Yokohama Station (横浜駅, Yokohama-eki) 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,[1] serving 760 million passengers a year.
The JR East and Keikyū platforms are located in the main above-ground portion of Yokohama Station. Keikyū's section consists of platforms 1 to 2, JR East operates platforms 3 to 10.
Keikyū introduced station numbering to its stations on 21 October 2010; Yokohama Station was assigned station number KK37.[2]
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.
On 7 May 1872 (12 June in Gregorian calendar), Yokohama Station (original station, now Sakuragichō Station) opened as one of the first railway stations in Japan.
On 11 July 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 1 August 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 10 October 1901.[13] 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.[14]
The second station, built in 1915, behind an elevated freight line
On 15 August 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.[15]
The terminal of the Keihin Line (present-day Keihin-Tōhoku Line) had been in Takashimachō since 1914 and was merged with the new station. The government-run electric line was later that 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.[16]
On 18 May 1928, the Tokyo Yokohama Railway (now the Tokyu Toyoko Line) was extended from its former terminal at Kanagawa Station to the station. The extension line passed through the construction site of the new Yokohama Station of the government railways.[17]
The third station, completed in 1928The elevated Toyoko Line platforms, closed in 2004
On 15 October 1928, the third (current) 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.[18]
On 5 February 1930, the Keihin Electric Railway (now the Keikyu Main Line) was connected to the station.
On 27 December 1933, the Jinchū Railway (now the Sotetsu Main Line) was connected to the station. On 9 December 1957, the north side underground entrance opened. On 1 December 1965, the MARS on-line ticket reservation system was introduced at the station. On 4 September 1976, the Yokohama City Subway Line No. 3 was connected to Yokohama Station. On 7 November 1980, the new east station building and east-west passage opened. On 31 January 2004, The Tōkyū Tōyoko Line platform reopened underground, and on 1 February 2004, the Minatomirai Line opened.
On 26 August 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 (横浜駅 西口駅ビル, Yokohama-eki Nishiguchi-eki biru).[19] It opened in 2020 before the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The development includes a 26-story retail and office building, Station-front tower (駅前棟, Ekimae-tō), on the site of the current West Entrance and a nine-story building to the north-east, Tsuruya-cho tower (鶴屋町棟, Tsuruyamachi-tō), which includes parking and childcare facilities.[20]
In fiscal 2013, the JR East station was used by an average of 406,594 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), making it the busiest JR East station in Kanagawa Prefecture and the fourth-busiest on the JR East network as a whole.[21]
The JR East passenger figures for previous years are as shown below.
^"京急線全駅にて駅ナンバリングを開始します" [Station numbering will be introduced to all stations on the Keikyu Line]. KEIKYU WEB. 25 June 2010. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
^ ab各駅の乗車人員 (2013年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2013)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Archived from the original on 2001-05-06. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
^各駅の乗車人員 (2000年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2000)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
^各駅の乗車人員 (2005年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2005)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
^各駅の乗車人員 (2010年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2010)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
^各駅の乗車人員 (2011年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2011)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
^各駅の乗車人員 （2012年度） [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2012)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Archived from the original on 2014-10-07. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
Keikyū
Tōkyū Railways
Yokohama Minatomirai Railway
Sagami Railway (Sōtetsu)
Yokohama City Transportation Bureau
Bus terminal
Minatomirai Line
Seibu Ikebukuro Line for Hannō
Blue Line
Sotetsu Main Line
