Ueno Station (上野駅) is run by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Tokyo Metro. It serves the Ginza Line, Hibiya Line, Jōban Line (Rapid), Takasaki Line, Utsunomiya Line, Yamanote Line, Keihin–Tōhoku Line, Ueno-Tokyo Line, Tohoku Shinkansen, Joetsu Shinkansen and Hokuriku Shinkansen. It opened on 28 July 1883.
History
Ueno Station (上野駅) opened on 28 July 1883 as a station on the Nippon Railway between Ueno and Kumagaya. The first station building was completed on 16 July 1885. On 1 November 1890 a freight line between Ueno and Akihabara opened. Freight handling moved from Ueno to Akihabara, which separated freight from passenger services. The railway was nationalized under the Railway Nationalization Act on 1 November 1906. On 12 October 1909 the line became part of the Tōhoku Main Line. On 16 December 1909 electric train operation began on the Yamanote Line. On 8 January 1912 the station introduced Japan's first departure bell.
On 1 November 1925 the electrified Tōhoku Main Line passenger line between Ueno and Tokyo opened as an elevated line. It is now the Keihin-Tōhoku Line. On 30 December 1927 the Tokyo Underground Railway opened its Asakusa to Ueno section. It is now part of the Ginza Line. On 1 April 1928 the Tōhoku Main Line train line between Ueno and Tokyo opened. It is now the Utsunomiya Line. On 3 April 1932 a new station building was completed. On 1 September 1941 the Tokyo Underground Railway transferred its lines to the Teito Rapid Transit Authority under the Land Transport Business Adjustment Law. On 1 June 1949 Japanese National Railways was established.
On 28 March 1961 a Teito Rapid Transit Authority station on the Hibiya Line opened. On 1 October 1964 freight handling moved to Sumidagawa Station, except for some express items such as mail and newspapers. On 1 April 1965 the Kōen-guchi station building was rebuilt as a two-story building. On 30 September 1970 the elevated sixth platform, for tracks 11 and 12, began operating, and the improvement work on the ground and elevated platforms was completed. In 1973 the Tōhoku Main Line train line between Tokyo and Ueno was abolished, and through trains from the Tōhoku Main Line to the Tōkaidō Main Line were also abolished. On 12 October 1976 a discarded cigarette started a fire at the telegraph and telephone office inside the station. Passengers evacuated.
On 14 March 1985 Ueno Station on the Tōhoku Shinkansen opened. On 1 April 1987 Japanese National Railways was privatized, and the station became a JR East station. On 20 October 1990 automatic ticket gates were installed at the Shinobazu exit. On 20 June 1991 the Tōhoku Shinkansen was extended to Tokyo Station. In 1995, 37,000 tons of iron blocks were installed on the Shinkansen platform to counter rising groundwater. On 16 October 1997 automatic ticket gates were introduced at the Shinkansen transfer gates. It was the first time this was done at a Shinkansen station in the JR East area. On 1 October 2000 the east-west free passage opened. On 18 November 2001 Suica became usable on JR East. On 22 February 2002 the JR East station was renovated, and the commercial facility Atre Ueno opened. On 1 April 2004 the Ginza and Hibiya line stations were inherited by Tokyo Metro, with the privatization of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority.
In 2015 the Ueno-Tokyo Line was completed, and some Utsunomiya, Takasaki and Jōban Line rapid trains that used to end at Ueno began running on to Tokyo Station and the Tōkaidō Main Line. In 2015 the Hokuriku Shinkansen opened, and some Kagayaki and Hakutaka services stopped here. In 2015 the sleeper express Hokutosei ended its regular service. On 21 August 2015 the final down train of the Hokutosei left. On 23 August 2015 its final up train arrived, and all of Japan's so-called Blue Train sleeper express services had ended. On 19 March 2016 the final down run of the sleeper express Cassiopeia left. On 21 March 2016 its final up train arrived, and all sleeper and night trains to and from the station had ended. On 1 May 2017 the cruise train TRAIN SUITE Shiki-shima began operating. A dedicated lounge and a dedicated platform, the New Departure 13.5th Platform, were opened for it. On 1 July 2021 the booth-type STATION BOOTH office opened outside the JR East central ticket gate. On 13 November 2021 the YAMANOTE LINE MUSEUM opened in the passage inside the Kōen-guchi ticket gate. On 12 December 2021 Byū Plaza closed. On 1 October 2025 the Eki-net Q-Chike service started.
See all 77 dated events in the Data view →
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.