Tokyo Monorail - History

History

The line opened in 1964 to coincide with the 1964 Summer Olympics. Built by Hitachi Monorail, the first cars were made in Japan from the German ALWEG design (also used in the Seattle Center Monorail and the original Disneyland Monorail), and were replaced by newer models in 1969, 1977, 1982, and 1989.

Originally, the monorail only served Hamamatsuchō and the airport. The first station added in between was the Ōi Race Track in 1965, followed by Seibijō in 1967.

When the monorail began operation, the passenger terminal at Haneda Airport was located on the west side of the airfield, south of Seibijō, and this was the southern terminus of the monorail. Upon the opening of the new passenger terminal (now Terminal 1) in 1993, the monorail was extended to a new platform, and the former passenger terminal was razed to make room for an extension of Runway B. The now-unused monorail tunnel leading to the old station was leased from the Transport Ministry and therefore had to be restored to its original state prior to its handover. Although the rails were removed from the tunnel and its entrance walled off, the tunnel remains otherwise intact today below the extension of Runway B.

A single-station, 0.9-km extension to Haneda's new Terminal 2 opened on December 1, 2004, and the opening of a passing loop at Showajima allowed express services from March 18, 2007. A new station to serve the airport's new International Terminal was opened on 21 October 2010.

Currently, the Tokyo Monorail serves eleven stations and operates from 5:30 AM to midnight with over 500 trains. Often cited as the busiest and most profitable monorail line in the world (it carried its 1.5 billionth passenger on January 24, 2007), it has recently become somewhat less popular through competition from the Keikyū Airport Line.

The line is operated by the Tokyo Monorail Co., Ltd. (東京モノレール株式会社, Tōkyō Monorēru Kabushiki-gaisha?). JR East purchased stock in the company in 2002, currently owning 70%; the remainder being divided between Hitachi (12%), Japan Airlines (9%) and All Nippon Airways (9%).