait more than two hours to ride a train for a five-minute trip.

On January 1, 1930, the subway was extended by Template:Cvt to temporary Manseibashi Station, abandoned on November 21, 1931 when the subway reached Template:STN, Template:Convert further south down the line. The Great Depression slowed down construction, but the line finally reached its originally planned terminus of Template:STN on June 21, 1934.

In 1938, the Template:Nihongo, a company tied to the predecessor of today's Tokyu Corporation, began service between Template:STN and Template:STN, later extended to Shimbashi in 1939. The two lines began through-service interoperation in 1939 and were formally merged as the Teito Rapid Transit Authority ("Eidan Subway" or "TRTA") in July 1941 in accordance with the Template:Ill, related to the State General Mobilization Law.

The "Ginza Line" name was applied in 1953 to distinguish the line from the new Marunouchi Line. In the postwar economic boom, the Ginza Line became increasingly crowded. The new Hanzōmon Line began to relieve the Ginza Line's traffic in the 1980s, but the Ginza Line is still quite crowded as it serves major residential, commercial, and business districts in central Tokyo. According to a 2018 release of Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation[1], the Ginza Line is the seventh most crowded subway line in Tokyo, running at 160% capacity between Template:STN and Template:STN stations.<ref>Metropolis, "Commute", June 12, 2009, p. 07. Capacity is defined as all passengers having a seat or a strap or door railing to hold on to.</ref>

Automatic train control (ATC) and train automatic stopping controller (TASC) were activated on the Ginza Line on July 31, 1993, replacing the previous mechanical automatic train stop (ATS) system.<ref>足立武士「CS-ATCの導入 その効果と展望」『鉄道ピクトリアル』1995年7月臨時増刊号(通巻608号)p72 – 75, 電気車研究会</ref> This allowed for an increase in the maximum operating speed limit from Template:Convert to Template:Convert, which came into effect on August 2, 1993, and hence enabled a corresponding increase in the line's route capacity and train frequency.<ref>帝都高速度交通営団史, p.612</ref> The newest station on the line, Tameike-sannō Station, opened in 1997 to provide a connection to the newly built Namboku Line.

The line, station facilities, rolling stock, and related assets were inherited by Tokyo Metro after the privatization of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) in 2004.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Station listEdit

Being the oldest line on the Tokyo Metro, stations are also the closest to the surface—generally no more than one and a half stories underground. The western end of the line enters Shibuya Station located on the third-floor of a building that is located in a depression.

No. Station Japanese Distance (km) Transfers Ward
Between
stations
From Shibuya
Template:TSSN Template:STN 渋谷 - 0.0 Template:Plainlist Shibuya
Template:TSSN Template:STN 表参道 1.3 1.3 Template:Plainlist Minato
Template:TSSN Template:STN 外苑前 0.7 2.0  
Template:TSSN Template:STN 青山一丁目 0.7 2.7 Template:Plainlist
Template:TSSN Template:STN 赤坂見附 1.3 4.0 Template:Plainlist
Template:TSSN Template:STN 溜池山王 0.9 4.9 Template:Plainlist Chiyoda
Template:TSSN Template:STN 虎ノ門 0.6 5.5 Template:Plainlist Minato
Template:TSSN Template:STN 新橋 0.8 6.3 Template:Plainlist
Template:TSSN Template:STN 銀座 0.9 7.2 Template:Plainlist Chūō
Template:TSSN Template:STN 京橋 0.7 7.9  
Template:TSSN Template:STN 日本橋 0.7 8.6 Template:Plainlist
Template:TSSN Template:STN 三越前 0.6 9.2 Template:Plainlist
Template:TSSN Template:STN 神田 0.7 9.9 Template:Plainlist Chiyoda
Template:TSSN Template:STN 末広町 1.1 11.0  
Template:TSSN Template:STN 上野広小路 0.6 11.6 Template:Plainlist Taitō
Template:TSSN Template:STN 上野 0.5 12.1 Template:Plainlist
Template:TSSN Template:STN 稲荷町 0.7 12.8  
Template:TSSN Template:STN 田原町 0.7 13.5  
Template:TSSN Template:STN 浅草 0.8 14.3 Template:Plainlist

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Rolling stockEdit

File:Tokyo Metro 1000 20130406-01.JPG
A Tokyo Metro 1000 series EMU in April 2013

Since April 2012,<ref name="tokyometro20110217">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the Ginza Line uses a fleet of 40 six-car Tokyo Metro 1000 series EMUs which have a maximum speed of Template:Cvt. Each car is Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide, with three doors on each side. They are powered by a third rail electrified at 600 V DC. Both the Ginza Line and the Marunouchi Line are the only Tokyo Metro lines to use Template:RailGauge and third rail electrification, while subsequent lines employ narrow gauge (Template:RailGauge) rails and 1,500 V DC overhead power supply to accommodate through services.

Cars are stored and inspected at Shibuya Depot located after Shibuya Station and at Template:Nihongo, a facility located northeast of Ueno Station with both above-ground and underground tracks. The facility is capable of holding up to 20 6-car formations. Major inspections are carried out at Tokyo Metro's Nakano depot on the Marunouchi Line, forwarding over a connecting track at Akasaka-Mitsuke.

Former rolling stockEdit

  • 100 series (1938–1968)
  • 1000 series (TRTA) (1927–1968)
  • 1100 series (1930–1968)
  • 1200 series (1934–1986)
  • 1300 series (1949–1986)
  • 1400 series (1953–1985)
  • 1500 series (1954–1986)
  • 1500N series (1968–1993)
  • 1600 series (1955–1986)
  • 1700 series (1956–1986)
  • 1800 series (1958–1986)
  • 1900 series (1958–1987)
  • 2000 series (1958–1993)
  • 01 series 6-car EMUs, from 1983 until March 2017

The last remaining 01 series trains were withdrawn from regular service on 10 March 2017.<ref name="iza20170310">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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  • Shaw, Dennis and Morioka, Hisashi, "Tokyo Subways", published 1992 by Hoikusha Publishing

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External linksEdit

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Template:Tokyo transit Template:Authority control