Jump to content

Yamanote & Keihin-Tohoku Line Takanawa Gateway Station


Recommended Posts

No, there is no need for a new station, but this is the new business residential area that is planned in place of Shinagawa yard, so they need a station just to be able to build a departement store above it. The main target for the residential part is afaik foreign businessman and their families. Something i don't think is a large enough crowd in Tokyo, but they got the government money for this from the quake reconstruction bill. The same money is being used to level Shibuya and build a few office and residential towers.

 

The problem from the railfan point is that this was one of the best accessible yards in Tokyo and home of the remaining sleeper trains and passenger locomotives and the future (now ex) endpoint of the new maglev line. JR East also has to build a new yard in the near future, because many express emu-s going south west from Tokyo station are also stored here.

 

On the longer term, most downtown yard areas around Tokyo will be demolished and redeveloped as business and/or residential areas. Commuter services won't be effected but conventional cape gauge express and regional services will have to be discontinued or modified into through running, because there won't be any space for them to be turned and serviced. The same is true for most freight yards, so container operations will either have to move out of the cities or move to road or sea transport. The biggest question is that how long would it take before they start to bury the Yamanote loop too? Considering how much sellable real estate the line covers, it's a possibility.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

IMO if there is a new residential/business area being developed, a new station there would make perfect sense. The only access point is Sengakuji on the Asakusa Metro line, which is also the end station of many Keikyū trains. Direct access to a JR line is difficult from there, plus there is place to spare. I'd imagine the station not being interesting for the local Keihin-Tōhoku line to halt though.

 

The problem from the railfan point is that this was one of the best accessible yards in Tokyo and home of the remaining sleeper trains and passenger locomotives and the future (now ex) endpoint of the new maglev line. JR East also has to build a new yard in the near future, because many express emu-s going south west from Tokyo station are also stored here.

 

There isn't much to railfan there any more anyway. Most of the catenary has been removed and tracks are starting to get overgrown with grass. Last time I passed there, there were only a few trains parked.

Edited by Toni Babelony
  • Like 1
Link to comment

Design of the new station: http://railf.jp/news/2014/06/03/175000.html

Has a surprisingly amount of greenery for a Japanese station and looks very futuristic.

 

Looks like an indoor park!

 

I was playing Densha de go Final Yamanote line last night and yes it is the longest route between two stations. And yes the game captured the rail yard that is currently there, and the signal for the Yamanote was 90km/h.

 

What would the station name be called? Darn I've memorised the Yamanote line by heart in my head now I have to slot in one more station in-between Tamachi and Shinagawa....

Link to comment
bikkuri bahn
What would the station name be called?

One wag has suggested "Shinada" (品田), a combination of "Shinagawa" and "Tamachi", and also a common surname...

 

I have doubts about that glass roof- it will make for a nice station sauna half of the year.

 

The head of JR East stated a willingness to look into having a pedestrian connection (300m) with Senkakuji Sta.on the Asakusa Line.

Link to comment

This will be a big urban re-development like the one we had at Shiodome before.

Just curious how they going to keep crossing of the Keihin Tohoku line northbound and Yamanote line inner loop.

Link to comment

I do certainly hope the name will be related to Sengakuji station on the Asakusa line (and end station of the Keikyū Main Line). Maybe Shin-Senkakuji (新泉岳寺), Sengakuji-Mae (泉岳寺前), JR-Sengakuji (JR泉岳寺) or just Sengakuji (泉岳寺). Easy for travellers and the name would make sense for the area, since Sengaku temple is the biggest attraction/landmark near the station. If JR East tries to be like "No. We don't want to have anything to do with Toei and Keikyu, because we're stubborn and don't care." They'd probably call the station Takanawa (高輪)...

  • Like 1
Link to comment

There isn't much to railfan there any more anyway. Most of the catenary has been removed and tracks are starting to get overgrown with grass. Last time I passed there, there were only a few trains parked.

 

The reason why it's being cleared is to make room for redevelopment. I did read somewhere that the pending (re)opening of the line connecting Tokyo and Ueno will allow stock to be serviced at the big yard up there.

 

BTW there's an isolated section of concrete in the Shinagawa yard - I always wondered what aborted project it was part of, I read in a magazine recently that it was a remnant of the prewar Dangan Ressha project (I can dig out the report if anyone's interested). However I bet that won't survive, when I went past the other week scaffolding was going up around it.

Link to comment

Where was that section within the yard? I can't really find it on the current google maps areial image.

Link to comment
bikkuri bahn

The description from the second URL also mentions that it looks like a part of the Dangan Ressha project between Tokyo and Shimonoseki.

Link to comment

I think it should be called Shin-Kita-Shinagawa (新北品川) to doubly-confuse things, as Kita-Shinagawa is the first station (on the Keikyu line) south of Shinagawa, and Shinagawa itself is not located within Shinagawa Ward :D

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
10 minutes ago, railsquid said:

I think it should be called Shin-Kita-Shinagawa (新北品川) to doubly-confuse things, as Kita-Shinagawa is the first station (on the Keikyu line) south of Shinagawa, and Shinagawa itself is not located within Shinagawa Ward :D

Shin-Shinagawa-Minato

Link to comment

Takanawa sounds like a good choice... since technically there is no station named Takanawa yet...  there's only a Shirokane-Takanawa ran by Tokyo Metro...

 

Kamezuka Park is another option, since the park is nearby...

 

The name Shin-Shinagawa tends to be a little confusing, especially so for foreigners, since usually the stations with the prefix 'Shin' is a Shinkansen station... That would also defeat the purpose of the name 'Shinagawa' which beautifully in-corporates the prefix 'Shin' in it...

 

But why Space station? Seriously see no connection here... and why high school girls in the poll?  

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

Takanawa sounds like a good choice... since technically there is no station named Takanawa yet...  there's only a Shirokane-Takanawa ran by Tokyo Metro...

 

There's Takanawadai nearby too.

 

Quote


Kamezuka Park is another option, since the park is nearby...

 

The name Shin-Shinagawa tends to be a little confusing, especially so for foreigners, since usually the stations with the prefix 'Shin' is a Shinkansen station... That would also defeat the purpose of the name 'Shinagawa' which beautifully in-corporates the prefix 'Shin' in it...

 

But why Space station? Seriously see no connection here... and why high school girls in the poll?  

 

 

Because Japan.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
1 minute ago, Pashina12 said:

What I'm wondering is if it'd be called just Space Station, or Space Station-eki...

 

I'm beginning to see where the high school girls are getting their inspiration from...

 

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/リゾートゲートウェイ・ステーション駅

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/東京ディズニーシー・ステーション駅

 

 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
1 minute ago, railsquid said:

 

aaahhh the world famous mouse...

 

reminds me of Para-Para Mickey Mouse march...

Link to comment

Like I said earlier, "because Japan". After almost a decade living here I've realised it's a futile undertaking to seek any logic behind pseudo-English names...

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...