Odakyū Tama Line

The Odakyu Tama Line (小田急多摩線) is a railway line operated by the private railway operator Odakyu Electric Railway in the Greater Tokyo of Japan. The line extends 10.6 km from Shin-Yurigaoka Station in Kanagawa Prefecture to Karakida Station in Tokyo.

Used for commuter service by the residents of Tama New Town, the largest New Town in Japan, rapid trains are frequent on the line, running through to Odakyu's Tokyo terminus at Shinjuku on the Odakyu Odawara Line.

Service patterns
Since June 2022, the services operating on the Tama Line are as follows:


 * Rapid Express (快速急行)
 * Four services from Shinjuku on weekdays, and two to Shinjuku on weekends and holidays.


 * Commuter Express (通勤急行)
 * To Shinjuku. Weekday mornings only.


 * Express (急行)
 * To/from Shinjuku. Mornings and evenings.


 * Local (各駅停車)
 * Mostly in the line only, and some from/to Shinjuku, all day long. Most Local services to/from Shinjuku operate as Express services on the Odawara Line.

Former Service

 * Tama Express (多摩急行)
 * All from/to Toride on East Japan Railway Company (JR East) Joban Line via the Chiyoda Line. All day.

Stations

 * Local services stop at all stations.

History
This line was built as a part of Tokyo Line 9, linked with the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line and Odakyu Odawara Line.

Odakyu started service on the first section, from Shin-Yurigaoka to Odakyū-Nagayama, on June 1, 1974. It expanded to Tama Center, the central station of Tama New Town, on April 23, 1975. This section was constructed by the national Japan Railway Construction Corporation, since renamed the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT), while Odakyu operated it and paid for the organization. On March 27, 1990, Odakyu opened Karakida station.

The line was constructed as double track, but Odakyu could not take a large part of the transport between Tokyo and Tama New Town. Delay to the quadrupling of the main Odawara Line due to long standing land acquisition conflicts prevented operating extra trains that were to connect the new town and the terminus of Shinjuku.

Rapid train services on the Tama Line began in 2000, and succeeded in increasing the number of passengers, shorting transit time.