Odakyu Electric Railway
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Odakyu20001Higashikitazawa.jpg The Template:Nihongo, or OER, is a major private railway company in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, and Hakone.
Contents |
History
The 83km line from Shinjuku to Odawara opened for service on April 1, 1927.
The original full name of the railroad was Odawara Kyūkō Denki Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha, but this was often shortened to Odawara Kyūkō (Odawara Express). The abbreviation Odakyū was made popular by the title song of the 1929 movie Tokyo Kōshinkyoku and eventually became the official name of the railroad (Seidensticker, 1990).
On May 1, 1942, Odakyu merged with the Tokyo-Yokohama Electric Railway company (now Tokyu), which controlled all private railway services west and south of Tokyo by the end of World War II. The company regained its independence on June 1, 1948.
Today, Odakyu is a diversified corporation with operations in real estate, fiber optic networking, personal storage, and travel sales. They also own several recreational facilities, including a golf course, campground, hot springs resort, and sailing resort, all of which are situated to bring more passengers onto the railway network.
The Odakyu group have department stores by Shinjuku, Machida and Fujisawa stations.
They also own a chain of supermarkets called Odakyu OX across west Tokyo, as well as a chain of convenience stores (Odakyu MART) and kiosk outlets (OX SHOP) found in various Odakyu line stations.
Odakyu is a company on Fortune magazine's Global 500 list.
Lines
- Odakyu Enoshima Line (Sagami-Ono Station - Katase-Enoshima Station)
- Odakyu Odawara Line (Shinjuku Station - Odawara Station)
- Odakyu Tama Line (Shin-Yurigaoka Station - Karakida Station)
- Some Odakyu trains from the Tama Line continue on to the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line Yoyogi-Uehara Station.
- Some Odakyu trains continue on to the Hakone-Tozan Line (Odawara Station - Hakone-Yumoto Station)
Odakyu railway on the computer
The Odakyu Railway has been included in several Japanese language train simulator programs as well as the English language Microsoft Train Simulator program. Microsoft Train Simulator includes the railway's Odawara and Hakone-Tozan lines, collectively referred to as the "Tokyo-Hakone" route. You can drive 2 of the trains that travel on the line; the Series 2000 commuter trainset and the Series 7000 LSE "Romance Car" trainset. Several "activities", or scenarios, are included.
References
- Seidensticker, Edward (1990). Tokyo Rising : the city since the great earthquake. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-394-54360-2.