I Visited the World's Busiest Train Station

Tokyo has a lot of trains and that's an understatement so you might think that with 14 Rail and Metro lines and shin kanen high-speed trains departing every few minutes that the busiest train station in the world would be Tokyo Station but it's not this is a map of all the trains of Tokyo oh wait sorry that's just the Metro this is the full map well most of the lines anyway a few private lines are missing but if you look closely at this map you'll notice one station at the center of all of this railroad spaghetti Shinjuku station a about 3 million people pass through Shinjuku station every day which is an insane number especially considering that the busiest train station outside of Japan which is Paris gardun nor or New York's Grand Central Terminal or Penn Station depending on who you ask transports only about 700,000 passengers per day but despite or rather because of the massive number of people transported the area around Shinjuku supports some great urbanism because Shinjuku isn't just a ridiculous ously efficient Transportation Hub it's an excellent example of how an effective train station can make the surrounding neighborhood truly great the first thing you'll notice about my footage of Shinjuku is just how many people are in every shot when I film in public places I usually prefer to go at less busy times of the day after all I'm here to show you the station itself not hundreds of random people obscuring the station but that's that's just not feasible here this station is busy really busy at basically all times of the day there are a total of three Metro lines and nine different Rail lines that service this station including local and inter city trains but despite being the busiest station in Japan there are no shinh kanzen high-speed trains that stop at Shinjuku Tokyo station is still the place where you'll find the mo shansen though they'll also stop at other Tokyo stations such as shinagawa and ueno Shinjuku is busy for two reasons it's a place with a lot of desirable destinations but it also serves as a connection between multiple different Transit lines about half of the 3 million daily users of Shinjuku are transferring from one line to another the station is very centrally located so many Journeys within Tokyo involve a change at Shinjuku one of the most important Rail lines in all of Tokyo is the yamanote line a circular line that goes around the center of the city this one line line alone carries up to 4 million passengers per day across all of its stations and it connects some of the most important Rail stations in the city there are also multiple bus stations the Shinjuku Expressway bus terminal is the primary bus terminal for long-distance Highway buses and airport limousine buses but there's also the West exit bus terminal with a constant stream of local city buses and Regional buses entering and exiting as well as several other bus stops around various exits to this station the layout of the station doesn't look that that complicated on a map but it's spread across multiple different levels and some of those areas are behind Fair Gates so you can't always take the shortest path through the middle this incredible drawing by architect Tam Yuki Tanaka gives an idea of how it's laid out though this drawing is at a date so don't go memorizing this okay in general the way finding in Shinjuku is pretty good so if you know the name of your rail line and you pay attention it's reasonably easy to get to where you're going but you really do need to pay close attention to avoid missing a sign after a few days of staying nearby and using the station multiple times per day I started to get the hang of it but there were still a few times where I got lost or ended up on the opposite side from where I wanted to be I've been reassured by several Japanese colleagues that even regular users get lost sometimes when they're taking a different route than usual and I'm going to assume that's correct and they weren't just taking pity on my inability to navigate in some places navigation is placed on the floor making it really clear which way to go to get to your train just follow the right stripe and'll take you right to where you're going I also appreciated this message on the stairs that effectively tell you not to take these stairs I was going to individually talk about every entrance and exit to the station but then I read that there are over 200 exits accessed by over a dozen Fair Gates and I decided that would be really boring content but just know that if you're meeting someone at the west gate this is different from the Central West Gate which is different again from the West underground gate and don't confuse the south gate with the much nicer New South Gate the major EX exits are labeled however and navigation apps like Google Maps will tell you which exit brings you closest to your destination so that's nice I also love the ticket gates in Japan they are so fast to respond compared to ticket gates in any other country when you tap your IC card the gates respond with Ninja likee reflexes and a paper ticket pops out the other side way faster than I would think is even possible and it's been this way for years I remember the gates reading tickets this fast when I visited Japan over 15 years ago so it always surprises me how slow ticket Gates still are in other countries some Fair gates are set to be open by default assuming that the person will tap or insert a valid ticket and only close if they don't speeding things up