Marunouchi Line

The is a subway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by Tokyo Metro. The line runs in a U-shape between Ogikubo Station in Suginami and Ikebukuro Station in Toshima, with a branch line between Nakano-Sakaue Station and Hōnanchō Station. The official name is .

The Marunouchi Line was the fourth subway line constructed in Japan, following the Osaka Municipal Subway Yotsubashi Line.

Its design is similar to that of the Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Tokyo and in Asia. Both lines are standard gauge and use third rail power, unlike subsequent Tokyo subway lines which use overhead wires and are mostly narrow gauge to accommodate through services with other railway lines.

The line's name is derived from Marunouchi, a district in Chiyoda. It was adopted in 1953 by the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, the operator at the time. Prior to this line, a Tokyo tram line of the same name (opened in 1921) operated above ground between Tokyo and Ōtemachi, along the route of the present line.

On maps, diagrams and signboards, the line is shown using the color red, and its stations are given numbers using the letters "M" for the main line and "Mb" for the branch line.

Overview

thumb|Poster for the Opening of the Marunouchi Line (1954)

The Marunouchi Line is the second line to be built in the city, and the first one constructed after the Second World War. The route is U-shaped, running from Ogikubo Station in the west of the city via the commercial and administrative district of Shinjuku through to the Marunouchi commercial center around Tokyo Station, before turning back and heading to Ikebukuro. Along with the Ginza Line, it is self-enclosed and does not have any through services with other railway lines.

The Marunouchi Line is served by Tokyo Metro 02 series rolling stock in six-car trains on the main line, and mostly three-car trains on the Hōnanchō branch (some six-car trains during peak hours). The main line was the most frequent subway line in Tokyo, with trains once running at intervals of 1 minute 50 seconds during peak hours. In spite of such high-frequency service, according to the 2018 survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Marunouchi Line is one of the most crowded railway lines in Tokyo, running at 169% capacity between Shin-ōtsuka and Myōgadani stations. Its age and relatively short train length has made it one of the most crowded lines in Tokyo, although the 2000 opening of the Toei Ōedo Line has relieved the problem somewhat. In response to crowding, Tokyo Metro upgraded all stations with chest-high platform doors on March 28, 2009, a date on which it also began driver-only operation. The Hōnanchō branch switched to driver-only operation in July 2004.

Due to the age of the Marunouchi Line and the relative shallowness at which it runs, at several points in central Tokyo trains run at or above ground level. These include Yotsuya Station, the Kanda River near Ochanomizu Station, and between Kōrakuen and Myōgadani stations.

On maps, diagrams and signboards, the line is shown using the color red. Its stations are given numbers using the prefix "M"; Hōnanchō branch line stations carry the prefix "Mb", which replaced the previously used lowercase "m" prefix in November 2016.

History

In the five-line subway plan designated by Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. 56 of 1925 (大正14年内務省告示第56号) after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, the Marunouchi Line was outlined as a 20 km (12 mi) underground route connecting “Shinjuku – Yotsuya-mitsuke – Hibiya – Tsukiji – Kakigaracho – Okachimachi – Hongo-sanchome – Takehayacho – Otsuka”.

Tokyo City obtained a route license for Line 4 between Shinjuku and Otsuka on May 16 of the same year planned to begin construction on Line 3 between Shibuya and Sugamo and on Line 5 between Ikebukuro and Susaki. However, due to the city’s substantial public debt, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance opposed the project, and construction approval was not granted.

In October 1932, Tokyo City transferred the route licenses for Line 3, running between Shibuya and Sakurada-Hongo (near present-day Nishi-Shimbashi), and for Line 4, connecting Shinjuku and Tsukiji, to Tokyo Rapid Railway. In February 1937, Tokyo Rapid Railway planned a connecting section between Lines 3 and 4 and obtained a route license for the Yotsuya-Mitsuke – Akasaka-Mitsuke segment.

