Shinjuku Line — Tokyo subway
Leaf-green Toei line from Shinjuku out to Motoyawata in Chiba, built on an odd gauge to suit Keio.
The Shinjuku Line at a glance
The Shinjuku Line runs 23.5 km from Shinjuku east to Motoyawata in Ichikawa, Chiba, which makes it the only Toei line that leaves Tokyo. Most of its trains carry on past Shinjuku onto the Keio New Line for Sasazuka, and some run much further, to Hashimoto in Sagamihara by way of the Keio and Keio Sagamihara lines.
That is why its track is an unusual width. Every other line in the Tokyo subway was built to 1,435 mm or 1,067 mm gauge; the Shinjuku Line was laid at 1,372 mm to match the Keio network. It was planned as Line 10, and the name goes back to a Tokyo tram line of 1903, which ran between Shinjuku and Yotsuya and predates the Seibu Shinjuku Line by half a century.
What to watch out for on the Shinjuku Line
Every station on the Shinjuku Line
21 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.
Shinjuku ↔ Motoyawata
21 stations
Service hours on the Shinjuku Line
| Timetable | First – last departure on the line |
|---|---|
| Weekdays | 05:00 – 00:27 |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 05:00 – 00:27 |
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 | 4 min | 6 min | 6.6 min | Morishita |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 5.2 min | 5.4 min | 7.3 min | Morishita |
Average gap between trains in one direction at the busiest station of the line.
Where you can transfer
| Station | Other lines | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| S01 Shinjuku | MMarunouchi EOedo | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| S02 Shinjuku-sanchome | MMarunouchi FFukutoshin | Tokyo Metro |
| S04 Ichigaya | YYurakucho NNamboku | Tokyo Metro |
| S05 Kudanshita | TTozai ZHanzomon | Tokyo Metro |
| S06 Jimbocho | ZHanzomon IMita | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| S11 Morishita | EOedo | Toei Subway |
| S13 Sumiyoshi | ZHanzomon | 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 | Shinjuku-nishiguchi | Oedo Line | about 3 min |
| Ogawamachi | Shin-ochanomizu | Chiyoda Line | about 4 min |
| Ogawamachi | Awajicho | Marunouchi Line | about 2 min |
| Iwamotocho | Akihabara | Hibiya Line | about 4 min |
| Bakuro-yokoyama | Higashi-nihombashi | Asakusa 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 Urban Transportation Council proposed Line 10 in April 1968, running from Roka-koen through Shinjuku and along Yasukuni-dori by way of Ichigaya, Jimbocho and Hamacho to Sumiyoshicho. The construction ministry approved the 12.5 km Shinjuku to Sumiyoshicho section in a notice of 28 December that year, and a further notice on 20 May 1969 added the Keio Line between Chofu and Shinjuku and extended the planning area east to Higashi-ojima, where the depot would be, bringing the whole scheme to 31.2 km.
Construction began on 1 May 1971 near Morishita and Sumiyoshi, and a 1972 report added the sections towards Hashimoto in the west and Motoyawata in the east. The line opened from the middle outwards: Iwamotocho to Higashi-ojima on 21 December 1978; Shinjuku to Iwamotocho on 16 March 1980, when through services onto the Keio lines began; Higashi-ojima to Funabori on 23 December 1983; Funabori to Shinozaki on 14 September 1986; and Shinozaki to Motoyawata on 19 March 1989, completing it. In the 2009 congestion survey it was the third most crowded subway line in Tokyo, at 181 per cent between Nishi-ojima and Sumiyoshi.
Trains and service
Two timetables are published, 平日 for weekdays and 土休日 for Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, and there is no night service: first trains leave about 05:00 and the last about 00:27. Measured at Morishita, weekday trains come about every four minutes in the morning peak and every six to seven minutes at midday and in the evening, with five to seven minutes on Saturdays and holidays. Local trains stop everywhere. Express trains run only in the peaks, westbound in the morning and eastbound in the evening, between Motoyawata and Hashimoto. At weekends two trains a day run through to Takaosanguchi on the Keio Takao Line and one to Tama-Dobutsukoen.
Rolling stock
The line is worked entirely by ten-car trains, Toei 10-300 series together with Keio 5000 and 9000 series sets brought in by the through services; eight-car trains ran until 11 August 2022. The Toei 10-300R and 10-000 series were withdrawn in 2017 and 2018, and the Keio 6000 series in 2011. All of them share the line’s 1,372 mm gauge, which no other subway line in Tokyo uses.
Frequently asked questions
To let Keio trains run on it. Keio’s network uses 1,372 mm gauge, a width inherited from Tokyo’s trams, and the subway was built to match so that through services could work from the day the Shinjuku end opened in 1980. Every other line in the Tokyo subway uses either 1,435 mm or 1,067 mm.
No. Express services run only during the peaks, westbound in the morning and eastbound in the evening, between Motoyawata and Hashimoto on the Keio Sagamihara Line. At every other hour the line runs local trains calling at all 21 stations.
No, it is in Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture, which makes the Shinjuku Line the only Toei line to run outside Tokyo. The Tokyo Metro Tozai Line also reaches Chiba, and the Yurakucho and Fukutoshin lines reach Saitama, but no other Toei line crosses the boundary.