Three new access lines to Tokyo's Haneda Airport!!

[kvp]

Just my personal take on things, but for what it is worth, logic would dictate to me that a Yamagata and/or Akita line shinkansen extension to HND would be a better investment for those running points north. Of course, I think it still was a bad move not running shinkansen service to NRT.

There is not really space to run any JR East shinkansens south of Tokyo station. That's strictly JR Central territory. Considering that JR East wants to extend service to Haneda, they could only do it on the new Tokkaido connector, that leads to the junction between the Tokkaido freight line and the old mainline. Later a gauge changing train could transition to the normal gauge shinkansen lines around Akihabara or Omiya. The only tricky part is to get the train into Haneda airport. They could either use the existing stations, but that means sharing tracks or build their own, but that's rather expensive and slow, although that can (and should be) be built from the surface, so the costs are not that high. The only hard question is if they could finish something until the olympics or not.

[Guest ___]

There's a good bit of frustration I've learned over the years between pax that need connection between NRT and HND, and a shinkansen would be a nice link, though N'EX would be at least an improvement.

[bikkuri bahn]

Of course, the best thing would be to increase the number of international flights at Haneda (which is the direction being taken), so you don't have to bother with taking a train.  Narita can handle the flights to Africa, Middle East and South America, as well as the LCCs; the prime (and profitable) N. America, Europe and East Asia routes fly out of Haneda.

[westfalen]

According to Hyperdia you can do Haneda to Tokyo via the Monorail and Yamanote or Keihin Tohoku in as little as 23 minutes now.  Seems a lot of effort to save so little time.

[Guest ___]

Sadly, getting to the monorail from the Intl terminal takes nearly as long as it takes to go from terminal 1 or 2 to Tokyo itself. My issue is more of having to make intl to domestic connections between NRT and HND. While the new third terminal, (INTL) is nice and all, it can be rough trying to find flights that are direct to HND from the east coast.

[Mudkip Orange]

Sadly, getting to the monorail from the Intl terminal takes nearly as long as it takes to go from terminal 1 or 2 to Tokyo itself.

 

Google maps suggests there's now a monorail station right at the international terminal, and you just got there at the wrong time.

 

I remember having to take shuttles to the consolidated rental car facility while the SFO peoplemover and BART was under construction... that was likewise a bitch.

[Mudkip Orange]

[Guest ___]

Google maps suggests there's now a monorail station right at the international terminal, and you just got there at the wrong time.

 

I remember having to take shuttles to the consolidated rental car facility while the SFO peoplemover and BART was under construction... that was likewise a bitch.

 

I was there just last month. However, I had to go from the intl terminal to the domestic, and hence monorail is not accessible, due to how security handles connecting pax. The shuttles are designed to catch you as you exit the intl jetway, funnel through customs, and then are directed to the direct connection from inside the secure zone.

[Densha]

I don't know the rail network in Tokyo very well, but three new JR East lines sounds promising: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/jr-plans-3-new-train-lines-linking-shinjuku-tokyo-shin-kiba-to-haneda-airport

Interesting names of the new lines:
West Yamanote Line
East Yamanote Line
Seaside Line

[miyakoji]

Interesting. Based on the info I guess we'll be able to imagine the routes, but I'm looking forward to seeing some official maps.

 

Also, three more subseries variants of the E235!

[bikkuri bahn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p23w27JTcfc

 

 

I regret having to click on the Japan Today article (with its idiotic comments by trolls) but needed for confirming information.

 

Reading Japanese newspaper articles (more reliable), the line will partially be open in time for the Tokyo Olympics- the Rinkai Line connection (and presumably access to Olympic venues) will be ready by then, including the 5.7 km long tunnel between the Tokyo Freight Terminal and the airport.  However, due to the expense and time required to tunnel underneath the Keikyu station, JR East will build a temporary station which will require a short shuttle bus ride from the domestic terminals. If additional funds on top of the 320 billion are forthcoming, an extension of the line to the international terminal is possible.

Edited August 20, 2014 by bikkuri bahn

[kvp]

The orange route is pretty much ready, the green/purple one must be built and the blue/yellow one is new for me. On the other hand, i tought they will temorarly use the Keikyu terminals, but the new tunnel is bypassing the old freight tunnel that goes along the western edge of the airport. Using that would have made it easier to connect to the airport with cut and cover building techniques from the fence to the terminals, but tunneling directly results in a slightly shorter and faster route without blocking the southward traffic from the Tokyo freight terminal, but requires two new stations. Considering Keikyu doesn't really like JR East, this is a much cleaner but more expensive solution.

[Densha]

I wonder how the services on especially the West and East Yamanote lines will look like. Will the Yamanote line have through trains (now they only have roundy-roundy services right?) or something else? I know too little about the railways there to say anything that makes sense about it.

