Yamanote line suspended (Mar 23 2010)

no one likes to see that!

Apologies for the spelling, this was from my cell phone earlier this evening. The JR Yamanote line, JR Shonan Shinjuku line and the Saikyo lines were all suspended. My normal trip home from Ebisu to Shibuya was somewhat delayed. After some deliberation I worked out the quickest route would be the one stop south on the Hibiya line to Naka-Meguro and one stop north again on the express Minatomirai line to Shibuya. It only took an extra 15 minutes, but I foolishly did not collect a free subway line ticket from the station staff offering them for the alternative routes, so it cost me 260 Yen. When I arrived at Shibuya the trains were still suspended. I look forward to details tomorrow of what happened.

Since there was no point entering Ebisu station I failed to get a photo of the new platform edge doors that have appeared after the long weekend. I'll try and take a shot tomorrow.

Update: it made the front page on the Japan Times printed edition today with a photo of some people being helped off a stuck train. The root cause was an obstacle hanging from overhead wires. More than 2,000 commuters were trapped on trains in the incident that lasted 90 minutes.

Transport Bookshop in Tokyo

Just come back from a trip to Nishiyama bookstore in Ikebukuro.


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If you are looking for a transport bookshop in Tokyo this is the place to go. It covers trains, planes, boats, trucks, buses and cars; plus some movies and war related books. Most of the books are secondhand and in English but there is a good collection of German and French language books and magazines on trains.

If Ian Allan is one of your favourite publishers, or the initials BNSF mean something to you, I don't think you will be disappointed.

The shop is well organised with almost all the books well ordered, though I was surprised to see a street atlas of a small town in England amongst all the railways books.

The one thing that is missing though, is books on Japanese railways. I found one slim booklet on the Light Rail systems of West Japan, and a couple of books of photos of Japanese trains with Japanese text, but that was it.

Only five minutes walk from Ikebukuro station this small shop is worth a visit if transport is your thing. But If you are looking for fiction or more general second handbooks then go just a couple of stops south on the Yamanote line to Blue Parrot books in Takadanobaba , or carry on further south to Ebisu to Good Day Books.

I'm sure there are more second hand English language bookshops in Tokyo, A search yields this list from American Airlines which includes a few I've not heard of. And if you'd rather shop online I discovered Infinity Books Japan , but it's not the same as browsing a dusty bookshelf looking for something unusual.

Anyone got any more bookshops to share?

Delays on Inokashira Line

My journey into Shibuya this morning was delayed by 10 minutes. A trip that normally takes 6 minutes took 16 minutes! Because this is such a rare event, and people don't believe you when you say there were delays on the trains, you can get proof to show your boss to explain your tardiness.

Yamanote line station chimes

We've been slowly exploring Tokyo by subway and JR Line railways since we arrived. I noticed that each station seemed to play a different "chime" over the loud speaker after a train arrives. I had thought it would interesting to try and collect recordings of each tune but, not surprisingly, some one has got there before me.These are the chimes for all the Yamanote line stations. The station names are all in Kanji, but if you translate them though google it gets about three quarters of them correctly, (but then the links to the chimes don't work so use the first link). The correct station names are here.

My favourite is Ebisu (Translated as "The god of wealth" on the list). What's your favourite?

Thanks to Gaijin Girl, who wrote an interesting blog on her life in Japan but has just left the country, for the link.

Construction on the AREX railway

Phase 1 of the AREX airport link between Gimpo and Incheon airports opened in March. Phase 2, which takes the line from Gimpo into Seoul Station, has been under construction for sometime now and I have been photographing what I can of the sites where work is occurring.

At Gimpo airport the line is deep in tunnel, it heads north east and rises to the surface to cross the Han river on a new bridge.


On the north bank of the river the next section of the bridge is being built, ready to be moved into position.

The line curves to the east and descends into tunnel to go below Susaek bridge. The line is being built in a cut and cover tunnel running parallel to mainline railway to Susaek station. From Susaek to Gajwa railway station there is a short section being constructed using the "Tubular Roof and Trench Tunnelling method" it proclaims on a banner at the site entrance. At Gajwa I sneaked into the work site and got this photo of the 50m deep excavation. You can just see the guard on the far left coming over to order me off the site.


However it seems they had miscalculated something and the retaining wall on the right hand side of the photo collapsed suddenly on Sunday afternoon :



[Photo courtesy of the Korea Times newspaper.] Thankfully no one was injured. The construction site worked evacuated the site at 4:30 when they realised the wall was not going to hold, but no one thought to inform the railway that they may want to stop trains until 5:00pm. The last train crossed the tracks just two minutes before the collapse. The chosun has some choice words to say about this!

I visited the site yesterday and there was a continuous stream of trucks delivering material to fill the hole to be able to reinstate the railway lines as quickly as possible. It was a local attraction with at least twenty men watching the proceedings. I hope this setback does not delay the opening date of 2010.

From Gajwa there is another short section not in cut and cover before the open trench reappears. The trench follows the line of the previously existing Yongsan railway line traces of which can still be found at a couple of the roads that cross the work sites. At Hongik University there is more major excavation for the new station which will connect with Subway line 2. The trench continues to Gongdeok where there will be another station. The line then continues in bored tunnel under the hill to come out on the west side of Seoul Station.

Update : Matt has more photos.

Rail link between Seoul Airports Incheon and Gimpo to open next month

Travellers to South Korea will be interested to hear that the new rail link from the main International Airport of Seoul at Incheon will open next month March 23rd.

The new rail link to be known as AREX does not, as yet, take you right to Seoul city centre, but it does take you to the other airport in Seoul : Gimpo. From there you can travel on the Seoul Subway into downtown on Subway line 5.

However, judging by the timing and price quoted in the article I'm not sure how many customers it is going to attract. The journey between the two airports will take 33 minutes and cost 3,100 won on the slow train (every 12 mins). The express train (once an hour) will take 28 minutes for a price of 7,900 won. By comparison, a bus takes about 30 minutes and costs 4,500 won.

I guess the trains will be more frequent than the existing buses, but most visitors who are travelling to parts of Seoul beyond Gimpo will probably continue to take the limousine bus services. They go direct to a number of different parts of Seoul and beyond, which is easier than taking a train and then changing to the subway and possibly changing to another subway line as well, especially if you have luggage.

The second part of the line continuing on from Gimpo into Seoul Station is not due to open until 2010. Construction is well underway on the line mostly in tunnel. I'll be posting some photos of the work sites later.