even more for the busiest train station in the world you might think that Shinjuku station would be some kind of grand building after all Tokyo Station looks like this but it's not the station itself isn't really a recognizable building distinct from any other because it's so well integrated into everything else around it shin is mostly a train station of function over form with many corridors that are purely utilitarian but they have brightened up other parts with rotating art exhibits I particularly enjoyed this pixel art the train platforms themselves are also very utilitarian and not very impressive looking but they do their job well and manage to move hundreds of people at a time one really nice thing is that the position of where each car door will arrive is marked on the platforms which is typical all over Japan this is important for so many reasons they make it very clear where you should queue up for the train so that a space can be cleared for passengers who are exiting some trains have different types of carriages for wheelchairs reserve seats first class or any other special type of car so these labels make it very easy for you to stand in the right place for whatever type of carriage you require and when the cars are numbered navigation apps can show you which car you should ride in so that when you arrive you are at the closest escalator for your exit or closest to whichever train line you need to transfer to these kind of details make for a really nice experience as a Transit Rider of course but it also means that people arrive and depart at the right part of the platform so that everything can run more smoothly this is part of the reason why the dwell times which is the time a train stops at a station can be so short in Japan there's this common meme that Japanese trains always run exactly on time and everybody will commit sepu if it's a few seconds late and while a Japanese train company did Issue a formal apology for a train that left 20 seconds early Japanese trains do run late sometimes when there are so many trains running on a rail system a small delay to one train can Cascade through the entire system and I experienced a few train delays while I was in Japan especially at rush hour however trains in Tokyo run on time about 95% of the time and even then a typical delay is usually less than about 5 minutes the other thing foreigners associate with Japanese trains are osia or pushers the people in white gloves loves making sure that every train is pushed to capacity I didn't see any examples of this myself at Shinjuku and several people told me that they are rare today this is because train capacity in Tokyo has increased significantly over the past 40 years and work hours and locations have become more flexible and passenger volumes are lower after the pandemic during rush hour at several stations I saw staff controlling crowds and making sure that trains operated smoothly but no pushing was required if the train was too full many people would just wait for the next one which was coming along in a minute or two anyway Rush Hour was definitely crowded but I never found the crowds to be overwhelming though it probably helps that I'm taller than everyone else Shinjuku station is impressive in its efficiency but it's also impressive just how well it integrates with everything around it in previous videos I've talked about my Hal bonhof test where I judge a city based on how comfortable it is to walk out of the train station and how easy it is to transfer to other forms of public transit this immediate medely lets me know the priority a city places on its public transit and how much respect it has for Transit users which in the case of my hometown is none but for Shinjuku this test is basically irrelevant not just because it isn't technically a h manhoff but also because Shinjuku station isn't just a train station building it's the central Hub that connects the entire neighborhood together the station is directly connected to dozens of interesting streets with places to live Workshop or just meet up with friends on the north side just by the metro exits you'll find Om yokoo a traditional alley with Incredible hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars this is a great place to stop by for some beer and yakatori this place used to be called Piss alley but thankfully they now have public restrooms while this traditional alley is particularly interesting Shinjuku is surrounded by lots of great streets these kind of streets are found all over Japan and they are the key to the great urbanism in many Japanese cities but I'll talk about that in a future video the Shinjuku area is well known for its unique bars restaurants and shops and it's a lively neighborhood at night too the massive amount of foot traffic generated by The Busy station makes it possible for all of these interesting independent businesses to flourish there is literally no other method of transportation that can move around 3 million people a day and support such a highquality walkable Urban environment around it a highway capable of moving 3 million people per day would have to be well over 50 Lanes wide and at that point there wouldn't be any City left which is why trains are ultimately the superior form of mass transportation for cities because they actively promote great Urban places rather than bulldozing them of course Shinjuku station is also connected indoors directly to several destinations as well on the northeast side of the station there's a Metro Mall and underground