Train jingles, numbers, and everything in between
Handy tricks to help (or confuse) you on your journey
This is a bit of a one-off post, about little things on trains that are surprisingly helpful. It’s often the little things that count!
1. Jingles
The first item on this list is one that is very unique to Japan. Each station (and often even each platform) has its own little 7-second jingle to help identify your stop, and if you are sleeping on the train, it can shake you awake at your stop.
Listen to the Ebisu jingle here, or a collection of all the Yamanote line jingles here.
2. Station numbers
Next up, station numbers. Each station has its own code for each line that serves it, for example H-2, Hibiya line at Ebisu (because it’s the second from the start of the Hibiya line at Naka-Meguro) or G-19, Ginza line at Asakusa Station (the last stop on the 19-stop Ginza line). How do they choose which end is 1? Who knows. 2 extra fun facts, though: The Tokyo Metro gets 1-letter codes for the lines (like M for the Marunouchi line) , while JR has a 1-letter code with the preletter “J” attached (like JS for the Shonan-Shinjuku line). Some private railway operators get 2 letters (like DT for the Tokyu Den-En-Toshi line or MM for the Minatomirai line), while other bigger private railway operators get a preletter (like TJ Tobu Toju line and TS Tobu Skytree line). Another little detail: the Yamanote line, being a circle, has no real start or end (unless if you count Osaki, where the depot is). So, it was decided that Tokyo Station would be JY-1. This section is too long already, so I’m going to end it.
3. Lines turning into other lines
The Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line has its northern terminus at Wakoshi, and its southern end at Shibuya. However, you commonly see announcement boards at Fukutoshin Line stops indicating a train going south ends at Motomachi-Chukagai, south of Shibuya. A northbound train might list its end as Hannō, north of Wakoshi. So what’s going on here? Basically, while the train might stop being called a Fukutoshin line, that doesn’t mean it has to stop and turn around. It might be now called a Tokyu Toyoko line, but that doesn’t mean it’s a different train, or that you have to get off. It just… changes. We’re still not entirely clear on how this works (do you change drivers?) (Whose responsibility is it if a Tokyo Metro train derails on Seibu track?
4. Why so many private railways?
Around thirty percent of all rail services in Japan are NOT operated by a part of the JR Group, a nationwide group of 7 railway companies (from north to south: JR Freight (a country-wide freight administrator), JR Hokkaido, JR East, JR Central, JR Shikoku, JR West, and JR Kyushu) formed by the breakup of JNR, a behemoth governmental ministry responsible for trains. As I said, they only operate seventy percent of all services. The other thirty percent are operated by corporations. For example, Seibu is a megacompany whose main business is the Seibu department store chain, but their other key enterprise is trains in the Tokyo suburbs. Why? Well, in postwar Japan, the government-controlled JNR was too large and bureaucratic to quickly redevelop Japan’s railway network, so the government offered subsidies to corporations in exchange for building miles of new and restored railway track. And the companies still have those railways!
And here’s a photo of a E4 series double decker Shinkansen (sadly not in use anymore) because I need a cover image for this post:
I loved it! Very interesting