Friday, February 18, 2011

Tokyo Streetcar Arakawa Line

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Early in the 20 century, the streetcar ‘Toden’ system was the main mean of transportation in Tokyo, counting at his peak with 41 routes and over 231 Km of track. By mid century the Tokyo government started changing the bus and subway systems, this change was accelerated by 1960, with the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, most lines were closed by the early 70s and the Toden Arakawa line remained as the only survivor thanks to opposition from the area residents.

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There are legally two streetcars lines in Tokyo, the Tokyo Setagaya and Arakawa line, the Arakawa line is the effectively the only remaining one as the Setagaya line runs on its own right of way.

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The Arakawa line operate in the north and east part of Tokyo, providing a view of a part of the city downtown mostly missed by visitors.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really good shots. Seems like that works yet I have always heard of how unbelievably crowded everything is in Tokyo.

islandjp said...

Thanks,
Tokyo has a superb transport system, subways and surface trains (elevated) take you to anywhere on time. Although rush hour is horrible, mostly because of the large number of people commuting to work. streetcars are luckily not affected as the route doesn't really cover crowded work, cruising mostly on the north part of the city.