On March 1st, JR East celebrated the 140th anniversary of Shinjuku station. In commemoration, several events are held by the company.
Let me quickly review Shinjuku station to start. It’s a giant terminal located in the subcenter of Tokyo Metropolis. Trains of five companies and one public corporation arrive at and leave this giant terminal. Shinjuku station was opened by Nippon Railway Company (present JR East) in 1885. It was located on the outskirts of the city at that time, but has become a giant terminal since the 1920s. The ridership is currently 3 million passengers per day.
Let's get down to the main topic. One of the events for the 140th anniversary is two kinds of memorial plates on the trainset A522 of the EMU E231-500 series. You can see the illustration of the old yellow-colored train, probably the EMU ex-JNR 101 series, on the plates. I remember when the yellow-colored 101 series often stopped at Shinjuku station until the 1980s. After retirement from the JR East lines, some of the 101 series trains were transferred to Chichibu Railway.
What will happen in the future of Shinjuku station? "Shinjuku Grand Terminal" project is going on. It’s a joint public and private sector redevelopment project, which will continue in the western side of the station until the 2040s. For example, the Odakyu Department Store building was demolished last year in order to build a skyscraper. It’s a good start, but still quite a long way to go. Congratulations on the 140th anniversary of Shinjuku station!
Enlargement of the 140th anniversary plate