On June 5, 1942, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Yotsuya-Mitsuke–Akasaka-Mitsuke section was held and construction began near the Benkei Moat (弁慶濠). Construction was suspended in June 1944 as a result of worsening wartime conditions, including shortages of funds, materials, and labor. The subsequent progress of the line was as follows:

Ochanomizu to Awajichō: March 1956
Awajichō to Tokyo: July 1956
Tokyo to Nishi-Ginza (now Ginza): December 1957
Nishi-Ginza to Kasumigaseki: October 1958
Kasumigaseki to Shinjuku: March 1959
Shinjuku to Shin-Nakano/Nakano-Fujimichō (not Nishi-Shinjuku): February 1961
Shin-Nakano to Minami-Asagaya (not Higashi-Kōenji): November 1961
Minami-Asagaya to Ogikubo: January 23, 1962
Nakano-Fujimichō to Hōnanchō: March 23, 1962
Nishi-Ginza becomes part of Ginza when Hibiya Line reaches there: August 1964
Higashi-Kōenji opens (between Shin-Nakano and Shin-Kōenji): September 1964
Nishi-Shinjuku opens (between Shinjuku and Nakano-Sakaue) May 1996.

The Marunouchi Line was one of the lines targeted in the Aum sarin gas attack on March 20, 1995. A plan to extend the Marunouchi Line from Ogikubo to Asaka City in Saitama Prefecture was rejected in the late 1990s.

The line, stations, rolling stock, and related facilities were inherited by Tokyo Metro after the privatization of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) in 2004.

Automatic train control (ATC) was activated on the Marunouchi Line on February 27, 1998, which allowed for an increase in the maximum operating speed limit from to . This was followed by train automatic stopping controller (TASC) which was introduced in November 2002, along with automatic train operation (ATO) which was introduced on the main segment of the Marunouchi Line on December 27, 2008. The platform-edge doors at Hōnanchō Station, the terminus of the Hōnanchō Branch, were lengthened to allow six-car trains to use the station, with work starting in 2013, which enabled through trains to and from Ikebukuro to start operating all the way to Hōnanchō from fiscal 2017.

With the start of the revised timetable on December 7, 2024, the Marunouchi Line became the first subway line in Japan to adopt communications-based train control (CBTC) signalling. The new system allows for shorter intervals between trains and improved delay recovery.

Station list

thumb|center|800x800px|List of Marunouchi Line stations

All stations are located in Tokyo.
Some trains leave the main line at Nakano-sakaue (M-06) for the Marunouchi Branch Line to Hōnanchō.

Main Line

{| class="wikitable"

!rowspan="2"|No.

!rowspan="2"|Station

!rowspan="2"|Japanese

!colspan="2"|Distance (km)

!rowspan="2"|Transfers

!rowspan="2"|Location

!Between<br />stations

!From Ogikubo

|荻窪

|style="text-align:right;"| –

|style="text-align:right;"|0.0

|rowspan="4"|Suginami

|南阿佐ケ谷

|style="text-align:right;"|1.5

|新高円寺

|style="text-align:right;"|1.2

|style="text-align:right;"|2.7

|東高円寺

|style="text-align:right;"|0.9

|style="text-align:right;"|3.6

|新中野

|style="text-align:right;"|1.0

|style="text-align:right;"|4.6

|rowspan="2"|Nakano

|中野坂上

|style="text-align:right;"|1.1

|style="text-align:right;"|5.7

|西新宿

|style="text-align:right;"|1.1

|style="text-align:right;"|6.8

|rowspan="6"|Shinjuku

|新宿

|style="text-align:right;"|0.8

|style="text-align:right;"|7.6

|新宿三丁目

|style="text-align:right;"|0.3

|style="text-align:right;"|7.9

|新宿御苑前

|style="text-align:right;"|0.7

|style="text-align:right;"|8.6

|四谷三丁目

|style="text-align:right;"|0.9

|style="text-align:right;"|9.5

|四ツ谷

|style="text-align:right;"|1.0

|style="text-align:right;"|10.5

|赤坂見附

|style="text-align:right;"|1.3

|style="text-align:right;"|11.8

|Minato

|国会議事堂前

|style="text-align:right;"|0.9

|style="text-align:right;"|12.7

|rowspan="2"|Chiyoda

|霞ケ関

|style="text-align:right;"|0.7

|style="text-align:right;"|13.4

|銀座

|style="text-align:right;"|1.0

|style="text-align:right;"|14.4

|Chūō

|東京

|style="text-align:right;"|1.1

|style="text-align:right;"|15.5

|rowspan="3"|Chiyoda

|大手町

|style="text-align:right;"|0.6

|style="text-align:right;"|16.1

|淡路町

|style="text-align:right;"|0.9

|style="text-align:right;"|17.0

|御茶ノ水

|style="text-align:right;"|0.8

|style="text-align:right;"|17.8

|rowspan="5"|Bunkyō

|本郷三丁目

|style="text-align:right;"|0.8

|style="text-align:right;"|18.6

| (E-08)

|後楽園

|style="text-align:right;"|0.8

|style="text-align:right;"|19.4

|茗荷谷

|style="text-align:right;"|1.8

|style="text-align:right;"|21.2

|新大塚

|style="text-align:right;"|1.2

|style="text-align:right;"|22.4

|池袋

|style="text-align:right;"|1.8

|style="text-align:right;"|24.2

|Toshima

Branch Line (Honancho Line)

{| class="wikitable"

!rowspan="2"|No.

