Keiō Line


The Keio Line is a 37.9 km railway line in western Tokyo, Japan, owned by the private railway operator Keio Corporation. It connects Shinjuku, Tokyo, with the suburban city of Hachiōji. The Keio Line is part of a network with interchanges and through running to other lines of Keio Corporation: the Keio New Line, Keio Sagamihara Line, the Keibajo Line, the Dobutsuen Line, the Takao Line, and the gauge Keio Inokashira Line.

Services

Six different types of limited-stop services are operated on the Keio Line, along with local trains. Destinations are from Shinjuku unless otherwise indicated. English abbreviations are tentative for this article.
; Keio Liner
From Feb. 22nd, 2019, Keio Liner started providing reserved-seat train service from Keio-Hachioji and Hashimoto to Shinjuku in the morning.
Morning trains only allow passengers to get on the train except Shinjuku, while evening trains are free about riding after Fuchu.
; Special Express
; Semi Special Express
; Express
; Semi Express
; Rapid
; Local

Stations

Legend:
Events at stations marked with a "◇" symbol for which trains make special seasonal stops:
The Shinjuku to Chōfu section opened in 1913 as a gauge line electrified at 600 V DC, and was progressively extended in both directions so that the line connected Shinjuku and Fuchu in 1916. The Sasazuka to Fuchu section was double-tracked between 1920 and 1923.
The extension to Higashi-Hachiōji was completed by a related company, Gyokunan Electric Railway, in 1925. This electrified line was built to the Japanese standard narrow gauge of in an attempt to seek a government subsidy, and so trains from each railway could not operate on the other's tracks. The subsidy application was rejected on the basis that the line competed with the Japanese Government Railways Chuo Main Line, and so the Gyokunan Electric Railway merged with the Keio Electric Railway Co., the line was regauged to 1,372 mm, and operation of trains from Shinjuku to Higashi-Hachiōji commenced in 1928.
The Fuchu to Nakagawara and Seiseki-Sakuragaoka to Kitano sections were double-tracked in 1929. In 1963, the Shinjuku underground station, including double-tracking from Sasazuka, commenced service, and the overhead line voltage was increased to 1,500 V DC. The Nakagawara to Seiseki-Sakuragaoka section was double-tracked in 1964. The Kitano to Keio-Hachioji section was double-tracked in 1970, and the relocation of the terminal station underground was completed in 1989.
From the start of the revised timetable introduced on 25 September 2015, Semi Special Express services were also to stop at Sasazuka and Chitose-Karasuyama stations, and Semi Express services will also stop at Sengawa Station.

Level crossings and congestion

The Keiō Line is infamous for its level crossings, of which the 25 lying on the 7.2-kilometer section between Sasazuka and Sengawa stations are classified by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Construction Bureau as akazu no fumikiri as they are closed to road traffic for over 40 minutes in an hour. The government has plans to remove these crossings by grade-separating this section of the line by 2022.
Congestion on the Keiō Line is also a concern, with trains often running as close as 1 minute apart during rush hours. In 2016, Keiō and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Construction Bureau proposed that the section between Sasazuka and Chofu be widened to quadruple-track to reduce the effects caused by the present bunching on the existing double-tracked line.