pathway connecting Shinjuku station to the Metro stations to the east following this for about 200 meters underground will bring you to Shinjuku shano station serviced by three different Metro lines in total there are five train and Metro stations that are accessible from Shinjuku station without going outside as well as an additional six stations within 500 M of an exit so it's not surprising that Shinjuku station is busy at almost all times of the day but it does actually close when the last trains stop running at around 12:30 a.m. which I completely forgot about so after going out drinking with a friend in Shabu I had absolutely no way to get a train back to Shinjuku at 1:00 a.m. that is unless I wanted to wait for trains to start running again at 4:30 it did surprise me that I couldn't even take a bus though for all its faults Toronto actually has a pretty good night bus Network that can get you home after a night of drinking which is why the bus that runs along the subway line is famously known as the vomit Comet but when it is open Shinjuku station has all of the amenities you would expect from a major train station there are many restaurants and other places to get something to eat and lots of vending machines if you want something quicker or need to buy flowers on your way home there are several places to lock up your bags at the station to and they were very well used when I was there there are also lots and lots of free clean and accessible public restrooms which is typical for Japanese train stations you might want to take the hint Europe there are also ticket offices for various Railways where you can pick up tickets and seat reservations for longdistance shinkansen trains and other trains that don't necessarily go through Shinjuku itself like all Japanese train stations it is impeccably clean too despite having minimal garbage bins people tell me that this is because Japanese people are deeply concerned about their environment and will carry rubbish home rather than littering and yeah that may play a part but there are also dozens of people who go around cleaning up the place too which certainly helps as well all levels and platforms at shinjo station are accessible for people in wheelchairs and every train I saw had level boarding as far as I'm concerned level boarding should be an absolute abute requirement for all new transit systems everywhere of course in practice it can still be difficult to navigate Shinju station in a wheelchair as elevators can get very busy and there are still several exits that only have stairs but this is getting better with every new construction project and Shinjuku is basically always under construction a couple years ago a 72 billion yen renovation was started to improve the station's layout and make it easier to navigate for example they're going to create another path to go from east to west without having to go through the ticket Gates which would be nice you can also see from these potato quality images provided by the municipality that this will be possible via a new pedestrianized roof deck the eloquently named Tokyo Municipal project plan for Shinjuku station proximity District land Readjustment project is absolutely massive and it is expected to be completed on March 31st of 2047 but apparently Phase 1 will be complete in 2035 so some of us will live to see some of it these will be very welcome improvements because today the North and South sides of the station are bisected by this terrible Road Tokyo has way too many of these ridiculously wide roads fortunately there is an option of taking this pedestrian bridge but this doesn't bring you to the rest of the station it brings you outside next to the egg slot it's much better to stay underground that is if you're able to navigate it because it's very easy to get lost it's ridiculous that hundreds of people taking the most direct route between sections of the world's busiest train station need to wait for a few dozen Motor Vehicles to pass but this shouldn't be too surprising because despite being a city covered in trains Tokyo can be remarkably carf friendly at times thankfully the station is built in a way that you can generally avoid any busy roads around it instead of a terrible Road the new Southgate is pedestrianized with this nice seating area but don't even think about doing anything fun cuz it's still private property there's also a pedestrian bridge over the tracks here which is a great place to watch trains go in and out of the station this kid was loving it and didn't want to leave at the other exits there are direct connections from the station to pedestrian bridges over busy roads other exits bypass the roads altogether and go directly to smaller streets and there are several exits that directly connect to buildings around the station in fact it's sometimes difficult to determine where train station stops and shopping mall begins and this is very much intentional you might have noticed that the KO Department department store is above the KO line trains and the odaku department store is above the odaku lines the majority of Japan's Railways are run by private companies not the government KO and odaku have always been private but Jr East was privatized in 1987 there have been some benefits to this approach with some Railways becoming more operationally efficient and improving customer service but privatization has also brought a constant pressure on the government to allow rail companies to reduce service on less profitable RIS routs and to increase ticket prices