Yokohama Station


Yokohama Station is a major interchange railway station in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It is the busiest station in Kanagawa Prefecture and the fifth-busiest in the world as of 2013, serving 760 million passengers a year.

Lines

Yokohama Station is served by the following lines:

Keikyu and JR East

The JR East and Keikyu platforms are located in the main above-ground portion of Yokohama Station. Keikyu's section consists of platforms 1 to 2, JR East operates platforms 3 to 10.

Tokyu and Minatomirai

and the Yokohama Minatomirai Railway Company share the same underground station located in the 5th underground level of Yokohama Station, to the west of the JR platforms.

Yokohama Municipal Subway

The Yokohama Municipal Subway is located on the 3rd basement level, west of the main station.

Sotetsu

is an above-ground structure to the west of the main station, connected to the Sotetsu Department Store.

Adjacent stations

;Notes:

Bus services

Expressway bus (daytime)

The west and east have a complex underground business district which spans over several floors and is directly connected with the buildings which surround the station. Yokohama station has three bus terminals, and two other bus terminals are located near the station.

East entrance

First station

On May 7, 1872, Yokohama Station opened as one of the first railway stations in Japan.
On July 11, 1887, the railway was extended from Yokohama to Kōzu Station. Through trains between Shimbashi Station and Kōzu Station required a switchback at Yokohama Station.
On August 1, 1898, a line bypassing Yokohama Station was opened to avoid the switchback. Through trains stopped at Kanagawa Station or Hodogaya Station instead of Yokohama Station, and shuttle trains connected Yokohama and Hodogaya until Hiranuma Station opened near present-day Hiranumabashi Station on October 10, 1901. Hiranuma Station had no connection to public transport such as trams, so that major part of the passengers for the city continued to use trains that stopped at Yokohama Station.

Second station

On August 15, 1915, the second Yokohama Station opened close to the present day Takashimachō Station to allow Tōkaidō Main Line trains to call at Yokohama Station. The original Yokohama Station was renamed Sakuragichō Station. JR East uses this date as the opening date of the current Yokohama Station.
The terminal of the Keihin Line had been in Takashimachō since 1914 and was merged to the new station. The government-run electric line was later this year extended to Sakuragichō.
On 1 September 1923, the station was destroyed by a fire in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
Six days later, the station reopened with a temporary building.
The city of Yokohama and the Ministry of Railways agreed in February 1924 that the station would be relocated.
On May 18, 1928, the Tokyo Yokohama Railway extended from its former terminal of Kanagawa Station was connected to the station. The extension line passed through the construction site of the new Yokohama Station of the government railways.

Third station

On October 15, 1928, the third Yokohama Station opened on the north side of the second station. The Tōkaidō Main Line also moved to its current route, which was the route of the bypass line opened in 1898. The government railways and the Toyoko Line shared the station from the beginning.
On February 5, 1930, the Keihin Electric Railway was connected to the station.
On December 27, 1933, the Jinchū Railway was connected to the station. On December 9, 1957, the north side underground entrance opened. On December 1, 1965, the MARS on-line ticket reservation system was introduced at the station. On September 4, 1976, the Yokohama City Subway Line No. 3 was connected to Yokohama Station. On November 7, 1980, the new east station building and east-west passage opened. On January 31, 2004, The Tōkyū Tōyoko Line platform reopened underground, and on February 1, 2004, the Minatomirai Line opened.

Future

On August 26, 2010, JR East announced the development of a new station building to replace the current West Entrance, tentatively named the Yokohama Station West Station Building. Scheduled to open in 2020 before the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the development will include a 26-story retail and office building, Station-front tower, on the site of the current West Entrance and a nine-story building to the north-east, Tsuruya-cho tower, which will include parking and childcare facilities.

Passenger statistics

In fiscal 2013, the JR East station was used by an average of 406,594 passengers daily, making it the busiest JR East station in Kanagawa Prefecture and the fourth-busiest on the JR East network as a whole.
The JR East passenger figures for previous years are as shown below.
Fiscal yearDaily average
2000385,023
2005384,594
2010398,052
2011394,900
2012400,655
2013406,594