History Of The Odakyu Line

Odakyu Electric Railway was founded on May 1, 1923 with the founding of Odawara Express Railway.
In the fall of 1925, construction began on the Odawara Line between Shinjuku and Odawara stations, and the line began operations on April 1, 1927. At first, the section after Mukogaoka-Yuen Station was a single track, but on October 15, 1927, the entire section began double track operation. The Enoshima Line (between Sagami-Ono and Katase-Enoshima stations) also started operation on April 1, 1929.
However, as the Sino-Japanese War dragged on, the wartime regime was strengthened, and control of land transportation business and state management of electric power was promoted.
030 On May 1, 1942, Odakyu Electric Railway merged with Keihin Electric Railway and Tokyo Yokohama Electric Railway, and changed its name to Tokyu Corporation.
Tokyu Corporation was subsequently entrusted with the management of Sagami Railway’s transportation operations in June 1945, thus establishing the integration of private railways in almost all areas of southwestern Tokyo.
This was the era of the Great Tokyu Railway under the Land Transportation Adjustment Act under wartime control.
After the war, Dai-Tokyu was dismantled and the former Odakyu Electric Railway was spun off from Tokyu Corporation on June 1, 1948.
At the same time, Keihin Electric Railway became independent under the name Keihin Electric Express Railway and Keio Electric Railway under the name Keio Teito Electric Railway.
Type 5000 5270F (Scrapped in November 2010)
Did the Inokashira Line belong to Odakyu Electric Railway?
029 The Inokashira Line was opened between Shibuya and Inokashira Park Station in August 1933 as the Shibuya Line by Teito Electric Railway Company, a member of the Kinugawa Hydroelectric Power Company.
In March 1941, the parent company, Kinugawa Hydroelectric Power Company, changed its name to Odakyu Electric Railway Company, so the line became the Odakyu Electric Railway Teito Line.
Later, due to the Land Transportation Adjustment Act during the war, the company was integrated into Tokyu Corporation and became a member of Dai-Tokyu, which also included Odakyu.
From 1945, the company operated the Daita Liaison Line between Setagaya-Nakahara Station (now Setagaya-Daita Station ) on the Odakyu Line and Daita Nichome Station (now Niyoda Station) on the Inokashira Line of the Keio Teito Electric Railway, and new cars that had been preferentially introduced to the Inokashira Line were maintained at the Odakyu Kyodo Factory (1940 – March 1994) before being introduced to the Inokashira Line. However, this connecting line was removed in 1952. The Inokashira Line, which belonged to Odakyu Electric Railway, became the name of Keio Teito Electric Railway (Keio Electric Railway and Teito Electric Railway) in addition to the main line before the merger after the war.
The Inokashira Line was transferred to Odakyu Electric Railway because the electric power business, which was the main business of the former Keio Electric Railway, was lost due to the national policy under the wartime control at that time. I don’t know if this is the reason, but there is no ticket gate between Odakyu line and Keio Inokashira line at Shimokitazawa station.
Keio Inokashira Line 3000 Series 3729F (Scrapped in July 2011)
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Shimokitazawa Station Odakyu Liaison Passageway (Discontinued in March 2013)
Odakyu Electric Railway and Keio Electric Railway announced on December 25, 2018 that they will open new ticket gates, Odakyu Chuo Exit and Keio Chuo Exit, respectively, at Shimokitazawa Station, which is served by both companies’ lines. Both ticket gates will be newly constructed on March 16, 2019 as the station improvement work progresses. This will ensure a free passage function in the east-west direction and also make the station easier to understand and use by separating the Odakyu and Keio ticket gates, thereby eliminating the possibility of making a mistake on the train. There are three ticket gates at Shimokitazawa Station: the Odakyu Central Exit, the existing East Exit and the Southwest Exit for the Odakyu Line, and the Keio Central Exit and the existing West Exit for the Inokashira Line. When transferring between the Odakyu and Inokashira lines at Shimokitazawa Station, there used to be no ticket gate between the two lines, but after the Odakyu Central Exit and Keio Central Exit are built, you will have to exit the ticket gate once when transferring. Odakyu will install an escalator connecting the second basement floor to the first basement floor to the first floor above ground on the Shinjuku side of the platform, which will be in use by the end of fiscal 2018. Keio plans to build new multi-functional toilets and men’s and women’s restrooms in Inokashira Line stations by the end of fiscal 2018.
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MSE HSE

History of Odakyu (Postwar)
After the war, the biggest challenge was to restore transportation capacity by restoring railway facilities that had been destroyed or fragmented by air strikes.
In October 1948, nonstop weekend express service began between Shinjuku and Odawara stations, and in April 1949, double track service was restored between Fujisawa and Katase Enoshima stations, which had been single track during the war.