to improve profitability it really annoys me when governments talk about how Railways need to be run like a business and need to turn a profit while they gleefully pour billions into wide roads and highways almost all of which are totally free to use and have no expectations of profit because ultimately it's difficult to make Transportation profitable which is why most Japanese Railways have an extensive real estate portfolio they develop and Lease the buildings next to and above their realate and use the passenger train operations as a way to make their real estate more valuable in fact the real estate can become more important than the rail operations themselves the largest company serving Shinjuku station is JR East their 2023 financials show 1.3 trillion in revenue from transportation and about 770 billion from retail and real estate but when you look at the profit real estate was 146 billion while Transportation resulted in a loss of 24 billion yen and to be fair their transportation profits are on track pun intended to recover in 2024 but real estate is clearly a major source of profit for this company so in some sense these are not so much Railway companies as they are real estate developers who happen to run a bunch of trains of course you could just do the retail and real estate bit ignore all that pesky low profit railroad stuff and become the richest person in Japan which makes me wonder what the future is for this model will some of these property companies with railroads decide to someday just ditch the railroads and build giant American style shopping centers next to those sweet free publicly funded roads the privatization of Japanese rail also makes Shinjuku station more fractured than you might expect for example you can't just look and see that your train is leaving on say platform 3 because there are a lot of platform 3es in this station each private rail operator manages their own section of the station with their own platforms and fair Gates this makes ticketing more complicated than should be as each rail operator will charge you when you pass through their ticket Gates getting to your destination can have wildly different prices if you split that Journey between multiple operators helpfully Google Maps will show you how much a trip will cost but it is annoying to have to think this way drivers on the other hand just turn on their GPS and go at most they may want to avoid toll highways they never have to think about which company owns the street that their destination is on there were several times where I was out filming around Tokyo I had a Jr East Pass and a Tokyo Metro pass that allowed me to take trains on either system for free but when I got to the closest railway station it was owned by another Railway so both passes were useless London real London that is used to have many different train operators as well the Metropolitan line was a different operator than the district line for example nowadays it's all Consolidated under the government agency Transport for London and fairs are fully integrated regardless of which path you take to your destination but despite the annoyances of navigating between privatized rail systems and the occasional exit near a needlessly wide Road I've had good experiences using Shinjuku station over the years and I think it's an example of well implemented public transit that should be a model for other cities to follow the station itself functions well and it safely transports millions of passengers each day with trains that are clean reliable and frequent but Shinjuku is also a Transportation Hub that seamlessly connects to everything around it and makes the entire neighborhood better there is honestly so much that I could say about transportation and urban planning in Japan it's absolutely fascinating I have several more videos planned so subscribe if you'd like to see them but in the meantime I can highly recommend the channel life where I'm from who has made several videos on these topics check out his video about how Tokyo subway keeps on time clean and safe and the best way to watch his videos is ad free and sponsor free free on nebula nebula is the subscription streaming service built by and for independent creators and their fans there are lots of creators making high quality content on nebula I've mentioned life where I'm from but there are many more including some great City and transportation channels like City nerd RM Transit and City beautiful you'll also find Nebula Originals content that's only available on nebula such as the great City series by City beautiful my favorite part of nebula is that it's creator-owned and it's built to make independent creator the best that they can be so when you sign up you're directly supporting independent creators not just bikes is a Channel with original content I don't just summarize Wikipedia and put it over a bunch of stock footage when I make a video about a place like chinuku station I go there in person and I film it myself so that I can share the real experience of what it's like to be there not just a list of facts that you could get from anywhere else that's timec consuming and expensive of course but I believe it results in much better quality videos I would not be able to make videos like 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Channel: Not Just Bikes

Views: 542,502

Keywords: urban planning, japan, tokyo, shinjuku, rail travel, train station

Id: 6dKiEY0UOtA

Length: 21min 18sec (1278 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024