Test program could help Tokyo commuters go from crazy crowded commutes to simply very crowded commutes.
rush hour
After riding on the Tube in London, our Japanese reporter is thankful for crowded Tokyo trains.
Commuters waited in jaw-dropping queues that stretched for several blocks outside train stations in and around Tokyo.
Rush hour is a pretty unpleasant time to be on the train in Japan under any circumstances, but this was a whole new set of problems.
Commuters were forced to line up outside train stations around the city as staff restricted entry due to suspended services.
Tokyo’s trains are too crowded for just a top 10 list, and the worst is one that runs at almost double 100-percent capacity.
There’s definitely a beauty to the controlled chaos of the morning commute in Japan’s capital.
Even for Japan, this is a crazy rush hour scene.
Peak-hour delays caused such overcrowding that some commuters were unable to enter stations in the nation’s capital.
It might look like brand new technology, but this surprising system is on a train that’s been running for more than forty years.
Compared to some of the cooler or more elegant-sounding parts of Tokyo, like Jiyugaoka (“Freedom Hill”) or Akihabara (“Field of Autumn Leaves”), the Shinagawa neighborhood has a pretty dull name, meaning essentially “Merchandise River.” Still, you have to admit it’s appropriate. Located near the mouth of the Sumidagawa river, for generations Shinagawa has seen plenty of cargo ships sail past as they ferry goods in and out of Tokyo’s ports.
The name even works in a figurative economic sense, as Shinagawa Station is a major rail hub that thousands of workers pass through every day on their way from their homes in the suburbs to their offices downtown. The facility is designed to keep passengers efficiently flowing in and out, but this morning the “river” got blocked due to a problem with the trains, resulting in perhaps the most crowded scene of rush hour in Japan that we’ve ever seen.
Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station is the Guinness World Record holder for busiest transport hub in the world, with an average of 3.64 million people passing through the station, which has 36 platforms and over 200 exits, each and every day. And it’s never busier than during the morning rush hour, with commuters from all over Tokyo and its neighbouring prefectures pouring through the station on their way to work. No wonder the trains are so crowded!
Since Ashley, our “Japan Wish” competition winner is currently in town soaking up as much Japanese culture as she can, we thought it would be great if she could experience the rush hour crush for herself and share her thoughts with her fellow RocketNews24 readers.
Check out the video we took of Ashley being squished like a sardine and see for yourselves how she rates the experience!
The Tokyo metropolitan subway system is notorious for being incredibly crowded at rush hour, with commuters packed into narrow train carriages like sardines in a can. You’re probably familiar with images of white-gloved train conductors literally pushing people onto trains in an attempt to squeeze just one more body on before departure.
It can be very scary being squished into a mass of people like that, and this particularly holds true in case of sudden incidents such as the one that occurred this week when the window of a train literally broke due to the pressure of all of those heaving bodies. Join us after the jump for images of crushed glass and scenes of utter chaos! Okay, it’s actually only a few cracks, but still…
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