Tokyo Subway

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The Tokyo subway (東京の地下鉄 chikatetsu) is one of the world's most extensive rapid transit systems. The two primary networks are operated by

Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd. Formerly Teito Rapid Transit Authority (Eidan), the company operates eight lines. The lines are called Tokyo Metro. The minimum price for one ride is 160 yen.

Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation. An arm of the government of Tokyo-to operates four lines. These lines carry the name Toei (都営) which means "operated by the [Tokyo] Metropolitan Government." The minimum price for one ride is 170 yen.

Several other railways in the capital, notably the Tokyo Waterfront Railway, also qualify as rapid transit.

The Tokyo Subway often has direct service to other types of train lines including JR East and private lines such as the Keio, Odakyu, and Tobu lines.

The Tokyo subway is distinct from Japan Rail (JR), which charges a separate fee from the Toei and other private lines.

On April 1, 2004, the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) was privatized and renamed the Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd (東京地下鉄株式会社, Tōkyō Chikatetsu K.K.). The company also uses the name Tokyo Metro (東京メトロ) in Japanese for promotional purposes.

The privatization affected only the TRTA, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government continues to operate its own Toei lines separately.

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The separate administration of two metro systems has these ramifications:

The same ticket cannot be used on both systems. An additional 90 or 100 yen is charged to switch to the other system regardless of the length of the ride. However, the PASSNET system gets around such issues, by allowing one stored-fare card to be used on most of the rail operators in the Greater Tokyo Area (with the noticeable exception of JR East which uses its own Suica system). The introduction of PASMO in 2007 will finally produce one unified stored fare for most of the Tokyo transit system.
The two systems represent the metro network differently in station, train and customer information diagrams. For example, the Toei map represents the Toei Oedo Line as a circle in the centre; the Tokyo Metro's map saves the central ring line for the Marunouchi Line and the JR Yamanote Line.

Currently (as of September 2005), Tokyo Metro operates 168 train stations , with an average of 5.69 million passengers per day. They employ 8,721 staff, and the busiest station is Shinjuku (which is also the world's busiest, and second largest, with an estimated traffic of 2 million passengers per day).