At the same time, the Railway Timetable and Fare List was recorded in the official archives of the Railway Board, the government office controlling the line at that time. Times and fares were posted on station boards to keep passengers informed about services. Starting with the inaugural run carrying the Meiji Emperor on 14 October, nine return services were run each day, stopping at Shimbashi, Shinagawa, Kawasaki, Tsurumi, Kanagawa and Yokohama stations, and covering the 29 km between the termini in 53 minutes. This is the first known railway timetable in Japan.

1 had been making provisional runs between Shinagawa and Yokohama from 12 June (7 May in lunar calendar) and the Railway Board produced a railway timetable showing departure and arrival times as well as fares.

Prior to the official opening by the Meiji Emperor (1852–1912) on 14 October (12 September in old lunar calendar), Locomotive No. Obviously we don’t have enough space here to cover 127 years of historic events in the timetable but I have compiled some key facts from the historic debut up to the current state of the Japanese timetable.ġ872 saw the birth of the first railway in Japan between Shimbashi and Yokohama under the guidance of British Engineer-in-Chief Edmund Morel (1841–71). Contrast this with the current JTB Timetable of 1152 pages and we see it has taken 127 years for the timetable to grow from 1 to 1152 pages. The history of railway timetables in Japan dates back much further than 1925, originating with a single sheet in 1872 for the line between Shimbashi and Yokohama. This milestone has been reached only by a handful of other art and literary monthlies in Japan-a commonplace timetable, filled mostly with numbers, has caused a stir in the world of Japanese publishing.Īlthough monthlies are usually published every month, 12 times a year, our timetable’s monthly publication was interrupted from December 1943 to 1947 because of WWII-but the publishers of the JTB Timetable overcame the tragedy of war and have continued publishing unbroken for 84 years. Spring 2009 marked an epoch in Japan when the May edition of the monthly JTB Timetable was published by JTB Publishing on 20 April, bringing the magazine to issue 1000 since its launch in April 1925.

The Tale of One Thousand Timetable Issues Railway Timetables Japan Railway & Transport Review No.

Japan railways timetable