Keiyo Line timetable revision makes it more convenient to visit Makuhari Toyosuna, Etchujima, and other stations – Impress Watch

In December of last year, JR East Chiba Branch announced the Keiyo Line timetable revision to be implemented in March 2024. In the same timetable revision, the commuter rapid service will be abolished, and the rapid service will also be operated only during daytime hours. Sudden timetable revisions invite opposition from local governments such as Chiba Prefecture and Chiba City.

In response to such feedback, the JR East Chiba branch reviewed the planned timetable revision and reinstated two rapid trains in the morning hours.

The Keiyo Line has now stopped at almost every station in the morning and evening, but up until now, only 7 stations have stopped at every station. We boarded and alighted at all seven stations to see for ourselves what the current station front looks like and to explore possibilities for future development.

Opinions against the abolition of commuter rapid trains on the Keiyo Line

In December 2023, the JR East Chiba branch announced that it would abolish the commuter rapid service on the Keiyo Line in the March 2024 timetable revision. In addition, rapid trains will only operate during daytime hours.

The Keiyo Line timetable revision caused a huge stir, and was widely covered on TV, newspapers, and online news. Following the announcement of the timetable revision, local governments such as Chiba Prefecture and Chiba City, which would be inconvenienced, requested the JR East Chiba branch office to withdraw the timetable revision. In response to backlash, JR East’s Chiba branch has reinstated two rapid trains in the morning hours.

It is unusual for a diamond to be reviewed once it has been announced. That’s why there was so much opposition to the Keiyo Line’s timetable revision.

Regarding partial changes to JR East Chiba Branch March 2024 schedule revision

The Keiyo Line is a line that connects Tokyo Station and Soga Station in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. In addition to these, there are branch lines between Nishi-Funabashi Station and Minami-Funabashi Station and between Ichikawa Shiohama Station and Nishi-Funabashi Station, but the commuter rapid and rapid trains used to run between Tokyo Station and Soga Station.

There are a total of 18 stations between Tokyo Station and Soga Station, of which there are 7 stations where commuter rapid trains and rapid trains do not stop. JR East’s Chiba branch office said the aims of the Keiyo Line timetable revision were to “level out the number of commuter rapid users,” and “increase the number of trains that stop at each station, thereby increasing the convenience of stations where rapid trains do not stop.” They listed three points: “With the elimination of commuter rapid trains and morning and evening rapid trains, there will be no need to wait to pass, and the time required for trains to stop at each station will be shortened.”

If we believe the explanation from the JR East Chiba branch, the timetable revision will increase the number of trains departing from and arriving at these seven stations, which will naturally improve the convenience of these seven stations.

In the short period of one month since the timetable revision, it is hard to imagine that the area in front of the station will change significantly, but you may discover something new by actually getting off the train at seven stations. So, about a month after the timetable revision, I decided to visit all seven stations (Etchujima Station, Shiomi Station, Kasai Rinkai Koen Station, Ichikawa Shiohama Station, Futamata-Shinmachi Station, Shin-Narashino Station, Makuhari Toyosuna Station) that only had local trains. I made it.

Etchujima Station is quiet and rich in nature, just two stations away from Tokyo Station.

Board the Keiyo Line train that departs from Tokyo Station at 8am. All passengers on the train coming from Soga Station get off at Tokyo Station. The Keiyo Line platform at Tokyo Station is deep underground, so you have to walk endlessly inside the station to transfer to the Yamanote Line or Chuo Line.

Transferring from each line such as the Yamanote Line, Chuo Line, Tokaido Main Line, or Ueno-Tokyo Line to the Keiyo Line takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

We boarded the train waiting to depart at the Keiyo Line platform and headed to our first destination, Etchujima Station. Etchujima Station is located in Koto Ward, and at one time was the station with the least number of passengers among the JR stations located within Tokyo’s 23 wards. Although it is a convenient station only two stations away from Tokyo Station, the reason why there are so few passengers getting on and off the train is because the area around the station is an industrial area.

When you emerge from the underground station above ground, you can experience a quiet environment rich in nature that is completely different from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo Station. In front of Etchujima Station is the Etchujima Campus of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, which was created in 2003 by the merger of Tokyo University of Mercantile Marine and Tokyo University of Fisheries.

On the Etchujima campus, the Meiji Maru, which was built as a lighthouse patrol boat during the Meiji period, and the former Astronomical Observatory (No. 1 Observatory) of Tokyo University of Mercantile Marine are preserved. In 1978, the Meiji Maru became the first ship to be designated as an important cultural property, and the first observation platform was designated as a registered tangible cultural property.

