Just heading home fon yet another vent and spotted this beauty on Akiba station.
it's an electronic route finder to help you plot your train route as you navigate the labyrinth that is the Tokyo public transit system.
This amazing new machine has a touchscreen and will help you in four languages! Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.
It also provides tourist info and will print out your route with instructions, not just to the train station, but also to tourist attractions all around Eastern Japan.
Very cool. Like a robot tourguide. Except...
it doesn't work. Got an out of service message when I tried to plug in a route. The little red sticker means "in testing". Guess it's not ready yet, but hopefully soon!
Ever used Tokyo public transportation? What did you think of your experience? How does it compare to public transport in your area?
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Poet (not)
Used the train a lot when I was there a couple of years back. Headache at first, but after several days, I couldn't believe how efficient the system was!
Definitely light years ahead of what we have in my neck of the woods.
Messaging specialist
http://saturdaymorningrobots.lithiumstate.nl/
Having spent a few days before my trip looking at the subway/train maps it only took me a day to figure out how Tokyo transit worked when I was there, super effecient, fast and painless. I love it.
These days however they have given train stations a numeric designation like for example A11 (Akiba?) or G12(something else) ; they think that for tourists it's too hard to ask directions for "Akihabara" instead of saying "A11"
Interesting thing is, no Japanese is going to know what A11 would correspond too as they do not even bother looking at that :-)
Needless to say there are alot of not so travel savy tourists that could definitly use this little buddy once it's up and running.
http://www.stefkov.com/
Ooh wow, this would help a lot for someone visiting for the first time.
However I love planning routes myself and seeing where it takes me. That's why I love going to London and travelling on the Underground.
web head
When I was staying in Tokyo, it took me about two weeks to be able to navigate the trains without much hassle. One thing about looking really lost though, is you get a lot of cool people trying to help you out. I actually got a date out of it once!
C.E. Student
Looks like it will be very useful when it starts working. There are no machines like this in my area. We do have lots of trains but no robot tourguides.
Can't wait to see it when it works.
Car Washer
i need one of those but as a pocket watch
Draftsman Graduated, Environment & Interior Design Student
http://www.flickr.com/photos/manuelriosg/
In my country the public trnsport is a bullshit
Look this... waiting for your bus?? http://bit.ly/Xi8M3
http://xcomprandomness.co.uk/
Never been but read about how incredibly complex the it's supposed to be so I'm curious... Just how bad is it? The number of changes you need to go through to get to a place or just finding the right platforms?
Getting to places isn't too bad here although often there are delays or the bus goes missing and it's not fun when you're waiting out in the cold, wet Scottish weather. If the whole place was covered as good as the HK underground and train network, it would be great. Transport cards that you can top up would be great too so we don't have to thumble around for change or wait for people to do the same.
IT Business Analyst + Test Analyst + Undergrad Uni Student
http://www.crepuscular.asia
i think this is mainly for foreigners, Japanese users would rely on their keitai instead ;)
so when I was visiting friends in Kofu, I relied on my friends' keitai to check the time and the trains to go back to Tokyo
Train system in Japan is really good and very convenient. In my place the train is slow and only available every 20 minutes. The train comes in 2 'cabin' and we pack like sardine in a very hot day.
Wastrel
The JR shinkansen system has a web portal that allows you to find the exact timings of the trains on their system. An incredible system for planning the intercity portions of a trip to Japan.
My best experience on that vacation was the train to Nikko. We just got there 10 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart, they allowed us to buy the tickets. Then the ticket lady gave an 8 minute briefing on the sights to see, and some quirks on the train's route. So here I was sweating bullets, and the lady just opened the back door that led straight onto the platform. Asked the conductor to hold the train until we got on.
Forget on time robotic trains with state-of-the-art sensors and precision timing, some things just need a human touch.
Nendoroid Hunter
haven't been to Tokyo, but when I do, I hope this little guy and his brothers would be working by then :)
Underpants inspector #42
With a little bit of forward planning, I found the trains in Tokyo pretty easy to use. Clean and quick, but not surprisingly quite crowded. I was surprised how few trains there were in Kyoto, there were two subway lines but that was about it. There were lots of buses to make up for it though.
Buses are the only public transport in my city (Canberra). They're clean and cheap, but are also slow and frequently late. The government was considering putting in a light rail system, but they're too gutless to outlay the $2 billion required to set it up. Sigh.
University Student
Never been to Tokyo, but going to try it when I'm there. In Calgary, there's no point having advance technology for public transportation as almost everyone drive a car. T_T I wish there's some sweet fast and efficient transportation here....40 min per bus for non-rush hour....15 min for rush hour......worst when there's snow T-T!!!
Exchange student
I'm actually finding the train system quite easy to understand. Though I know some of the other exchange students struggle a little. x)
I especially like the JR system, all the trains are color coded. I just changed host families, and now use the Keio line, which is a little confusing and different from JR. Ended up at the wrong place the first day because I didn't read the end station. Right platform, but totally wrong train. :/
Unix Sys Admin & College Lecturer
http://colorado-otaku.blogspot.com
I was in Japan 2 years ago and really liked the train system. Especially the bullet train (新幹線). Next time I go over, like to spend the whole day in Aikihabara and spend more time exploring around in Tokyo and also go to Kyoto. The closest thing here in the USA is some towns have light rail like Denver near me. However, it is not extensive though. I would like to be able to hop on the train here in Colorado Springs and go North up to Denver (60 miles/100 km.
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
I have never been in Tokyo, so I can't comment on how well the train system works (I'm told it's on time, which is rare in most countries).
The route planner is something I can talk about though. It's actually not that tricky to make. The whole problem is a shortest path problem and it can be solved by using integer programming. It's well described how to handle this and then the route is found another system can take over and look up actual trains on the line(s) in question to find train(s) for you to get to your destination. The main problem is that calculation time increases with an increased number of stations and once the network gets too big you will have to take shortcuts in the calculations or wait minutes or more for the result. Such shortcuts will provide you with a working solution, but it may not be the fastest solution.
I assume that each tourist attraction is linked to a specific station (or two if they are different lines). This means the system will still just get you to the station and then it's hardcoded how to get the rest of the way. Simple, yet really useful, specially if you are going somewhere you haven't been to before.
We have a similar system here, but our system has it's shares of bugs too and it's online only meaning you need a good mobile phone if you want to use it at the station. I know two people who made bug reports on the system. One for getting assigned to a train which wasn't scheduled and the other one was a really great bug. He stated that he wanted to be at station X at (some time) and starting station and then the system should find train(s) for him. It told him to take a train to station Y, get off, wait an hour and then take a train to station X. The issue was that both trains were on the same line, meaning both trains stopped at station X and getting off at station Y made no sense.
There is another issue. The railroad company have been caught a few times by the media because they tested making a route between two stations and it could choose between two lines. Rather than picking the one, which is the fastest, it takes the detour because the ticketprice is higher and they get a higher profit. It's not official intended behaviour, but I don't think it's a bug either because I don't think it's unintended sideeffects from the programmers :P
JR. College Student
http://npc.talkingincircles.net/
Oh wow, that's awesome. I'm not one to panic, but I am easily confused and misguided when it comes to understanding public transit... even in my own language. It's not very common out here in the valley.