In April 1949, the double track between Fujisawa and Katase Enoshima Station, which had been a single track during the war, was restored. On August 1, 1950, the Odawara Express Railway began service on the Hakone Tozan Railway Line, which had been a long-standing concern since the railway’s establishment.
In October 1955, a special semi-express train (Kiha5000) was used on the Matsuda Liaison Line to connect to the Gotemba Line of the Japan National Railways, and a direct service between Shinjuku and Gotemba Stations was started using Odakyu Electric Railway cars and Odakyu crews.
The Limited Express Romance Car (Type 3000 SE), which appeared in the summer of 1957 during the period of rapid economic growth, set a world record for narrow-gauge railways at the time.
This Romance Car won the first Blue Ribbon Award from the Association of Friends of Railroads in June 1958.
In 1960, the Odakyu Shinjuku Station was completely improved. Construction began in May of the same year and was completed in February of 1964, transforming the station into a multi-level terminal with three above-ground lines (express and limited express) and two underground lines (semi-express and local stop). In April 1984, a large-scale renewal project was completed at Shinjuku Station, and the platforms were designed to accommodate 10-car trains. The need to increase transportation capacity, strengthen tracks, and ensure safety prompted the replacement of 37kg rails with 50kg rails, and the heavy-gauge rail system was completed on the Odawara Line in March 1965 and on the Enoshima Line in August 1971.
The first passenger fare from January 1966 was 20 yen for adults and 10 yen for children.
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Hakone Tozan Line Irukuta station LSE
As trains became faster, denser and longer, OM-ATS (Odakyu ATS) was installed on all limited express trains and 17 general trains between Shinjuku and Mukogaoka-Yuen stations on April 1, 1968, to meet the increasing importance of operational security. In March 1970, the deployment of all the cars was completed.
The construction of facilities was completed in July 1971 with the construction of a multi-level intersection with Loop Route 8 (between Chitose-Funabashi and Soshiya-Okura Stations), and the Tama Line between Shin-Yurigaoka and Odakyu Nagayama Stations opened in June 1974 and between Shin-Yurigaoka and Odakyu Tama Center in April 1975.
In July 1977, express trains began operating in 10-car trains between Shinjuku and Hon Atsugi stations, and on March 31, 1978, with the start of direct interchange service between Yoyogi Uehara and Ayase stations on the Eidan Chiyoda Line, express trains (Type 9000) began operating in 10-car trains. The passenger fare was revised around this time, and in 1979, the first passenger fare was changed to 70 yen for adults and 40 yen for children, except for the Tama Line.
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Type 4000 VSE
Abolition of Mukoogaoka Yuen and Monorail Line
The Odakyu Mukogaoka-Yuen Monorail Line ran 1.1 km between Odakyu Mukogaoka-Yuen Station and Mukogaoka-Yuen Shomon Station.
It was a single-track, third-gauge 600V DC monorail line that used a straddle system (Lockheed system = a system using iron rail and iron wheels).
Mukoogaoka-Yuen opened in 1927 at the same time as the Odakyu Odawara Line started operation. The non-electrified, single-track line was initially operated by a small battery-powered locomotive as a means of transporting passengers from Inada Noborito Station (now Mukogaoka Amusement Park Station) to the park.
The locomotives were removed during the war, but were restored in 1950. Later, in 1966, the Deha 500 class locomotives ( Deha 500 class No. 501 and 502) of Japan Lockheed Monorail Company were introduced and started operation. Kawasaki Aircraft Gifu Works manufactured them.
When Odakyu Electric Railway conducted an inspection in 2000, a fatal defect was found in the bogie.
The monorail system was the only Lockheed type in Japan at that time, and it would have cost a huge amount of money to repair it, so Odakyu Electric Railway officially abandoned the repair in November 2000. And it was abolished on February 1, 2001.
Mukogaoka-Yuen also closed on March 31, 2002. Now only the name of the station remains.

History of Odakyu (as of 2013)
Only the express line (2 lines) of the 4-line underground construction of Shimokitazawa station 2-layer underground construction of the upper and lower lines between Yoyogi Uehara and Umegaoka and 3 stations in the same section, Tohokuzawa, Shimokitazawa and Setagaya Daota, was put into use on March 23, 2013. Therefore, temporary platforms will be installed at Tohokuzawa Station and Setagaya-Dyota Station, where only local trains stop. After all the work is completed, Shimokitazawa and Setagaya-Dyota stations will have a two-tiered structure, with the express lines on the third basement level and the slow lines on the second basement level.
end of a double track
028 Noborito Station will return to one line from the cross point on the Tama River pier for the temporary three-line system. (Upward is already double-tracked.) According to the “Development of Noborito Station Down Line 1” in the FY2016 Railway Business Capital Investment Plan, the construction of Noborito Station Platform 1 is underway with the aim of putting it into use in FY2017.
