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A Yamanote Line E231 series EMU on Yamanote Line on the left. The 205 series on the right no longer operates on the Yamanote Line.

Passengers preparing to board

205 series 6-door car before the morning rush hour

Display in Yamanote Line car shows a route diagram with the next stop. Major transfer stations are in bold. The minutes to the destinations are shown.

The Yamanote Line (山手線, Yamanote-sen^?) of East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important commuter lines. Running as a circle, it connects most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres including the Yūrakuchō area, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro with all but two of its 29 stations connecting with other railway or underground (subway) lines.

Trains run from about 4:30 am to about 1:20 am at intervals of 2.5 minutes at peak time. A complete loop takes 61 to 65 minutes. All trains stop at each station. Trains are put into and taken out of service at Ōsaki (which for timetabling purposes is the line's start and terminus) and sometimes Ikebukuro and Shinagawa. In the mornings, certain inner circle trains start from Tamachi which is more efficient after forwarding from the Osaki/Shinagawa stabling yards. Trains which run clockwise are known as "soto-mawari" (外回り, outer circle) and counter-clockwise as "uchi-mawari" (内回り, inner circle). (Rail traffic in Japan mirrors road traffic, with trains traveling on the left.)

The Yamanote Line is the only major line in Tokyo which does not have any through-running services to other lines.

The line also acts as a fare zone destination for JR tickets from locations outside Tokyo, permitting travel to any JR station on or within the loop.

The line colour used for all of the rolling stock, station signs and diagrams is Yellow Green #6 ■ (Munsell code 7.5GY 6.5/7.8).

The Yamanote Line originated in 1885 with the construction of the Shinagawa line between Shinagawa and Akabane, bypassing the then built up areas and providing the first north-south rail link through Tokyo. The top part of the loop between Ikebukuro and Tabata was completed in 1903 (known as the Toshima line, 豊島線) and in 1909 following electrification both lines were merged to become the Yamanote Line. The loop was not complete at this time, so trains generally inter-operated with the Chuo Main Line and Keihin-Tōhoku Line, traveling from Nakano to Tokyo Station, south to Shinagawa, then clockwise around the Yamanote Line to Tabata.

The loop was completed in 1925 with the opening of the section of track between Kanda and Ueno, providing a north-south link via Tokyo station through the city's centre. A parallel freight line, also completed in 1925, ran along the west side of the loop between Shinagawa and Tabata.

During the prewar era, the Ministry of Transport did not give permits for new lines managed by private suburban railway companies to cross the Yamanote from their terminal stations to the central districts of Tokyo. This policy led to the development of "new urban centers" around the major transfer points on the Yamanote Line, most notably Shinjuku and Ikebukuro (which are now the two busiest passenger railway stations in the world).

The contemporary Yamanote Line came into being in 1956 when it was separated from the Keihin-Tōhoku Line and was given its own set of tracks along the eastern side of the loop between Shinagawa and Tabata. However, Yamanote Line trains continued to periodically use the Keihin-Tōhoku tracks, particularly on holidays and during off-peak hours, until rapid service trains were introduced on the Keihin-Tōhoku Line in 1988.

A major explosion on the Yamanote Freight Line in Shinjuku in 1967 led to the diversion of freight traffic to the more distant Musashino Line. To address severe undercapacity, the freight line was repurposed for use by Saikyō Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line trains, as well as certain express trains such as the Narita Express. Likewise, there are currently plans to extend the Tōhoku Main Line to Tokyo Station to provide further relief on the busiest portion of the Yamanote Line today, the southbound segment between Ueno and Okachimachi.

As of 2005, the Yamanote Line carries on average 3.55 million passengers a day, or 1.3 billion a year. [1]

"Yamanote" literally refers to inland, hillier districts or foothills (as distinct from areas close to the sea). In Tokyo "Yamanote" lies along the western side of the Yamanote Line loop.

