Closed Hakubutsukan-Doubutsuen Station Re-opened For A Limited Time This November.

[gmat]

Abandoned subway station in Tokyo open to the public for a limited time!  Hakubutsukan-Doubutsuen Station was the next station on the Keisei Line after Ueno Station. 

https://soranews24.com/2018/11/16/abandoned-subway-station-in-tokyo-open-to-the-public-for-a-limited-time/

 

Grant

 

 

[gmat]

I went to the station today and was a little disappointed. The station was actually opened to show an art exhibit so entrance was limited to about 30 or 40 people in 30 minute blocks. You could get free tickets from 10:00 and by 11:10ish all tickets for today had been passed out. A plastic barrier was installed halfway to the bottom so you couldn't get close to the former ticket are and train platform. The performance staff (UENOYES) mostly didn't know anything about the special commemorative tickets but one did know and said that I had to go to the Keisei Ueno Station to get it. After I bought one, I thought that it wasn't a special thick ticket like other commemorative tickets but a perforated attachment to an ordinary printed brochure. 

 

I should have seen this article. 

Ueno’s Historical & Former Hakubutsukan-Dōbutsuen Train Station to Open for Public Viewing

https://www.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/137153

 

Grant

[railsquid]

Hah, I had a look around that station in 1997 when I stumbled across it by chance. Unfortunately that was well before the time when one carried a compact portable HD camera with good low light qualities and built-in telephone, so all I have are some vague memories of it being dark and very devoid of people, almost like a timewarp to a much earlier age.

[Socimi]

4 hours ago, railsquid said:

Hah, I had a look around that station in 1997 when I stumbled across it by chance.

 

You were lucky! It did close in 1997!

 

(actually it "suspended operations" on the 1st of April 1997 but was official closed only 7 yers later, on the 1st of April 2004)

[bikkuri bahn]

ANN report

Edited November 24, 2018 by bikkuri bahn

[Kiha66]

Are the tracks still in use, or is the whole line closed?

[railsquid]

3 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Are the tracks still in use, or is the whole line closed?

 

It's just before Keisei Ueno station, so very much in use.

 

I read recently in one of the Japanese railway magazines that late in the war, the tunnel section was requisitioned by the government and connected to the Yamanote line so they could shunt coaches into the tunnel for use as temporary offices with some degree of protection from bombing.

[Kiha66]

Interesting, so would it be possible to see the station via train as you pass though then?  Possibly something to do on my next trip to Japan.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Kiha66

[railsquid]

Yup.

 

Here's a video from 1997:

 

 

[railsquid]

Platform visible from about 1:46 on this video:

 

 

[Kiha66]

Wow, interesting they keep the lights on even though the station is all but abandoned.  I wonder if that's to avoid mold and such.