Thanks to snarled traffic, trains are by far the best way to get around Tokyo, and you can hit up the vast majority of the downtown sights using just one line. The JR Yamanote line forms a loop around the city center, and can take you to the high-fashion boutiques of Ginza, Akihabara, Ueno’s spacious park, museums, and zoo, and also the Shinkansen access points of Shinagawa and Tokyo Stations.
The Yamanote line is so crucial to life and leisure in Tokyo that it’s never once been shut down for construction since the founding of East Japan Railway in 1987. That streak is coming to an end, though, as the company has announced that roughly a third of the Yamanote line will be out of service starting on the morning of Saturday.
The reason for the disruption is the ongoing preparation for Takanawa Gateway Station, scheduled to open in the spring of 2020 and the first new Yamanote line station since 1971. After the last Yamanote line train pulls into the depot on Friday night, construction crews will begin installing necessary track-switching equipment related to the new station, but will be unable to finish the project by the time of the first morning train. Because of that, on Saturday morning the Yamanote line will be shut down between Osaki and Ueno Stations, with the following 11 stops inaccessible:
● Osaki
● Shinagawa
● Tamachi
● Hamamatsucho
● Shimbashi
● Yurakucho
● Tokyo
● Kanda
● Akihabara
● Okachimachi
● Ueno
Yamanote service for those stations is expected to resume at around 4 p.m. In addition, JR’s Keihin Tohoku line, which will also run through the new station, will be out of operation between Shinagawa and Tamachi Stations, the two stops adjacent to Takanawa Gateway, for the entire day on Saturday.
During the shutdown, JR will be increasing the frequency of trains on its Saikyo and Ueno-Tokyo lines, which provide alternate access to the stations affected by the Yamanote/Keihin Tohoku shutdown.
Source: NHK News Web via Hachima Kiko
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12 Comments
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The Original Wing
We're still going with that name, eh? How ugly.
Jimizo
I don’t see anything wrong with the ‘Takanawa Gateway’ name.
Does the job.
The Original Wing
@Jimizo
Well, any name would do the job. My issue with it is that it feels unauthentic.
First of all, it's not common that katakana words get used in station names unless it's referring to a nearby building, park, company, etc. name that's already in katakana. On the Yamanote Line, zero stations have katakana, and all of them refer to neighborhood names.
Second of all, as far as I'm aware, "gateway" isn't a commonly-used katakana word in Japanese (although I might be wrong - open to being corrected on that point). So, my issue is that the name doesn't follow normal naming conventions, and that it has a "trying-too-hard-to-be-cool" (by using a foreign word, and by choosing a word with such an aspirational meaning) element to it.
rcch
idk, ... thousands of words and combinations ...... let ,s say it : they could,ve done ( a lot ) better . . .
Jimizo
I heard my coworkers talk about this name. Some said it sounded ok but the vast majority of them weren’t particularly arsed what they called it. The number of online votes seemed to be indicative of a wider indifference.
That’s why I said does the job.
Isthiezak
Apparently many Japanese people feel that using unnecessarily using foreign katakana words in building names etc is an old-fashioned (Showa-era) way of trying to appear international, so while the older generation might consider it trendy, it’s just considered cheesy now.
Isthiezak
Interesting, apparently there was a public vote on the new station’s name and “Takanawa Gateway” was one of the least popular, only 36 votes, but JR East’s president picked it anyway.
Alex Einz
ridiculous
Patricia Yarrow
So much for democracy. Should have just asked whoever the JR East president is for the name of his favorite muppet.
juminRhee
The original wing:
Would you prefer a more Chinese or Korean sounding name?
WilliB
When people in my neighbourhood (I live near there) talk about it, they just call it Takanawa station. Forget the gateway nonsense.
mmwkdw
Look on the bright side, if you miss your train in Mita, you can run down the road and catch it at the Gateway station...