Akihabara Station

Akihabara Station 秋葉原駅
The Akihabara Electric Town entrance of Akihabara Station, February 2015
Location	1 Soto-Kanda (JR Station) Kanda-Sakuma-chō (Tokyo Metro) Kanda-Hanaoka-chō (Tsukuba Express) Chiyoda, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	JR East Tokyo Metro Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company
Line(s)	Keihin-Tohoku Line Yamanote Line Chūō-Sōbu Line Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line Tsukuba Express
Connections	Bus terminal
History
Opened	1890
Location

Akihabara Station (秋葉原駅, Akihabara-eki) is a railway station in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward. It is at the center of the Akihabara shopping district specializing in electronic goods.

Lines

Akihabara Station is served by the following lines. JR East:

• Keihin-Tohoku Line
• Yamanote Line
• Chūō-Sōbu Line

Tokyo Metro:

• Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line

Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company:

• Tsukuba Express

The above-ground section of the station is cross-shaped, with the Chūō-Sōbu Line tracks running from east to west, and the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Line (and Tohoku Shinkansen, which does not stop at Akihabara) from north to south.

Station layout

Yamanote line platform with station doors, August 2015

JR Akihabara Station Showa Dori Entrance (January 2016)

JR East

There are two island platforms serving four tracks for the Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line on the 2nd level, and two side platforms serving two tracks for the Sobu Line Local service on the 4th level.

1	■ Keihin-Tohoku Line	northbound for Ueno, Tabata, and Ōmiya
2	■ Yamanote Line	anti-clockwise for Ueno, Tabata, and Ikebukuro
3	■ Yamanote Line	clockwise for Tokyo, Shinagawa, and Shibuya
4	■ Keihin-Tohoku Line	southbound for Tokyo, Shinagawa, and Yokohama
5	■ Chūō-Sōbu Line	westbound for Ochanomizu, Shinjuku, Nakano, and Mitaka
6	■ Chūō-Sōbu Line	eastbound for Kinshichō, Funabashi, and Chiba

Chest-high platform edge doors were installed on the Yamanote Line platforms in May 2015, to be brought into operation from 20 June 2015.

Tokyo Metro

Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line No. 3 Entrance (December 2006)

There are two underground side platforms serving two tracks.

1	○ Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line	for Ginza, Kasumigaseki, and Naka-Meguro
2	○ Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line	for Ueno, Kita-Senju Tobu Skytree Line for Kuki and Minami-Kurihashi

The song "Koi Suru Fortune Cookie" by AKB48 is to be used as the departure melody on the Hibiya Line platforms from spring 2016.

Tsukuba Express

There is an underground island platform serving two tracks.

G	Street level	Exits/Entrances, connection to JR services
B1F	Upper Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent, ticket/Pasmo/Suica vending machines, FamilyMart, shopping, elevator to platform
B2F	Center Mezzanine	Staircases and escalators to Lower Mezzanine
B3F	Lower Mezzanine	Staircases and escalators to platform
B4F Platform level	1	TX Tsukuba Express towards Tsukuba (Shin-Okachimachi) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
	2	TX Tsukuba Express towards Tsukuba (Shin-Okachimachi) →

1, 2

■ Tsukuba Express

for Minami-Nagareyama, Moriya, and Tsukuba

Adjacent stations

«		Service	»
Yamanote Line
Kanda		-	Okachimachi
Keihin-Tohoku Line
Kanda		Rapid (weekdays)		Ueno
Kanda		Rapid (weekends and national holidays)		Okachimachi
Kanda		Local		Okachimachi
Chūō-Sōbu Line
Asakusabashi		Local	Ochanomizu
Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line (H-15)
Kodenmachō (H-14)		-	Naka-Okachimachi (H-16)
Tsukuba Express (01)
Terminus		Rapid		Shin-Okachimachi (02)
Terminus		Commuter Rapid		Shin-Okachimachi (02)
Terminus		Semi Rapid		Shin-Okachimachi (02)
Terminus		Local		Shin-Okachimachi (02)

History

Akihabara Station was opened in November 1890 as a freight terminal linked to Ueno Station station via tracks following the course of the modern day Yamanote Line.

It was opened to passenger traffic in 1925 following the construction of the section of track linking Ueno with Shinbashi via Tokyo Station and the completion of the Yamanote Line. The upper level platforms were added in 1932 with the opening of an extension to the Sōbu Line from its old terminal at Ryōgoku to Ochanomizu, making Akihabara an important transfer station for passengers from the east of Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture.

The huge growth in commuter traffic following the Second World War caused considerable congestion and was only relieved with the construction of the Sōbu line tunnel linking Kinshichō with Tokyo, bypassing Akihabara.

The Hibiya Line subway station was opened on May 31, 1962 with the line's extension from Naka-Okachimachi to Ningyōchō.

On August 24, 2005, the underground terminus of the new Tsukuba Express Line opened at Akihabara. The entire station complex, including the JR station, was also refurbished and enlarged in preparation for the opening of the Tsukuba Express.

Passenger statistics

In fiscal 2013, the JR East station was used by an average of 240,327 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), making it the ninth-busiest station operated by JR East. Over the same fiscal year, the Tokyo Metro station was used by an average of 122,576 passengers daily (both exiting and entering passengers), making it the 23rd busiest Tokyo Metro station.

The passenger figures for previous years are as shown below.

Fiscal year	Daily average
	JR East	Tokyo Metro
2000	137,736
2005	171,166
2010	226,646
2011	230,689	119,184
2012	234,187	119,409
2013	240,327	122,576

• Note that JR East figures are for boarding passengers only.

Surrounding area

The main attraction is the Akihabara electronics retail district to the north and west of the station.

Bus terminal

Route buses

• Cha 51(茶51); For Ochanomizu Station, Hongō-sanchōme Station, and Komagome Station
• Aki 26(秋26); For Kanda Station, Iwamotochō Station, Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station, and Kasai Station
• Kazaguruma Akihabara Route; For Ochanomizu Station, Chiyoda City Office
• AKIBA SHUTTLE; For Tokyo Skytree, Asakusa Kaminarimon

Highway buses

• My Town Direct Bus; For Tokyo Disney Resort, Shin-Urayasu Area
• Airport Limousine; For Haneda Airport
• Kanto Yakimono Liner; For Kasama Station, Mashiko Station
• For Takasaki Station, Shin-Maebashi Station, Maebashi Station, and Maebashi Bus Center
• Tono Kamaishi; For Shin-Hanamaki Station, Tōno Station, Kamaishi Station, Kirikiri, and Yamada
• Yuhi; For Tsuruoka Station, Amarume Station, and Sakata Station
• Southern Cross; For Kyōto Station, Ōsaka Station, Namba Station, and Osaka City Air Terminal(JR Namba Station)
• Tokyo Tokkyu New Star; For Kyōto Station, Ōsaka Station, Universal Studios Japan, Tennōji Station, Ōsaka Uehommachi Station, and Fuse Station
• For Toyama Station, Kanazawa Station, and Kenroku-en

See also

• List of railway stations in Japan

External links

• Akihabara Station information (JR East) (Japanese)
• Akihabara Station information (Tokyo Metro) (Japanese)
• Akihabara Station information (Tsukuba Express) (Japanese)
• Webcam with sound showing Northern side and tracks of Akihabara station (Japanese)