Yamanote Line

The Yamanote Line (Yamanote-sen) is a loop service in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines, connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres, including Marunouchi, the Yūrakuchō/Ginza area, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, and Ueno, with all but two of its 30 stations connecting to other railway or underground (subway) lines. Internally JR East refers to the "Yamanote Line" as the quadruple-track corridor between Shinagawa and Tabata via Shinjuku. The corridor consists of a pair of tracks used by Yamanote local trains and another parallel pair of tracks called "the Yamanote Freight Line" used by the Saikyō and Shōnan-Shinjuku line trains, some limited express services, and freight trains. In everyday usage, branding on maps and station signage, the "Yamanote Line" refers to the local service (also called "system") running the entire line looping between the Yamanote corridor via Shinjuku Station and the central portions of the Tōhoku and Tōkaidō Main Lines Via Tokyo Station. (This article uses the same definition unless noted otherwise.) Trains run from 04:26 to 01:04 the next day at intervals as short as 2 minutes during peak periods and four minutes at other times. A complete loop takes 59 to 65 minutes. All trains stop at each station. Trains are put into and taken out of service at (which for timetabling purposes is the line's start and terminus) and sometimes . Certain trains also start from Tamachi in the mornings and end at in the evenings. Trains which run clockwise are known as sotomawari and those counter-clockwise as uchi-mawari. (Trains travel on the left in Japan, as with road traffic.) The line also acts as a fare zone destination for JR tickets from locations outside Tokyo, permitting travel to any JR station on or within the loop. This refers to stations on the Yamanote Line as well as the Chūō-Sōbu and Chūō Rapid Lines and between and . The line colour used on all rolling stock, station signs and diagrams is JNR Yellow Green No.