The Odakyu Line’s double-double track and continuous multi-level crossing project is a project to convert the area between Yoyogi Uehara and Mukogaoka Yuen stations (up to Shinyurigaoka in the plan) into a double track, elevated and underground section.
The project aims to eliminate 39 level-crossings in the section.
When completed, the project is expected to increase the number of trains and shorten the time required, and significantly improve the morning rush hour congestion rate on the Odakyu Line from 208% to 160%.
End of the double-track down line
034s-3 This project is based on the construction plan of “Tokyo Line No. 8 (Tokyo Subway Chiyoda Line)”, which was indicated in the sixth report of the Urban Transport Council established in the then Ministry of Transport in 1962.
Later, this plan was finalized in the form of extending the Chiyoda Line by double-double-tracking the Odakyu Line, and the urban planning decision to elevate the 2.4 km section between Izumitamagawa and Kitami Station was made in 1985, and the 6.4 km section between Kitami and Setagaya-Daita in 1964, respectively.
However, the actual construction between “Izumitamagawa and Kitami” station was completed in 1997, and between “Kitami and Umegaoka” station in 2004.
Rendering of Shimokitazawa Station
It has been 40 years since the urban planning decision was made, which is unusual considering that the JR Chuo Line’s continuous overpass was completed 16 years after the urban planning decision was made. The reason why the project has been prolonged is because of the fierce opposition movement of the residents along the Odakyu Line, which is called “Odakyu Elevated Litigation”. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the movement, now that 40 years have passed, I expect the final construction to be completed safely, easing congestion and improving convenience.
March 3, 2018 Start of double track operation “Yoyogi Uehara – Noborito” station, construction completed
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The 11.7-km line between Yoyogi Uehara (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) and Noborito (Kawasaki City) began operation on March 3, 2018 after Odakyu Electric Railway completed the construction of the double-double track system. The photo above left shows the underground track from Setagaya-Daita to Shimokitazawa station direction. (B1F slow line) The photo above right shows the opening ceremony held at Shimokitazawa station on the same day. [30 years after construction began, this is how the Odakyu double track was completed.PDF].
Odakyu Family Railway Exhibition 2011
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The Odakyu Family Railroad Exhibition 2011 was held at Ebina Rail Yard on October 15 and 16, 2011. It had been two years since the last exhibition because it was cancelled due to a typhoon in 2010. The exhibits were Type 3000 Limited Express (SE) 3021F, Type 10000 Limited Express (HiSE) 10001F, Type 5000 4-car fixed formation 5255F and 5063F, and Type 3000 Limited Express (SE) 3021F which are in static preservation. The event was a small one with demonstrations of maintenance cars, sales of railway goods, a quiz corner and a crew experience corner, but it was packed with spectators. At the second site of Ebina Binawalk, a special live performance by Minoru Mukaiya, a live imitation by Shinji Tachikawa, and a mini SL ride were held.
The official announcement by Odakyu Electric Railway is here ( PDF).
For more information about Type 5000, please click here ( Retired Cars). Photos (4) and (5) are not the exhibited cars.
Odakyu Electric Railway lines in operation ( total kilometers: 120.7 km)
line interval Interval distance record
Odawara Line Shinjuku – Odawara 82.5km The section between Umegaoka and Noborito Station (8.9 km) is a double-double track section.
Enoshima Line Sagamiono – Fujisawa – Katase Enoshima 27.6km At “Fujisawa” station, the train switchbacks.
Tama Line Shinyurigaoka – Karakida 10.6km –
The line between Odawara and Hakone-Yumoto Station is the Hakone Tozan Railway Line (single track), but all trains are operated by Odakyu cars.
railyard
name area Number of vehicles Vehicle type, etc.
Ohno General Rolling Stock Yard 33,382m2 – General and critical inspection facilities
Kitami Inspection District 68,300m2 150 cars 1000, 4000, 5000 type and Romance Car (except EXE)
Karakida Branch Office, Kitami Inspection District 43,271m2 130 cars not specified
Ebina Inspection District 56,413m2 300 cars Type 1000, 2000, 3000 and Romance Car (EXE only)
Ebina Inspection District Ohno Branch Office 24,647m2 170 cars Integrated into the Ohno General Rolling Stock Yard in December 2009
Sobudaimae Station Detention Line 80 cars not specified
Ashigara station detention line – 60 cars not specified
Kyodo Station Detention Line – 20 cars not specified
Kyodo inspection area (Kyodo garage and Kyodo factory) was established in 1927 and closed in March 1994. Sobudai Works was established in 1927 and closed in 1962.