These can be viewed from within the campus, or from the sidewalk adjacent to the campus or the deck of the Harumi Canal.

As I was taking photos of these cultural properties from the sidewalk, a family of foreign tourists, who appeared to be foreign tourists, stopped to take pictures of the Meiji Maru with their smartphones. It seems that the charm of the majestic Meiji Maru has been conveyed to tourists as well.

The Harumi Canal has a dock, and the regular boat service recommended by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which started last year, passes right in front of it. The liner connects Toyosu and Nihonbashi, and you cannot board or disembark from Etchujima. It is difficult to say that commuting by boat, which is still in the trial stage, has become established or widespread. However, the number of users is expected to increase in the future as tower apartments (tower apartments) are increasing in the bay area.

The reason why there were so few people using Etchujima Station is because, as mentioned earlier, it used to be a factory town. Although some traces of this remain, in recent years it has attracted a lot of attention from developers due to its proximity to the city center and low land prices. And the number of tower men is increasing little by little.

Some Towerman residents commute from Etchujima Station to Tokyo Station, but many also use Monzen-Nakacho Station, which is a 10-minute walk from Etchujima Station. Monzennakacho is a convenient station for those commuting to the west side of Tokyo such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro, as the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line and the Toei Subway Oedo Line intersect.

Considering these circumstances, it may be inappropriate to estimate the liveliness of the town of Etchujima only by the number of passengers.

The tower man, which is increasing in number in the bay area, can be seen from the deck of the Harumi Canal. On the other side of the Harumi Canal is Chuo Ward. If you turn your gaze toward the Chuo Ward side, you can see in the distance areas such as Tsukishima, Harumi Flag, and Toyosu, which is located next to it, where tower construction is taking place.

The sight of towering towers standing in a forest is spectacular, giving off the atmosphere of a futuristic city. It looks like Tawaman’s construction plans will continue and Tawaman will be more prominent in the years to come. On the other hand, we cannot deny the possibility that the sky will start to feel smaller and the lush, quiet, and good living environment of Etchujima will disappear.

Shiomi Station, which used to be a factory town, now sees tourists.

After leaving the rapidly developing Etchujima Station, the next stop is Shiomi Station. The Keiyo Line used to run underground from Tokyo Station to Etchujima Station, but it will appear above ground just before Shiomi Station and continue running on an elevated line.

The entire Keiyo Line runs along Tokyo Bay, so it was not uncommon for the line to be suspended due to strong winds blowing in from the sea. Recently, walls and fences have been installed, soundproofing has been improved, and measures have been taken to prevent strong winds, so it seems that there are fewer suspensions due to strong winds.

Since you cannot look out the train window during the underground section, you cannot really feel that you are running along the coast. However, from here you enter the overground/elevated line section, so if you look out the window you can see that you are right on the coast.

Shiomi Station, like Etchujima Station, is located in Koto Ward, but until a few years ago, there were only a few factories around the station, and the station was rarely used by anyone other than residents. The land that spreads out in front of Shiomi Station was once called Landfill No. 8, and when the land was first developed, it was a gathering place for junk collectors.

Because of these relationships, over time Shiomi transformed into a printing town. In 1981, eight printing companies jointly established Tokyo Printing City. Little by little, the framework of the city was formed.

Shiomi has been a factory town for about half a century, but the station’s appearance has changed dramatically over the past few years. The first thing that stands out are visitors and foreign tourists carrying large luggage.

Along the Keiyo Line, there are many large-scale customer-attracting facilities and leisure spots such as Kasai Rinkai Park, Tokyo Disney Resort, Makuhari Messe, Marine Stadium, Harbor City Soga, and Fukuda Denshi Arena from the west. These large-scale customer attraction facilities and leisure spots have the power to attract many people from far away, so there has long been a demand for accommodation facilities such as resort hotels, city hotels, and business hotels along the Keiyo Line.

In response to this demand, hotels are opening one after another on the north side of the station. In contrast to the wave of tower development surrounding Etchujima Station, Shiomi Station has developed into a town that welcomes tourists and visitors on the Keiyo Line.

However, in recent years, due to the skyrocketing real estate prices in the city center, tower houses are starting to be built little by little even around Shiomi Station, where land prices are relatively low.

