Yurikamome

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy datesTemplate:Infobox rail line Template:Nihongo, formerly the Template:Nihongo, is an automated guideway transit service operated by Yurikamome, Inc. in Tokyo, Japan. It connects Shimbashi to Toyosu, via the artificial island of Odaiba, a market in which it competes with the Rinkai Line.

The line is named after the black-headed gull (yurikamome in Japanese),<ref name="Developing Metros">Template:Cite book</ref> a common denizen of Tokyo Bay and the official metropolitan bird.<ref name="metro_bird">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

Before its 1995 opening, it was widely feared that the Yurikamome would end up as a multibillion-yen white elephant. The artificial island of Odaiba, which it serves, had been designed and constructed at prodigious expense before Japan's economic crash and, much like London's equally beleaguered Canary Wharf, there simply did not seem to be enough demand to support it. On 1 November 1995, the section between Shimbashi and Ariake opened, using a temporary Shimbashi station. In the first few months of operation, ridership hovered around 27,000 passengers per day,<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> only a little less than the predicted 29,000, but still far less than the 80,000 passengers needed to be profitable.

However, in 1996, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government re-zoned Odaiba from pure business and residential to also permit entertainment zones. The island provided Tokyo with a strip of livable seaside, and within one year, ridership doubled to 60,000.<ref name=":0" /> As more and more restaurants, shopping malls, exhibition centers and museums opened, traffic continued to grow.<ref name=":0" /> On 22 March 2001, the current Shimbashi station opened and the temporary station closed. Shiodome Station opened on 2 November 2002. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 27 March 2006, the section between Ariake and Toyosu opened and stations adopted letter and number codes based on Tokyo Metro.<ref name="terada2013">Template:Cite book</ref>

It is not just the island that became popular, as the Yurikamome had become an attraction in itself.<ref name=":0" /> To raise itself from ground level to the Rainbow Bridge, the Yurikamome makes a 270-degree loop, providing panoramic views of both mainland Tokyo and Odaiba.<ref name=":0" />

An accident on the Yurikamome occurred on the afternoon of 14 April 2006. According to a government commission, one of the axles on the six-car train was cracked due to metal fatigue, causing a rubber tire on the train to fall off.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The train came to a halt near Fune-no-kagakukan station, and services were suspended on the entire line.<ref name="jptimes" /> This came at the start of a busy weekend when events were taking place at Tokyo Big Sight on Odaiba, but, according to news reports, alternate means of transportation were offered and there was no major confusion. The Yurikamome resumed limited train service on April 17 while further inspections and tests continued, with full service restored on 19 April.

On the morning of 14 August 2006, a large-scale power outage in the Tokyo metropolitan area occurred, causing trains to come to a complete halt on the elevated tracks, trapping passengers for nearly an hour.

On 16 March 2019, two stations were renamed: Fune-no-kagakukan became Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, and Kokusai-tenjijō-seimon became Tokyo Big Sight.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Future plansEdit

At over 110,000 passengers per day, the Yurikamome is making a net profit and will pay off its loans in full faster than the 20 years originally anticipated. Operating frequency, hours of operation and number of trainsets have been continually revised upwards to accommodate the ever-increasing number of passengers.

TechnologyEdit

The Yurikamome is Tokyo's first fully automated and driverless transit system, controlled entirely by computers with no drivers on board. However, the line is not the first fully driverless transit line in Japan, as Kobe's Port Liner opened in 1981, 14 years before the Yurikamome.<ref name="railway_tech">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="WSJ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="NIST">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Yurikamome is sometimes mistakenly called a monorail, but the trains run with rubber-tired wheels on elevated concrete track guided by the side walls.

File:Yurikamome-Jan2020.webm
Riding towards and into the Rainbow Bridge on the Yurikamome with several trains passing in the other direction, 2020

StationsEdit

Since 2006, all the stations use the recorded voices of different voice actors for their Japanese-language announcements.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The letter "U" is used as the symbol for station numbers rather than "Y" for Yurikamome as this letter is already used as the acronym for the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line.

No. Station Japanese Distance (km) Transfers Location Voice actor
(Japanese)
Between
stations
Total
Template:YKSN Shimbashi 新橋 0.0 0.0 Template:Plainlist Minato Masumi Asano
Template:YKSN Shiodome 汐留 0.4 0.4 Template:Plainlist Hiro Shimono
Template:YKSN Takeshiba 竹芝 1.2 1.6 Chiaki Takahashi
Template:YKSN Hinode 日の出 0.6 2.2 Yurika Ochiai
Template:YKSN Shibaura-futō 芝浦ふ頭 0.9 3.1 Maria Yamamoto
Template:YKSN Odaiba-kaihinkōen お台場海浜公園 3.9 7.0 Template:Plainlist Kenichi Suzumura
Template:YKSN Daiba 台場 0.8 7.8 Toshiyuki Morikawa
Template:YKSN Tokyo International Cruise Terminal 東京国際クルーズターミナル 0.6 8.4 Kōtō Motoki Takagi
Template:YKSN Telecom Center テレコムセンター 0.8 9.2 Kaori Mizuhashi
Template:YKSN Aomi 青海 1.0 10.2 Template:Plainlist Kōsuke Toriumi
Template:YKSN Tokyo Big Sight 東京ビッグサイト 1.1 11.3 Mikako Takahashi
Template:YKSN Ariake 有明 0.7 12.0 Template:Plainlist Mai Nakahara
Template:YKSN Ariake-Tennis-no-mori 有明テニスの森 0.7 12.7 Chihiro Suzuki
Template:YKSN Shijō-mae 市場前 0.8 13.5 Tatsuhisa Suzuki
Template:YKSN Shin-toyosu 新豊洲 0.5 14.0 Natsuko Kuwatani
Template:YKSN Toyosu 豊洲 0.7 14.7 Template:Plainlist Sōichirō Hoshi

Yurikamome trains are taken in and out of service at Ariake, and are stored in a yard near Tokyo Big Sight when not in service.

