Engineers should try riding here at least once in their lifetime. This is the Tokyo Metro rush hour.
With people all around you and almost above you, Tokyo metro is something that should not be your choice of transportation when in the country.
Tokyo Metro Rush Hour (Source: Storyful)
Tokyo Metro Rush Hour (Source: Trambolino Mix)
It seems like the Tokyo Metro serving 3.102 billion passengers in 2012 was too less as per its capacity. The metro system has seen a rise of 1.25% in its annual ridership, taking the count to 3.334 billion in 2013. The rapid transit network currently includes 9 lines and 184 stations, which also includes Shinjuku Station, the world’s busiest rail station.
The metro’s oldest line, the Ginza Line between Ueno and Asakusa, was launched in 1927 by the Tokyo Underground Railway Company. The line was opened after the completion of 2.2km section between Asakusa and Ueno. Undoubtedly, the line became very popular and the passengers started queuing up, sometimes for over two hours, just to ride the metro for five minutes.
It is nearly nine decades later that the privately run Tokyo Metro operates nine lines, the publically-owned Toei Subway operates another four and the Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit another. Together, the three lines cover 290 stations and carry around 3.3billion passengers a year, or over 8million a day.
Tokyo Metro Rush Hour (Source: Lost At E Minor)
Overcrowded has become an epitome for the Tokyo metro. The concept of “pushers” won’t come to you as a surprise as well. The guards, who are known as “osiyas” in Japan are right there at your back to help you push inside the metro by thrusting you into the crowded subway trains.
If reading all this wasn’t enough for you to think twice before planning to board a metro in Tokyo, go and check out yourself once how unbelievably crowded the country’s trains and subways are during rush hour.