By the way, “tower man” has no legal definition. Generally speaking, a condominium called “Towerman” refers to a condominium with a height of 60m or more, which is classified as a super high-rise building. Since 60m is equivalent to a height of 20 stories, an apartment building with 20 or more stories is interpreted as a tower man. Condominiums that are less than 60 meters in height are often treated as high-rise or large-scale condominiums, but some real estate information sites and developers sometimes market even 13-story condominiums as tower houses.

Tower buildings with over 20 stories are starting to be built little by little around Shiomi Station. If you include high-rise and large-scale condominiums on the 13th floor or so, the number is quite large, and the number of passengers at Shiomi Station is increasing due to their residents and tourists and visitors who use accommodation facilities in the surrounding area.

Another thing you should see at Shiomi Station is the Hydrogen Information Center Tokyo Swiss Mill. Yoichi Masuzoe, who took office as Tokyo governor in 2014, has set the goal of promoting a hydrogen society. The museum opened in 2016 as an educational and public relations project. Ironically, Yoichi Masuzoe resigned as Tokyo Governor without seeing the museum open.

Although we are often referred to as a hydrogen society, we are not often aware of it in real life, but hydrogen, which is attracting attention as a clean energy source, is also closely related to railways. This is because JR East is working on the development of hydrogen trains and has set a goal of commercializing them in 2030. Hydrogen trains may start running on the Keiyo Line in less than 10 years.

In fact, wind turbines have been installed on the walls and fences of the Keiyo Line, and solar panels have been installed at stations, showing that the line is actively working to introduce renewable energy.

Kasai Rinkai Park also includes Kasai Seaside Park.

The next stop after Shiomi Station is Kasai Rinkai Koen Station, located in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo. As you exit Kasai Rinkai Koen Station, as the station name suggests, the “Metropolitan Kasai Rinkai Park” stretches out right in front of you. The park was designed to protect living things and plants from the environmental destruction caused by water pollution in Tokyo Bay, which had become a serious problem since the 1970s.

Kasai Rinkai Park is a metropolitan park, but the sandy beach and beach near the sea of ​​the park is a municipal park called Kasai Seaside Park. Since the park is located in a contiguous area and is not divided into metropolitan and municipal zones, visitors do not have to worry about it. Also, the ease of use does not change between different parks.

However, the history of Kasai Seaside Park’s creation is slightly different from that of Kasai Rinkai Park. During the period of high economic growth, seawalls were built to prevent flood damage, and environmental deterioration is caused by ground subsidence due to construction residue and groundwater pumping.

Kasai Seaside Park opened in 1989. The environment off the coast of Kasai is improving little by little through beach cleaning work and efforts to improve water quality. In 2015, with the cooperation of Edogawa Ward, Koto Ward, local NPO organizations, and others, it became possible to swim on the sandy beach of Kasai Seaside Park. With the permission granted for swimming, there were reports saying, “Beach beaches are back in Tokyo’s 23 wards!?” However, to be precise, the sandy beach at Kasai Seaside Park is not a beach, but rather a place for swimming as an event. It is only a permitted initiative.

However, the efforts at Kasai Seaside Park are inspiring those working to improve water quality in Odaiba and other areas. Since then, swimming has been allowed in Odaiba as the water quality has improved, and the triathlon swimming competition will be held in Odaiba at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Improvement of water quality in Kasai and Daiba, that is, Tokyo Bay, is still in its infancy. Therefore, efforts to improve water quality will continue, but given that the water quality improvement efforts that began at Kasai Seaside Park were related to the Tokyo Olympics, the role played by Kasai Rinkai Park cannot be ignored.

Ichikawa Shiohama/Futamata Shinmachi is a factory and warehouse district

When the Keiyo Line leaves Kasai Rinkai Koen Station, it crosses the Old Edogawa River and enters Chiba Prefecture. Maihama Station and Shin-Urayasu Station are rapid stops, so this time we will pass and get off at Ichikawa Shiohama Station. From the platform of Ichikawa Shiohama Station, you can see that there are many factories and warehouses built around the station, and there are also business hotels adjacent to the station.

Many of the people who got off the train at the station seemed to work in nearby factories and warehouses, and boarded a company shuttle bus that was waiting at a small rotary at the north exit.

When a company shuttle bus departs, the quiet area in front of the station is filled with the sounds of operations from factories and warehouses, as well as the sound of cars passing on the Tokyo Bayside Road and Shuto Expressway Bayside Line, which run east-west north of the station.

To the north of the Tokyo Bay Coast Road and Shuto Expressway Bay Shore Line, the Ichikawa Wild Bird Paradise has been developed and is open to the public to protect the Tokyo Bay ecosystem. However, it cannot be accessed during normal times. Next door to the north is the Imperial Household Agency Shinhama Kamoba, but of course you can’t enter there either.