RidershipEdit

Ridership on the line peaked at over 200,000 daily boardings in 2000,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but declined substantially by 2004 as the Rinkai Line, which opened a year after the Yurikamome Line, expanded into more of the waterfront area and offered lower fares. Between 2004 and 2006, four new stations were added, which raised ridership slightly. As of 2023, daily ridership totals are roughly 97% of pre-pandemic levels with patronage shifting to the eastern end of the line.

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U-01 Shimbashi 94,217 63,791 58,824 63,123 44,343 56,027
U-02 Shiodome -- 7,500 7,805 8,755 5,650 7,463
U-03 Takeshiba 4,681 9,301 4,701 4,508 4,126 4,833
U-04 Hinode 1,675 2,043 2,271 2,322 2,015 2,404
U-05 Shibaura-futō 6,970 5,875 5,166 5,090 4,313 4,907
U-06 Odaiba-kaihinkōen 19,406 15,859 14,497 16,899 11,171 13,195
U-07 Daiba 28,838 22,866 21,682 21,421 14,135 20,606
U-08 Tokyo International Cruise Terminal
(former name: Fune-no-kagakukan)
2,734 3,506 3,579 3,191 2,300 2,963
U-09 Telecom Center 13,561 11,233 10,649 12,140 8,118 8,505
U-10 Aomi 11,529 7,152 7,153 11,884 1,707 1,483
U-11 Tokyo Big Sight
(former name: Kokusai-tenjijō-seimon)
21,420 13,885 16,312 16,690 13,876 19,352
U-12 Ariake 3,531 2,509 3,743 5,818 7,669 9,242
U-13 Ariake-Tennis-no-mori -- -- 1,185 5,022 6,351 8,148
U-14 Shijō-mae -- -- 76 11,393 11,285 13,997
U-15 Shin-toyosu -- -- 893 6,796 7,144 11,256
U-16 Toyosu -- -- 9,494 28,916 27,545 33,957
Totals 208,562 165,520 168,030 223,968 171,748 218,338

Rolling stockEdit

The line uses Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rubber-tired "Crystal Mover" technology.<ref name="mhi-crystal">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:As of, the following train types are used on the line, all formed as six-car sets.<ref name="jrrprivate2016">Template:Cite book</ref>

  • 7000 series
  • 7200 series
  • 7300 series
  • 7500 series

Between 2014 and 2016, a fleet of 18 new six-car 7300 series trains are being introduced on the line.<ref name="hobidas20130315">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first train was test run during the summer of 2013,<ref name="hobidas20130315"/> entering revenue service from 18 January 2014.<ref name="railfan20140119">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The new trains have longitudinal seating throughout, to increase overall capacity and speed-up boarding and alighting.<ref name="hobidas20130315"/> Between June 2018 and June 2020, eight more six-car trainsets (7500-series) were built for the line by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to replace the fleet of 7200 series trains.<ref name="mhi20160923">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

7000 seriesEdit

Template:As of, four out of the original eighteen 7000 series sets (05, 16, 17, and 18) were still in service, formed as six-car sets as follows.<ref name="jrrprivate2016"/>

Car No. 1 2 3 4 6 7
Designation Mc1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Mc6
Numbering 7xx1 7xx2 7xx3 7xx4 7xx5 7xx6

("xx" stands for the unit number.)

7200 seriesEdit

File:Yurikamome 7200 series set 21 20060327.jpg
7200 series set 21 in March 2006

The 7200 series began operation in February 1999. Template:As of, eight 7200 series sets (21 to 28) were in service, formed as six-car sets as follows.<ref name="jrrprivate2016"/>

Car No. 1 2 3 4 6 7
Designation Mc1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Mc6
Numbering 72x1 72x2 72x3 72x4 72x5 72x6

("xx" stands for the unit number.)

7300 seriesEdit

File:Yurikamome7310wiki.jpg
7300 series set 31 in November 2018

Template:As of, eighteen 7300 series sets (31 to 48) are in service, formed as six-car sets as follows.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Car No. 1 2 3 4 6 7
Designation Mc1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Mc6
Numbering 73x1 73x2 73x3 73x4 73x5 73x6

("xx" stands for the unit number.)

7500 seriesEdit

File:Yurikamome7500wiki.jpg
7500 series set 51 in November 2018

Template:As of, eight 7500 series sets (51 to 58) are in service, formed as six-car sets as below.<ref name="jrrprivate2016"/> In November 2020, delivery of the eight six-car sets was completed.<ref name="railwaygazette-20201113">Template:Cite news</ref>

Car No. 1 2 3 4 6 7
Designation Mc1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Mc6
Numbering 75x1 75x2 75x3 75x4 75x5 75x6

("xx" stands for the unit number.)

In fictionEdit

The line is featured in the anime Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club from the Love Live! franchise, with a fictional station bearing the school's name from the show.Template:Citation needed

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:Tokyo transit