Yamanote-sen is officially written without the kana "no" (の or ノ), which makes its pronunciation ambiguous in print. 山手 may also be pronounced yamate, as in Yamate-dōri (Yamate Street) which runs parallel to the west side of the Yamanote Line. The Seishin-Yamate Line in Kobe and the Yamate area of Yokohama also use this pronunciation.

After World War II, SCAP ordered all train placards to be romanized, and the Yamanote Line was romanized as "YAMATE LINE." It was thus alternatively known as "Yamanote" and "Yamate" until 1971, when the Japanese National Railways changed the pronunciation back to "Yamanote." Some older people still refer to the line as the "Yamate Line."

The 1971, change began with the opening of the Agatsuma Line (吾妻線). To avoid the name "Agatsuma" being read as "Azuma", the usual reading ("ga" is another kana functioning in the same way as the "no" in "Yamanote"), it was decided that the readings of all JNR train lines would be specified. Another reason to name "Yamanote" with a "no" is the existence of a "Yamate Station" on the Negishi Line in Yokohama, very close to the Yamanote Line.

Services are provided by E231-500 series 11-car EMUs introduced from 2003 onwards. These replaced the previous 205 series trains, which were introduced in 1985 and phased out in April 2005. Earlier services consisted of 103 series trains, which were eventually phased out in 1988.

The E231 series trains include two 6-door cars (Japanese "roku-tobira-sha") in which the bench seats are folded up to provide standing room only during the morning rush hour (until 10 a.m.). All the other cars have four sets of doors on each side.

The E231 series supports a new type of traffic control system, called digital ATC (Automatic Train Control), which will help reduce one round trip to a very short 58 minutes. The series also has a more modern design and has two 15-inch LCD monitors above each door, one of which is used for displaying commercials, news and weather; and another which is used for displaying information on the next stop (in both Japanese and English) along with notification of delays on the Yamanote and other lines.

Only two of the Yamanote Line's 29 stations do not connect with other railway or subway lines.

Listed clockwise:

Notes

1: Official line names.

Y: Yamanote Line

TH: Tōhoku Main Line

TK: Tōkaidō Main Line

2: Left column is distance from previous station (km) and right column is distance from Shinagawa Station (km).

3: "(R)" indicates rapid train stops of the Keihin-Tōhoku Line.

4: Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line is scheduled to open in June 2008.

5: Tokyo Metro Yūrakuchō New Line is scheduled to be renamed Fukutoshin Line from June 2008.

6: Nippori-Toneri Liner is scheduled to open in March 2008.

Since the distance between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations is 2.2km, making it the longest stretch of track on the Yamanote line, there are plans for a new station between those two stations with completion in or around 2010.

Stations on Yamanote Line. Click image for enlargement.

All trains on the Yamanote Line are local trains: however, JR East provides rapid service trains through central Tokyo using separate lines on the Yamanote right-of-way. These lines are:

• Saikyō Line/Shōnan-Shinjuku Line: Ōsaki - Ebisu - Shibuya - Shinjuku - Ikebukuro
• Keihin-Tōhoku Line: Tabata - Ueno - Akihabara - Tokyo - Hamamatsuchō - Tamachi - Shinagawa (Note that rapid service trains are only operated between 10:20 and 15:30; platforms are shared with the Yamanote Line at stations between Tabata and Tamachi.)
• Jōban Line: Nippori - Ueno
• Tōkaidō Line: Tokyo - Shimbashi - Shinagawa
• Yokosuka Line: Tokyo - Shimbashi - Shinagawa (underground line)

An estimated 3.5 million passengers ride every day on Tokyo's Yamanote Line, with its 29 stations. For comparison, the New York City Subway carries 5.08 million passengers per day on 26 lines serving 468 stations.^[1]

1. ^ http://www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway.htm

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Yamanote Line

• japan-guide.com: JR Yamanote Line
• Information on each of the Yamanote station (includes sound recordings of the platform melodies)
• Platform melodies (Japanese web site)