+ Yamanote Tidbits

100 Secrets of the Yamanote

(A summary of NTV's Super TV show broadcast on 9/1/2003)

It was a quite interesting show and something I never knew before. OK, some of them were basics but I admit that I wasn't that "careful" in looking for them when I ride the train. Basically the show took 1 complete round in the outer loop which starts at Shinagawa and takes you thru the interesting points/history and sights along the way.

Some interesting points were:

1. Yamanote line actual start point is in Shinagawa and there is a 0Km mark in the station (will have to take a picture next time walk by there).
2. Shinagawa is the lowest in altitude of only 3.8m above sea level.
3. Most of the trains depart from Osaki out of the Yamanote Depot south of the station.
4. Shibuya is the station with the most billboard places (some 550 slots) and it is the most expensive station to advertise of all of the Yamanote 29 stations.
5. Yoyogi is the station with the highest altitute above sea level (38.7m).
6. Shinjuku is the busiest station in terms of passengers getting on and off with an average of 750 thousand people per day.
7. Shinjuku has the most number of Kiosks (20 out of the 220 in the Yamanote loop).
8. There is actually a "substitute salesperson" who runs around the Yamanote loop to each Kiosk to allow the salespeople to take breaks. When trains are running late, the Kiosk salesperson will not be able to take any break as the substitute sales won't be there ^_^;;
9. I did not notice that they have changed the platform departure tone to the Atom Boy theme song for Takadanobaba. Need to bring my MD player there next time.
10. There is a new massage shop in Mejiro that targets University students...
11. There are actually 2 crossings on the Yamanote line: one is between Mejiro and Ikebukuro and the other one is Komagome and Tabata. According to the show, during rush hour the gate won't open for hours.
12. Ikebukuro and Ozaki are the 2 stations where driver change happens. Approx 150 drivers do the run per day and the most can a driver continue to run is 2 rounds.
13. Training of Yamanote line drivers and conductors takes place in the JR Saitama training center with live size simulators.
14. Otsuka station is the only station left with a street car connection in the whole loop.
15. One car of the new 231 series train weights about 27 tons with 11 cars a total of approx 300 tons.
16. New train were made in the Niigata prefecture Niitsu works and being delivered to the Tokyo area via Shinetsu, Joetsu, Takasaki line.
17. The newest station in the Yamanote Loop is Nishi-Nippori station which opened on 1971/4/20
18. Shortest distance between 2 stations is Nishi-Nippori and Nippori which is only about 500 meters apart.
19. The station with the least passengers is Uguisudani with only approx 25,000 people per day.
20. The section between Nippori and Ueno is with the most parallel running tracks a total of 12. (Yamanote, Keihin Touhoku, Touhoku, Joban and ?) Can anyone can think of the missing 2 lines--Joban Express?
21. Tokyo station is the one with most in Japan in terms of: a. Staff: over 1000 staff members; b. Departures/arrivals: about 4000 trains depart/arrive daily; c. Platforms: 28 (anyone knows where is platform 11-13? They don't exist now).
22. The longest distance between 2 stations is between Tamachi and Shinagawa of approx 2200m. This is also the section which the train travels fastest at 90km/hr.

Contributor: Chris Lee
Date: September 2, 2003

Posted on 2003年09月02日 18:02