Yurikamome

nihongo|New Transit Yurikamome|新交通ゆりかもめ|Shinkōtsū Yurikamome, formally the nihongo|Tokyo Waterfront New Transit Waterfront Line|東京臨海新交通臨海線|Tōkyō Rinkai Shinkōtsū Rinkai-sen is an automated guideway transit service operated by the Tokyo Waterfront New Transit Corporation, connecting Shimbashi to Toyosu, passing through the artificial island of Odaiba in Tokyo, Japan, a market in which it competes with the cheaper but less glamorous Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit (Rinkai Line).

The line is named after the black-headed seagull ("yurikamome" in Japanese), a common denizen of Tokyo Bay and the official prefectural bird.

Technology

Yurikamome is Tokyo's first fully automated transit system, controlled entirely by computers with no drivers on board. However, the line is not the first in Japan, as Kobe's Port Liner opened in 1981, 14 years before the Yurikamome.

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

History

Before its 1995 opening, it was widely feared that the Yurikamome would end up as a multibillion-yen boondoggle. 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 didn't seem to be enough demand tosupport it. In the first few months of operation, ridership hovered around 27,000 passengers per day, 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 rezoned Odaiba from pure business and residential to also permit entertainment zones. Tokyo may be next to the sea on the map, but before Odaiba, effectively the entire coastline had been taken over by an endless concrete strip of ports and warehouses. Promoted as the "Rainbow Town", the island provided Tokyo with a strip of livable seaside, and within one year, ridership doubled to 60,000. As more and more restaurants, shopping malls, exhibition centers and museums opened, traffic continued to grow.

It is not just the island that became popular, as the Yurikamome had become an attraction in itself. 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. Easily accessible and comfortable, most island goers opt for the Yurikamome despite its high price, with the fares of 180 to 370 yen being nearly twice that of a normal subway.

* November 1, 1995: Shimbashi-Ariake opens, using temporary Shimbashi station
* March 22, 2001: Current Shimbashi station opens, temporary station closes
* November 2, 2002: Shiodome Station opens
* March 27, 2006: Ariake-Toyosu opens; all stations adopt letter/number identification based on Tokyo Metro.

An accident on the Yurikamome occurred on the afternoon of April 14, 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. [http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060417/kyodo/d8h1qs7g9.html] The train came to a halt near Fune-no-Kagakukan station, and services were suspended on the entire line. 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 April 19.

Future

The Yurikamome's future looks bright: at over 100,000 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.

Further extension to ja-stalink|Kachidoki is currently under consideration. [http://www.kouwan.metro.tokyo.jp/data/rinkai-plan/5-1.html]

Stations

Yurikamome trains are taken in and out of service at Ariake, and are stored in a yard near Tokyo Big Sight when out of service.

Since 2006, all the stations use the recorded voices of different "seiyū" (voice actors) for their announcements. [http://www.yurikamome.co.jp/outline/voice.php]

ee also

* List of rapid transit systems

External links

* [http://www.yurikamome.co.jp/en/ Yurikamome official website]
* [http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr16/f15_iwata.html Japan Rail and Transport Review article]