[kvp]

Since currently they are running the NEX trains on the Yokosuka line mixed into the normal traffic, they could just run the new NEX/HEX trains on the Saikyo/Shonan-Shinjuku and Keiyo lines. This means the commuter trains will go on their old routes, while the airport trains branch off and go towards Haneda. They could tie this into the current NEX network with one branch of the NEX trains going towards Haneda from Shinagawa and two new Haneda branches coming from Omiya and Takao, branching off somewhere after Shibuya. The 3rd one connected to the Keiyo line would be interesting, since currently there is no NEX coverage there.

[Sacto1985]

I think if the plan to build a new line so JR East trains can access the Haneda terminals, they might as well dismantle the Tokyo Monorail, in my humble opinion.

[railsquid]

On the other hand, i tought they will temorarly use the Keikyu terminals, but the new tunnel is bypassing the old freight tunnel that goes along the western edge of the airport. Using that would have made it easier to connect to the airport with cut and cover building techniques from the fence to the terminals, but tunneling directly results in a slightly shorter and faster route without blocking the southward traffic from the Tokyo freight terminal, but requires two new stations. Considering Keikyu doesn't really like JR East, this is a much cleaner but more expensive solution.

 

Given that the Keikyu stations are designed for 8-car standard-gauge trains and have a pretty dense service frequency, any tempoary usage would be pretty impractical.

[Kabutoni]

Considering Keikyu doesn't really like JR East, this is a much cleaner but more expensive solution.

 

Keikyū viciously hates JR East and Tōkyū with a passion. There is a reason why Keikyū aims for high speed, low ticket prices and very short headways on their network. ;)

[bikkuri bahn]

The Yomiuri Shimbun

An expert panel under the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has listed eight railway improvement plans in the metropolitan area in its draft of proposals to the government to make Tokyo more competitive as an international city.

 

The eight projects proposed in the draft, which was released Thursday, include building a new East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) line to connect stations in central Tokyo with Haneda Airport. It also called for extending the Tsukuba Express, and constructing a subway line connecting Tokyo’s central and bay areas.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002855541

 

Another article:

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Tokyo-eyes-better-train-access-from-airports

[bikkuri bahn]

One of the intriguing proposals is the Kamakama Line- it will run underground between Tokyu Kamata Station and Keikyu Kamata Station, and due to the difference in gauge, institute a cross-platform transfer at the underground station below Tokyu Kamata Station. Due to this arrangement, most of the line will be Keikyu's standard gauge. One of the possibilities this line will open up will be trains from off the Seibu Ikebukuro Line and Tobu Tojo Line via the Fukutoshin Line, utilizing the connection around Denenchofu/Tamagawa Stations between the Toyoko Line and Tamagawa Line. People from northwest Tokyo and Saitama would benefit with better access to Haneda.

This video shows the concept around 2:40 to 3:25.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4aq2uRD0qgI

 

Map:

[railsquid]

It'll all end in a hopeless knot of twisted interconnected routings, mark my words. BTW none of the proposals are particularly new, though it might be the first time they've had official government-level blessing.

 

People from northwest Tokyo and Saitama would benefit with better access to Haneda.

 

Indeed - from the Railsquid Eyrie high upon the Musashino plain (at least about as high as you can get in the 23-ku), with optimal timing it's only about 10 minutes longer to Narita than it is to Haneda.

[bikkuri bahn]

More info from MLIT, giving summaries of all the proposed route extensions.  Some fun data included too, such as:

p.3   Graph showing the growth of railway trackage from 1956 to 2015 in the Tokyo metro area, broken down in JNR/JR, private railways, underground metros, quad track JNR/JR, quad track private railways, categories.

p.4   Graph showing average rate of crowding on peak services from 1975 to 2014, also including "transport power index" and "passenger number index" which I think use 1975=100 as the baseline index.

 

P.59 has a good overall map of all the proposed extensions/new lines.  The blue colored lines are related to enhancing Tokyo's international competitiveness and ease of use for visitors, and the green lines are those aiming to further develop local area transport.

 

http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001126948.pdf

[Densha]

A few days ago, JR East expressed their vision on the Haneda Airport Access Line. They want to have the line finished by 2027, with through services onto the Yamanote Freight Line (for Shinjuku, Ikebukuro), the Ueno-Tokyo Line (for Utsunomiya, Takasaki, Joban Line) and the Rinkai Line. It is likely that between Hamamatsucho and Tokyo Freight Terminal the line will make use of the currently abandoned Daichi Freight Line.

 

 

Looks like this post-apocalyptic sight will be gone in 10 years.

 

 

Source: http://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2018/20180702.pdf

[miyakoji]

Rehabing and utilizing old right of ways is great.  Glad to see it's not becoming a hiking trail 🙂      😞

[Socimi]

9 hours ago, Densha said:

with through services onto the Yamanote Freight Line (for Shinjuku, Ikebukuro), the Ueno-Tokyo Line (for Utsunomiya, Takasaki, Joban Line) and the Rinkai Line.

 

 

And with the Rinkai Line planned to have inrer-running services on the Keiyo Line you could get from Haneda to Tokyo Disneyland with the same train.

[Densha]

And maybe even Musashino Line service to Haneda! One can hope at least...