Tokyo Station (東京駅) is an elevated station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, served by lines including the Yamanote Line, the Marunouchi Line and the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, and operated by East Japan Railway Company, Central Japan Railway Company and Tokyo Metro. It opened on 20 December 1914.
History
Franz Balzer, a German technician invited to Japan to guide railway building, decided the station's site, size and layout. The station was placed on the west side, on a former army parade ground, rather than on the east side where the shops were. It faced the front of the Imperial Palace. Tatsuno Kingo (辰野金吾) and Kasai Manji (葛西萬司) designed the building in a style called 'Tatsuno-style Renaissance'. The red-brick facade had a central entrance reserved for the Imperial family. The opening ceremony was timed with the return of an army commander from the Battle of Qingdao (青島の戦い). The station opened on 20 December 1914.
The station grew into a terminal step by step. On 1 March 1919, the Chūō Main Line began running into the station. In 1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake hit the station, but there was no large damage. On 1 November 1925, the electric line of the Tōhoku Main Line (now the Keihin-Tōhoku Line) began running in. In 1928, the train line of the Tōhoku Main Line (now the Utsunomiya Line) began running in. On 16 December 1929, the Yaesu Bridge entrance (now the Yaesu exit) opened on the east side.
On 25 May 1945, near the end of the Pacific War, an American air raid on Tokyo, known as the Yamanote air raid (山の手大空襲), hit the station. Incendiary bombs fell on the Marunouchi side and caused a large fire. The brick walls and concrete floors survived, but the steel roof burned and most of the inside was lost. The repair plan was drawn up soon after the war ended in August 1945, and the work ran from late 1945 to 1947. The top floor was removed, so the building became two storeys. The central dome was rebuilt in its original form, and the north and south domes were changed from round to trapezoid. These were temporary repairs. On 16 November 1948, a modern-design Yaesu station building was completed, but it burned down on 29 April 1949.
On 1 October 1964, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened. On 15 July 1972, the Sōbu underground platforms opened, and on 10 March 1990 the Keiyō underground platforms opened. On 20 June 1991, the Tōhoku Shinkansen began running into the station. In 2000, a plan was made to restore the Marunouchi station building to its original form. The restoration, put at about 50 billion yen (500億円), was to be paid for by moving the station's floor-area ratio to high-rise buildings in the Marunouchi district. Work began on 30 May 2007 and was completed on 1 October 2012. In 2015, the Ueno-Tokyo Line opened. The Tōhoku Main Line tracks between Tokyo and Ueno had been separated since 1983. They were reconnected, so trains could run through to the Tōkaidō Line.
Several rail plans have been proposed, but none is built yet. One plan has the Tsukuba Express running into the station from Akihabara on a deep underground route. A 1985 report asked for the line to start at Tokyo Station, but profit concerns changed the start to Akihabara. A city-centre direct link (都心直結線) between Oshiage (Keisei Oshiage Line) and Sengakuji (Keikyu Main Line), through Tokyo Station, has also been proposed. A 2000 report recommended extending the Keiyō Line through Shinjuku Station to Mitaka, to run with the Chūō Line. A 2016 report carried this forward, but no detailed plan has been made. The Tokyo Monorail extension to Tokyo Station has stalled, and its parent company, JR East, has announced a competing Haneda Airport access line. JR East plans platform doors on the Shinkansen platforms, with Platforms 20 and 21 due by the end of fiscal 2028 and Platforms 22 and 23 by the end of fiscal 2029.
Written by an AI from this station's own sourced facts (the dated events in the Data view), nothing else, and checked by a program for dates and numbers that are not in those facts. It can still be wrong. Found a mistake? . Adapted from Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0; this text is shared under the same licence.