Hibiya Line — Tokyo subway
Silver line from Naka-meguro to Kita-senju through Roppongi, Ginza and Tsukiji, with Tobu trains running through.
The Hibiya Line at a glance
The Hibiya Line covers 20.3 km between Naka-meguro in Meguro and Kita-senju in Adachi, and it is named after the Hibiya area of Chiyoda that it passes under. Its route shadows the Ginza Line through the centre, but it was laid out to reach districts no line then served: Ebisu, Roppongi, Tsukiji, Kayabacho and Senju.
Two firsts belong to it. It was the first line operated by what is now Tokyo Metro to run through onto a private railway, and the second subway line in Tokyo to do so at all, after the Asakusa Line. It was also the first Tokyo subway built to 1,067 mm narrow gauge, which every later Tokyo Metro line copied precisely so that through running would be possible.
What to watch out for on the Hibiya Line
Every station on the Hibiya Line
22 stations in order with their station numbers. A ringed dot marks a station where you can transfer; the small coloured dots are the other lines there.
Naka-meguro ↔ Kita-senju
22 stations
Service hours on the Hibiya Line
| Timetable | First – last departure on the line |
|---|---|
| Weekdays | 05:00 – 00:34 |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 05:00 – 00:34 |
Departure times come from the operators’ own GTFS timetables (ODPT GTFS Toei-Train-GTFS (version 20261009, valid 2026-03-14..2027-03-12) + TokyoMetro-Train-GTFS (version 20261008, valid 2026-09-19..2027-03-12)). Japan publishes two subway timetables: 平日 weekdays and 土休日 Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. There is no separate Sunday timetable, and the December 30 – January 3 period runs the holiday timetable. Each station page gives its own first and last train by direction.
How often trains run
| Timetable | Morning peak (08:00) | Midday (12:00) | Evening (21:00) | Measured at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekdays | 2.3 min | 5 min | 4.3 min | Hatchobori |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 5 min | 5 min | 5.9 min | Hatchobori |
Average gap between trains in one direction at the busiest station of the line.
Where you can transfer
| Station | Other lines | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| H04 Roppongi | EOedo | Toei Subway |
| H07 Kasumigaseki | MMarunouchi CChiyoda | Tokyo Metro |
| H08 Hibiya | CChiyoda IMita | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| H09 Ginza | GGinza MMarunouchi | Tokyo Metro |
| H10 Higashi-ginza | AAsakusa | Toei Subway |
| H13 Kayabacho | TTozai | Tokyo Metro |
| H14 Ningyocho | AAsakusa | Toei Subway |
| H18 Ueno | GGinza | Tokyo Metro |
| H22 Kita-senju | CChiyoda | Tokyo Metro |
A transfer to a line of the other company is a change of railway as well as of platform: your fare is the sum of the two, less the connecting discount. See fares.
Transfers on foot to a differently named station
| From | To | Lines there | On foot (estimated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toranomon-hills | Toranomon | Ginza Line | about 6 min |
| Hibiya | Yurakucho | Yurakucho Line | about 3 min |
| Ginza | Ginza-itchome | Yurakucho Line | about 5 min |
| Tsukiji | Shintomicho | Yurakucho Line | about 5 min |
| Ningyocho | Suitengumae | Hanzomon Line | about 7 min |
| Akihabara | Iwamotocho | Shinjuku Line | about 4 min |
| Naka-okachimachi | Ueno-hirokoji | Ginza Line | about 5 min |
| Naka-okachimachi | Ueno-okachimachi | Oedo Line | about 5 min |
These are official transfers recorded by the operators between stations with different names. The walking time is our estimate from the distance between the platforms — no operator publishes transfer walking times.
History
A Line 2 from Meguro to Minami-senju appears in the Ministry of Home Affairs plan of 1925, and the licences passed to the Teito Rapid Transit Authority in 1941. After the war the War Damage Reconstruction Board redrew the route on 7 December 1946, and a revised 23.8 km line was approved in May 1949. The authority decided to build it on 18 May 1957, with a basic plan running from Naka-meguro in the southwest to Kita-koshigaya in the northeast; the far northeastern section was never built, because Tobu quadrupled its own tracks in the same corridor instead.
Work began in 1959 and the line opened in pieces: Minami-senju to Naka-okachimachi in March 1961, Kita-senju to Ningyocho in May 1962, on to Higashi-ginza in February 1963, and Naka-meguro to Kasumigaseki in March 1964. The gap between Higashi-ginza and Kasumigaseki closed on 29 August 1964, weeks before the Tokyo Olympics opened and while the Toei Asakusa Line, meant for the same deadline, was still unfinished. Through service to the Tokyu Toyoko Line began the same day and ran until 16 March 2013. The line was one of those attacked with sarin in 1995, and on 8 March 2000 a derailed train was struck by another near Naka-meguro, killing five people and injuring 63. The newest station, Toranomon-hills, opened on 6 June 2020.
Trains and service
Two timetables apply, 平日 on weekdays and 土休日 on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. First trains leave about 05:00 and the last about 00:34 on both, and the line closes overnight. Measured at Hatchobori, weekday trains come about every two to three minutes in the morning peak, every five minutes at midday and every four in the evening; on Saturdays and holidays the peak gap widens to about five minutes. Through trains continue from Kita-senju onto the Tobu Skytree Line as far as Tobu-dobutsu-koen and on to Minami-kurihashi on the Tobu Nikko Line, with some peak services turning back at Takenotsuka, Kita-koshigaya or Kita-kasukabe. The reserved-seat TH Liner has run since 6 June 2020.
Rolling stock
The line is worked by seven-car trains: Tokyo Metro 13000 series since 25 March 2017, Tobu 70000 series since 7 July 2017, and Tobu 70090 series since 20 March 2020 for TH Liner duties. The change was more than cosmetic. The old stock mixed cars with three and five doors a side, which made platform gates impossible; standardising on four doors and longer 20 m cars meant dropping from eight cars to seven, at a cost of about one per cent of capacity, and allowed platform gates to be fitted from 14 April 2020.
Frequently asked questions
No. Through services onto the Tokyu Toyoko Line, which had run since the line was completed in 1964, ended on 16 March 2013. Every Hibiya Line train now terminates at Naka-meguro, and the through running that remains is at the other end, onto Tobu.
A reserved-seat, limited-stop service introduced on 6 June 2020 that runs over both the Hibiya Line and the Tobu lines, calling only at selected stations. It uses Tobu 70090 series trains and needs a seat reservation, unlike the ordinary trains on the line.
Not despite the name of the railway it joins. Through trains run onto the Tobu Skytree Line at Kita-senju, but that line is named for the tower rather than routed past it, and the through service does not stop anywhere near it.