Gakushuin-shita area

Arakawa 2-chome area

T The Toden Arakawa Line is the only streetcar running in Tokyo. It runs the 12.2 kilometer route between Minowabashi and Waseda, and about 56,000 people per day use it as their important means of transportation. It is also affectionately known as the "Chin-Chin Densha" and it attracts widespread popularity because of nostralgia. The Toden Arakawa Line is often featured in television programmes and magazines. Many tourists enjoy traveling on the Toden Arakawa Line with watching the street scene filled with downtown atmosphere.
The Toden Arakawa Line was opened by Oji Electric Rail Limited in August, 1911. But it was merged into Tokyo Metropolitan Electricity Bureau in 1942. There were 41 routes of streetcars provided proper coverage of Tokyo area, literally as the "means of transportation for people in Tokyo". At its peak around 1943, 1,939,000 people per day used the streetcars.
However, the rising use of automobiles in the postwar period (around 1965) caused the diminishing use of streetcars gradually. The streetcars were taken away one by one because the cars were driven into the streetcar rail track and transport efficiency was decreased. The locals living along the Arakawa Line strongly requested to keep their operation of the two eco-friendly routes - the route number 27 between Minowabashi and Oji station and the route number 32 between Arakawa Garage and Waseda - and they decided to keep their lines in business. These two routes were integrated and the Toden Arakawa Line was born on 1st October, 1974.

The Toden Arakawa Line and the cars passing

The station at Ginza 4-chome in 1960's

Now we are in the 21st century. It is a challenge for big cities in the world to develop eco-friendly means of transportation. The streetcars without any exhaust emissions are reviewed from its value's aspect as the most appropriate means of transportation in the city of 21st century. Indeed, the Toden Arakawa Line has challenged "eco-friendly means of transportation". It has promoted barrier-free as follows: it has installed the slope and the guidance blocks for visually disabled person in the all stations, created spaces for wheelchairs in the all streetcars and raised the height of the platforms to put them at the same grade level as streetcars.
The highways stretches in this way and that way, many cars going in this way and that way in Tokyo. The Toden Arakawa Line clattering along the street delivers something warm-hearted that we have long forgotten.