The area around Ichikawa Shiohama Station has a rich natural environment, but you can’t really feel it even if you just stop by. If we wait for the passage of time, the greenery will increase further, and more wild birds will come flying in, new sights may emerge.

The next station, Futamata-Shinmachi Station, has an even stronger atmosphere of a factory/warehouse district. There is a small rotary in front of the station, but it is less crowded than Ichikawa-Shiohama Station, and it is unlikely that visitors will stop by.

In front of the station, the Higashi-Kanto Expressway, which continues from the Tokyo Bayside Road and the Shuto Expressway Bayside Line, runs east-west, and the view is the same as Ichikawa Shiohama Station. However, I had the impression that large trucks and trailers were conspicuous at Futamata-Shinmachi Station.

As I was taking a short walk in front of the station, I heard a roar coming from overhead. When I looked up, I saw a freight train running down a branch line of the Keiyo Line. After that, freight trains continued to run every few minutes. The Keiyo Line has a history of being developed as a freight line to transport goods to factories in the Keiyo Waterfront Industrial Area. For this reason, freight trains still run frequently.

Along the Keiyo Line, which developed as an industrial area, over time the number of leisure spots has increased and Tower Man has become more prominent, but two stations, Ichikawa Shiohama Station and Futamata Shinmachi Station, retain the atmosphere of the Keiyo Line when it first opened.

New Narashino is undergoing rapid development and new facilities are opening in Makuhari Toyosuna.

The next stop, Shin-Narashino Station, is located in Narashino City. Although it is not included in Makuhari New City, which is being developed by Chiba Prefecture and Chiba City, the development of the city has clearly been influenced by Makuhari New City.

Akitsu Sports Park, located on the north side of the station, is a vast park that has been loved by local residents. Although this view on the north side has been preserved, the south side is lined with large suburban commercial facilities, making it look like Shin-Narashino Station from a few years ago.

If you walk further south from the area lined with large commercial facilities, you will see the Chiba Institute of Technology’s new Narashino campus. Because Chiba Institute of Technology students use the station, students are conspicuous at Shin-Narashino Station in the morning and evening. However, the area around the station does not have the atmosphere of a student town. Many of the stores located in front of the station are national chain stores found in the suburbs and are crowded with families.

The station next to Shin-Narashino, which is undergoing rapid development, is Makuhari Toyosuna Station, which will open in 2023. The author visited Makuhari Toyosuna Station in November, about six months after it opened. The purpose of visiting the station was simply to see for myself how the area around the new station had been developed.

At the time I went to check out the station and the surrounding area, the commercial facility “Aeon Mall” in front of the station was busy, but some sections were under construction. The station and station square were not yet completed, so I wanted to revisit the station square when it was completed and see how the town would develop.

Recently, I took the challenge of getting off at all 7 stations and got off at Makuhari Toyosuna Station again. When I revisited the area, I found that the temporary construction fence had been removed and the area had been renovated into the “Umikaze Square.” A new store modeled after a Keiyo Line train and a lawn area have been unveiled, where you can enjoy barbecues and other activities.

This time I visited during the daytime on a weekday, so I didn’t see anyone enjoying the barbecue. However, there are shopping malls in the area, so demand may increase in the future.

The station was opened with the help of JR East, Chiba Prefecture, Chiba City, and AEON Mall. In front of the station is the huge AEON Mall Makuhari New City, which consists of multiple malls. To the south of Grand Mall is Chiba City Toyosuna Park, which is also managed by Aeon Mall.

The south side of the station is home to Aeon facilities and is expected to be used by many people, while the north side is home to the JR East Keiyo Vehicle Center. The only people who have business at the vehicle center are related parties, and visitors generally do not visit the center.

Due to this locational perspective, the station building is located only on the south side of the tracks, and there is no traffic line connecting the south and north sides of the station. To access the north side after leaving the station, you will be forced to take a considerable detour. Therefore, there was a plan to build an overpass to connect the north and south areas at the same time the station opened. This plan has not yet come to fruition. I believe that a maintenance plan will be drawn up after simulating the maintenance costs and demand for the overpass, but it seems like it will still take some time.

I ran around and visited all seven stations, which until then only had trains arriving and departing from each station. With this timetable revision, the Keiyo Line has switched to a timetable that mainly stops at each station. This means that development resources will now be poured into these seven stations. Until now, the development and development of all seven stations has been relatively slow, but it is expected to speed up in the future.