!rowspan="2"|Station

!rowspan="2"|Japanese

!colspan="2"|Distance (km)

!rowspan="2"|Transfers

!rowspan="2"|Location

!Between<br />stations

!Total

|方南町

|style="text-align:right;"| –

|style="text-align:right;"|0.0

|Suginami

|中野富士見町

|style="text-align:right;"|1.3

|rowspan="3"|Nakano

|中野新橋

|style="text-align:right;"|0.6

|style="text-align:right;"|1.9

|中野坂上

|style="text-align:right;"|1.3

|style="text-align:right;"|3.2

Ridership

{| class="wikitable" style="border-spacing: 1px; text-align:center; font-size:80%;"

|+ Average daily ridership

! style="border-bottom:1px solid black"| Year!! style="border-bottom:1px solid black"| Ridership!! rowspan="18" style="background:#fff;" | <timeline>

ImageSize = width:auto height:250 barincrement:30

PlotArea = left:30 bottom:15 top:11 right:15

AlignBars = justify

Period = from:0 till:130

TimeAxis = orientation:vertical

Colors =

id:gray value:gray(0.5)

id:line1 value:gray(0.9)

id:line2 value:gray(0.7)

id:Marunouchi value:rgb(0.96, 0.18, 0.21)

ScaleMajor = start:0 increment:5 gridcolor:line2

ScaleMinor = start:0 increment:1 gridcolor:line1

PlotData=

color:Marunouchi width:22

bar:1956 from:start till:9.9814

bar:1960 from:start till:47.2301

bar:1965 from:start till:83.0534

bar:1970 from:start till:122.9230

bar:1975 from:start till:101.6482

bar:1980 from:start till:90.4704

bar:1985 from:start till:95.9967

bar:1990 from:start till:100.5008

bar:1995 from:start till:93.7704

bar:2000 from:start till:88.7301

bar:2005 from:start till:85.3921

bar:2010 from:start till:84.7816

bar:2015 from:start till:97.8443

bar:2020 from:start till:69.4539

bar:2024 from:start till:96.4991

</timeline>

| 1956|| 99,814

| 1960|| 472,301

| 1965|| 830,534

| 1970|| 1,229,230

| 1975|| 1,016,482

| 1980|| 904,704

| 1985|| 959,967

| 1990|| 1,005,008

| 1995|| 937,704

| 2000|| 887,301

| 2005|| 853,921

| 2010|| 847,816

| 2015|| 978,443

| 2020 || 694,539

| 2024 || 964,991

|- class="sortbottom"

| colspan="2" style="border-top:1px solid black; font-size:85%; text-align:left" |Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Rolling stock

thumbnail|Two 02 series EMUs at Yotsuya Station in November 2020

Marunouchi Line services were operated using a fleet of 53 Tokyo Metro 02 series six-car EMUs in service since 1988 together with six three-car sets used on Hōnanchō branch services until September 2022. All trains are based at Koishikawa and Nakano Depots.

A fleet of 53 new Tokyo Metro 2000 series six-car trains was scheduled to be introduced from fiscal 2018, replacing the 02 series trains by fiscal 2025.

On February 23, 2019, the 2000 series started operation.

Former

TRTA 500 series/TRTA 300/TRTA 400 series/TRTA 500 series/TRTA 900 series (from 1954 until 1996, later sold and exported for use on Line B of the Buenos Aires Underground)
TRTA 100 series (from 1962 until 1968, transferred from Ginza Line, used for Hōnanchō branch only)
TRTA 2000 series (from 1968 until 1993, used for Hōnanchō branch only)

File:TRTA Marunouchi Line 2000 Nakano-sakaue 19770625.jpg|A Hōnanchō branch 2000 series train in 1977

</gallery>

References

Shaw, Dennis and Morioka, Hisashi, "Tokyo Subways", published 1992 by Hoikusha Publishing

External links

Tokyo Metro website