ODAKYU ELECTRIC RAILWAY

The , or 'OER', is a major private railway company in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its Romance car series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone.
The Odakyū Electric Railway forms the core of the Odakyū Group, which comprises 108 companies (as of October 2005), and also includes the Enoshima Electric Railway, Hakone Tozan Railway, Tachikawa Bus and Tokai Bus.

Contents

History

Lines

Anniversary

Operation Lines

Through Lines

Train Classification

Limited Express Service

List of Odakyū train models

Active

Odakyū railway on the computer

See also

References

External links

History

The 83 km line from Shinjuku to Odawara opened for service on April 1, 1927. Unlike the Odawara line, rarely were pre-WWII Japanese private railways constructed with double-track and fully electrified from the first day of operation. Two years later, April 1, 1929, the Enoshima Line was added.
The original full name of the railroad was ''Odawara Kyūkō Denki Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha'', but this was often shortened to ''Odawara Kyūkō'' (Odawara Express). The abbreviation ''Odakyū'' was made popular by the title song of the 1929 movie ''Tokyo Kōshinkyoku'' and eventually became the official name of the railroad (Seidensticker, 1990).
On May 1, 1942, Odakyū merged with the Tokyo-Yokohama Electric Railway company (now Tōkyū), which controlled all private railway services west and south of Tokyo by the end of World War II. The company regained its independence on June 1, 1948, and it obtained a large of Hakone Tozan Railway stocks, instead of separating Keio Inokashira Line for Keio Corporation. Odakyū restarted Non-stop Limited Express service between Shinjuku and Odawara in 1948. In 1950, Odakyū trains ran through to Hakone-Yumoto on Hakone Tozan Line. Odakyū uses narrow gauge (1,067 mm) tracks, but Hakone Tozan Railway is on standard gauge (1,435 mm), so one track of the section from Odawara to Hakone-Yumoto (6.1 km) was changed to a dual gauge system. It operated the first Romance Car Odakyū 1710 series for Limited Express in 1951.
After the 1950s, due to rapid Japanese economic growth, Odakyū was faced with an explosive increase of population along with its lines. Commuter passengers had to use very crowded trains every morning, and complained strongly with the delay of improvements from the railway company. Odakyū began construction on the - "Shinjuku Station Great Improvement Project" setting 5 lines and 10 platforms long enough for 10 standard commuter cars (Romance Cars excepted, they have 11 cars) with service on the Chiyoda Line, among others. Plans for a four-track system in 1964 were prevented by residents of Setagaya Ward in Tokyo, as such the system remains uncompleted. The Setagaya Residents' opposition set the stage for a long-term and remarkable case in the courts and legislature. Odakyū could not take main part of transport from Tama New Town Area, though Odakyu started the operation of Tama Line in 1974.
In the last ten years, Odakyū has been adding track in both directions from Izumi-Tamagawa Station, on Tama River, the border station of Tokyo, to just outside of Setagaya-Daita Station for expanding the availability of express trains, especially for morning commuter service. The lines between Setagaya-Daita and Higashi-Kitazawa Station are still under construction, however. Odakyū announced that the bottle-neck will be resolved by 2013.
Odakyū has shown its high potential technology for mass and rapid transport. It operates all sections of its lines as double (or more) tracks from the day service begins, except for a few rare instances. It sometimes is regarded as a bypass route for the Tōkaidō Main Line from Tokyo to western Kanagawa, also going out to further areas away from Tokyo, although not through Yokohama in wartime. The Romance Car Odakyū 3000 series SE was tested at speeds of up to 145 km/h in 1957, achieving a world record for narrow gauge (1067 mm) lines at the time. These tests also provided important data on high-speed electric multiple units (EMU), which Japanese National Railways(JNR) used for its limited express EMUs, 151 series, and 0 Series Shinkansen introduced in the early 1960s.

Lines

Odakyū has three railway lines, and through service to four lines of other companies.

Anniversary

Odakyū celebrated its 80th anniversary in April 2007.

Operation Lines

Lines	in Japanese	Sections	Length (km)	Stations	Oparated date	Minutes by Ltd. Exp./Express (in normal)
'Odawara Line'	小田原線	Shinjuku - Odawara	82.5	47	April 1, 1927	68-81 / 92 (fastest LTD Exp. is 63)
'Enoshima Line'	江ノ島線	Sagami-Ono - Katase-Enoshima	27.4	17	April 1, 1929	30-32 / 34 (fastest LTD Exp. is 26)
'Tama Line'	多摩線	Shin-Yurigaoka - Karakida	10.6	8	June 1, 1974 (in part) March 27, 1990 (full)	11-12 / 13
Total	合計	3 lines	120.5	80

★ Not including the connecting branch between Odawara Line and JR-Central Gotenba Line near Shin-Matsuda Station.

★ Odakyū operated Mukogaoka-Yuen Monorail Line, between Mukogaoka-Yuen and Mukogaoka-Yuen-Seimon (1.1 km, 2 stations), from 1966 to 2001, using a Lockheed Corporation style monorail system.

