Tsukuba Express (つくばエクスプレス, TX) is a railway line of the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company (首都圏新都市鉄道). It runs from Akihabara Station in Chiyoda ward, Tokyo, to Tsukuba Station in Tsukuba city, Ibaraki Prefecture.
History
The line was planned to link central Tokyo with Tsukuba Science City (筑波研究学園都市). Its aims were to ease crowding on the Joban Line (常磐線) of the Japanese National Railways (JNR) and to supply housing in the Tokyo area. In 1978 Ibaraki Prefecture set up a transport committee and announced a second Joban Line idea. A study group set up by Ibaraki in 1983 was the first record of a concrete route study between central Tokyo and Tsukuba, apart from earlier work. Ibaraki's plans all ran from central Tokyo through Kita-Senju to Tsukuba, with different stops in between. Before a 1985 council report, Ibaraki and Chiba put forward several routes under the second Joban Line name. Route B, via Moriya, was the route marked as the construction route.
On 11 July 1985 the Transport Policy Council issued report No. 7, which added a new Joban line item. It said Tokyo to southern Moriya should be built by the target year, and that the section from southern Moriya to Tsukuba should be studied for later. It was the first report to name Tokyo Station as the start. It said the line should mainly ease crowding on the Joban Line, and that JNR should normally build it, but JNR's finances made this hard, so a third-sector company was one option. In September 1987 the Ministry of Transport, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the four prefectures along the route set up a committee. In November 1988 the committee agreed a basic plan. The first section would run from Akihabara to Tsukuba, a third-sector company would build it, and JR East would run it after completion. The start moved from Tokyo to Akihabara for cost reasons. In June 1989 the Act on Integrated Promotion of Housing Development and Railway Construction (宅鉄法) became law, and this line was the first railway under it. On 15 November 1990 local deputy governors agreed to set up the company in fiscal 1990, with an opening target of 2000. On 15 March 1991 the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company was set up, with investment from four prefectures and 12 municipalities. In October 1991 the basic plan was approved by the national government. It set the route and the locations of 19 stations.
On 10 January 1992 the company received a first-class railway business licence. In January 1993 construction was approved for the first 3.4 km, from Akihabara to Shin-Asakusa. On 28 October 1994 a groundbreaking ceremony was held at Akihabara. In February 1995 Tokyo approved construction of the 9.9 km section from Shin-Asakusa to Rokumachi. Work then went ahead, but soft ground and groundwater measures caused delays, and Ibaraki landowners opposed the land talks. In February 1997 the company asked the Sobu-Nagareyama Railway for crossing talks. Those talks were held up for more than a year, and they were settled when the company lent money to the railway and the railway allowed land use. In December 1996 the opening target moved from 2000 to 2005.
On 26 January 2000 the Transport Policy Council report No. 18 said Akihabara to Tsukuba should open by the target year of 2005, and that the Tokyo to Akihabara section should be studied for later extension. On 2 February 2001 the company announced the name Tsukuba Express. In June 2001 all construction contracts were placed and work started along the whole line. In 2002 the train design was decided. In January 2003 the opening was set for autumn 2005. In 2004 the first mass-produced cars arrived at the depot, and civil works on the whole line were complete by March 2004. Test runs on the whole line ran from 1 November 2004 to 30 June 2005. On 22 July 2005 the line passed its completion inspection. On 24 August 2005 the Akihabara to Tsukuba line opened. It had first been planned for October. It opened two months earlier after strong local requests and to fit the school term.
A women-only car was introduced on 1 September 2005. In August 2006 in-train wireless LAN service began across the whole line. In January 2007 an early earthquake warning system was introduced. On 18 March 2007 PASMO was introduced. In June 2009 the company announced that fiscal 2008 was its first year in the black since opening.
On 11 March 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災) struck, and the whole line stopped for the day. On 12 March service resumed between Akihabara and Nagareyama-Otakanomori, with all stopping trains. On 13 March the whole line reopened, but trains had to slow to 35 km/h where the track was damaged, between Kashiwa-tanaka and Moriya. A planned power cut stopped the line in the afternoon and evening of 14 March. Service was cut further on 15 and 16 March, and further reduced for some days after. The slow-running restriction was lifted from 15 June, and the weekday timetable returned to normal on 12 September 2011.
In 2012 the platform at Minami-Nagareyama was extended to ease crowding. On 15 October 2012 a new commuter express service was added to the timetable. On 9 August 2013 energy-saving driving with coasting control began. On 19 March 2017 the line between Moriya station and the depot was made double track. In fiscal 2017 the line cleared its accumulated losses for the first time since opening and recorded retained earnings. On 17 March 2018 passing facilities at Moriya station came into use. On 28 February 2019 a train derailed inside the depot. In June 2019 the company announced an 8-car conversion, with opening planned for the early 2030s. On 14 March 2020 TX-3000 series trains began service.
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Written by an AI from the line's history on Japanese Wikipedia, nothing else, and checked by a program for dates and numbers that are not in those facts. It can still be wrong. Adapted from Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0; this text is shared under the same licence.