Oedo Line — Tokyo subway
Magenta Toei line shaped like a figure six: a loop around central Tokyo with a tail running out to Hikarigaoka.
The Oedo Line at a glance
The Oedo Line is 40.7 km long and entirely underground, which makes it the second-longest railway tunnel in Japan after the Seikan Tunnel. It was the first line in the Tokyo subway to use linear-motor propulsion, a choice that allows smaller cars and smaller tunnels but rules out through services, since no other railway’s trains fit.
It is deep as well as long, reaching 48 m below ground at points in the centre and crossing under the Sumida River three times. Its name was given by Governor Shintaro Ishihara and means Greater Edo, after the city’s older name. In the Toei network it carries the most passengers of any line, and it is the only one that runs at a loss.
What to watch out for on the Oedo Line
Every station on the Oedo Line
38 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.
Oedo loop (Tochomae → Shinjuku-nishiguchi → Tochomae)
28 stations, a loop
Service hours on the Oedo Line
| Timetable | First – last departure on the line |
|---|---|
| Weekdays | 05:00 – 00:57 |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 05:00 – 00:57 |
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 | 3.7 min | 6 min | 6 min | Kiyosumi-shirakawa |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 5 min | 6 min | 7 min | Kiyosumi-shirakawa |
Average gap between trains in one direction at the busiest station of the line.
Where you can transfer
| Station | Other lines | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| E02 Higashi-shinjuku | FFukutoshin | Tokyo Metro |
| E06 Iidabashi | TTozai YYurakucho NNamboku | Tokyo Metro |
| E07 Kasuga | IMita | Toei Subway |
| E08 Hongo-sanchome | MMarunouchi | Tokyo Metro |
| E11 Kuramae | AAsakusa | Toei Subway |
| E13 Morishita | SShinjuku | Toei Subway |
| E14 Kiyosumi-shirakawa | ZHanzomon | Tokyo Metro |
| E15 Monzen-nakacho | TTozai | Tokyo Metro |
| E16 Tsukishima | YYurakucho | Tokyo Metro |
| E20 Daimon | AAsakusa | Toei Subway |
| E22 Azabu-juban | NNamboku | Tokyo Metro |
| E23 Roppongi | HHibiya | Tokyo Metro |
| E24 Aoyama-itchome | GGinza ZHanzomon | Tokyo Metro |
| E27 Shinjuku | MMarunouchi SShinjuku | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| E30 Nakano-sakaue | MMarunouchi | 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shinjuku-nishiguchi | Shinjuku | Marunouchi Line, Shinjuku Line, and Oedo Line | about 3 min |
| Kasuga | Korakuen | Marunouchi Line and Namboku Line | about 2 min |
| Ueno-okachimachi | Ueno-hirokoji | Ginza Line | about 2 min |
| Ueno-okachimachi | Naka-okachimachi | Hibiya Line | about 5 min |
| Shinjuku | Shinjuku-nishiguchi | Oedo Line | about 3 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
The line was proposed in 1962 as a route from Roka-koen through Shinjuku and Fukagawa to Azabu. Keio objected that a subway through its bus territory would damage that business, and in March 1964 the council revised the western end to follow a quadrupled Keio Line instead. The scheme returned in 1968 as an incomplete loop from Shinjuku around northern and eastern Tokyo, and was amended in 1972 to close the loop, run out to Hikarigaoka and add a spur to Mejiro.
A licence for the whole thing was granted in August 1974, with an opening planned for 1985, but the oil crisis of 1973 and the transport bureau’s finances froze the project from mid-1976. Redevelopment of the former Grant Heights site at Hikarigaoka revived it, and the metropolitan government decided to build in December 1982. Work started on 1 June 1986. Hikarigaoka to Nerima opened on 10 December 1991, Nerima to Shinjuku on 19 December 1997, and Shinjuku to Kokuritsu-kyogijo on 20 April 2000, when the line got its name: the public had voted for Tokyo Loop Line, which Ishihara rejected because it would not be a true loop. The full line opened on 12 December 2000, a date that reads 12/12/12 in the Japanese calendar, and Shiodome was added on 2 November 2002. Budgeted at ¥682.6 billion over six years, it took nearly ten and cost at least ¥988.6 billion.
Trains and service
Two timetables are published, 平日 for weekdays and 土休日 for Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays; first trains leave about 05:00 and the last about 00:57, and nothing runs overnight. Measured at Kiyosumi-shirakawa, weekday trains come about every four minutes in the morning peak and every six minutes at midday and in the evening, with five to seven minutes on Saturdays and holidays. The shape matters more than the frequency. This is not a true loop: trains from Hikarigaoka run anticlockwise round the circle and terminate at Tochomae facing back the way they came, and trains in the other direction do the reverse. The full run from Tochomae round the loop and out to Hikarigaoka takes 81 minutes. No Oedo Line train leaves the subway.
Rolling stock
The line is worked by Toei 12-000 and 12-600 series eight-car trains, built small to suit the linear-motor tunnels. They are stabled and maintained at Kiba depot, underneath Kiba Park. Heavy overhauls are done at Magome depot on the Asakusa Line, which Oedo Line trains reach through a connecting tunnel near Shiodome; because the two lines’ systems are incompatible, the trains are hauled there overnight by a special Class E5000 locomotive while the subway is closed.
Frequently asked questions
Not quite. It is shaped like a figure six lying on its side: a loop around central Tokyo with a tail running out to Hikarigaoka in the northwest. Trains do not go round and round. They run once round the loop and terminate at Tochomae, where the loop closes, so a journey across the join means changing from one Oedo Line train to another.
Because nothing else fits. The line uses linear-motor propulsion, which allowed smaller cars and much smaller tunnels and so cut the cost of building deep, but no conventional train can work on it, and its own trains are too small a fit for other lines’ clearances. The only connection to another line, to the Asakusa Line near Shiodome, is used for overnight transfers to the works.
It was the last line built through central Tokyo and had to pass under everything already there, which puts it as much as 48 m down and under the Sumida River three times. The deep route also forced tight curves and narrow tunnels, which is why it is among the noisiest railways anywhere, regularly around 90 decibels.