Blog - Free ticket
Free ticket
Every morning I ride Saikyō line from Shinjuku to Itabashi. Being one of the most crowded lines in Tokyo, it's quite common that it gets late or stuck.
This morning there was a suicide at Kita-Akabane station (Yahoo! News (in Japanese)), and the line was stopped for about an hour.
When Saikyō line stops, the only way I can get to work by train is to ride Yamanote line to Sugamo, and switch to my usual subway line to destination. Having train passes from home to work, if the train is ever late or stopping for a while, I can switch elsewhere and get this ticket at the exit, which allows me to ride the extra for free.
Just gotta ask, and you can easily save a few hundred yen!
Posted on October 28, 2003 at 00:26 | Tweet
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this happened recently here, and i've heard there is talk of installing suicide doors in the stations like they have in hk. have they considered doing that in tokyo?
if someone kills themselves in this way, does their family have to pay the subway line any compensation?
Posted by william on October 28, 2003 at 11:44
There are gates between the platform and the tracks on a few subway lines in Tokyo. However there are many surface trains, and even many subway lines come out to the surface at some stations (that's the case of Mita line where there was a suicide just ahead of my train last month (http://www.chipple.net/mt/archives/000055.php)).
There are just too many ways people can throw themselves in front of a train here.
And yes, when someone who kills themselves on a train line their family have to compensate the company. I think each track have a different fee depending on how "popular" they are for suicides. I heard that JR's Chuo line apparently have the highest rate.
Sad stuff.
Posted by Patrick on October 28, 2003 at 12:19