Through Lines

★ Some Odakyū trains from the Tama Line (and a little of Odawara Line, from Hon-Atsugi Station) continue on to the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line and Jōban Line (Yoyogi-Uehara Station - Ayase Station - Toride Station).

★ Some Odakyū trains continue on to the Hakone Tozan Line (Odawara Station - Hakone-Yumoto Station).

★ Limited Express Asagiri uses the connect branch to JR Central Gotenba Line, and runs between Shinjuku and Numazu Station 8 times on a day.

Train Classification

color	Classification	in Japanese	runs between (reraly)	operation lines
	Limited Express	特急	Shinjuku and Hakone-Yumoto, Katase-Enoshima, Karakida or Numazu	Odakyu Odawara, Enoshima, Tama, Hakone Tozan and Central JR Gotenba Lines
orange	Rapid Express	快速急行	Shinjuku and Katase-Enoshima (Odawara)	Odakyu Odawara and Enoshima Lines
red	Express	急行	Shinjuku and Odawara	Odakyu Odawara, Enoshima, Tama and Hakone Tozan Lines
hotpink	Tama Express	多摩急行	Toride or Ayase and Karakida via Yoyogi-Uehara	Odakyu Odawara, Tama, Tokyo Metro Chiyoda and JR East Joban Lines
green	Semi Express	準急	Shinjuku and Hon-Atsugi (Hakone-Yumoto)	Odakyu Odawara and Hakone Tozan Lines
sky blue	Sectional Semi Express	区間準急	Shinjuku and Karakida (Shin-Matsuda)	Odakyu Tama Line
blue	Local	各停	Shinjuku and Hon-Atsugi (Hakone-Yumoto)	Odakyu Odawara, Enoshima, Tama and Hakone Tozan Lines

★ Only "Limited Express" is charged, and used by Romancecars. The others are free, and used by commuter cars.

Limited Express Service

Commuter service is shown in each lines pages.

Station	in Japanese	km	Super Hakone	Hakone	Sagami	Asagiri	Enoshima	Homeway	Lines
Shinjuku	新宿	0.0	+	+	+	+	+	+	Odakyu Odawara Line
Mukōgaoka-Yūen	向ヶ丘遊園	15.8	/	★	★	/	/	/
Shin-Yurigaoka	新百合ヶ丘	21.5	/	★	★	/	+	★
Machida	町田	30.8	/	★	★	+	/	★
Sagami-Ono	相模大野	32.3	/	★	★	/	+	★
Hon-Atsugi	本厚木	45.4	/	★	+	+		+
Hadano	秦野	61.7	/	★	★	/		+
Shin-Matsuda	新松田	71.8	/	★	★			/
Odawara	小田原	82.5	+	+	+			+
Hakone-Yumoto	箱根湯本	88.6	+	+				+	Hakone Tozan Line
Yamato	大和	39.9					+	+	Odakyu Enoshima Line
Fujisawa	藤沢	55.4					+	+
Katase-Enoshima	片瀬江ノ島	59.9					+	+
Odakyu-Nagayama	小田急永山	28.3						+	Odakyu Tama Line
Odakyu-Tama-Center	小田急多摩センター	30.6						+
Karakida	唐木田	32.1						+
Matsuda	松田	71.8				+			Central JR Gotenba Line
Suruga-Oyama	駿河小山	86.2				★
Gotenba	御殿場	97.1				+
Susono	裾野	112.3				+
Numazu	沼津	121.8				+

marks	trains
"+"	stopped
" ★ "	partly stopped or passed
"/"	passed

★ "Asagiri" runs on the connecting branch line just before Shin-Matsuda from Shinjuku, and stops at Matsuda on Gotenba Line. Matsuda and Shin-Matsuda are treated as one station.

★ "Homeway" runs only evening every day, after 18:00 from Shinjuku. There is no service to Shinjuku.

List of Odakyū train models

Active

★ Odakyū 7000 series LSE

★ Odakyū 10000 series HiSE

★ Odakyū 20000 series RSE

★ Odakyū 30000 series EXE

★ Odakyū 50000 series VSE

★ Odakyū 5000 series

★ Odakyū 8000 series

★ Odakyū 1000 series

★ Odakyū 2000 series

★ Odakyū 3000 series

★ Odakyū 4000 series

Odakyū railway on the computer

The Odakyū Railway has been included in several Japanese language train simulator programs as well as the English language Microsoft Train Simulator program. ''Microsoft Train Simulator'' includes the railway's Odawara and Hakone Tozan lines, collectively referred to as the "Tokyo-Hakone" route. You can drive two of the trains that travel on the line; the 2000 series commuter trainset and the Odakyū 7000 series LSE Romance Car trainset. Several "activities", or scenarios, are included.
Various Odakyū addins are available for the BVE Train Simulator, a freeware cab view train simulator for Microsoft Windows.

See also

★ Transportation in Greater Tokyo

References

★ Seidensticker, Edward (1990). ''Tokyo Rising : the city since the great earthquake''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-394-54360-2.

External links

★ Odakyū Electric Railway

★ Evolution of Railway Technology (prominently mentions Odakyū 3000 series SE Romance Car trainsets)