The story
By the early 1950s, Tokyo's Haneda Airport had become Japan's primary international gateway as the nation's commercial aviation sector recovered from World War II. In 1959, the airport handled roughly 910,000 passengers and expected significant increases ahead of the 1964 Summer Olympics. That year, the government unveiled plans for an airport rail link to central Tokyo; a competing proposal to extend the Tokyo Expressway was briefly considered but rejected over concerns that it would worsen traffic congestion.
In August 1959, Yamato Kankō Co., Ltd. was established to build the line and was renamed Japan Elevated Railway Co., Ltd. the following year. The company applied in January 1961 for permission to construct a straddle-beam, Alweg-type monorail, selecting the system partly because company president Tetsuzō Inumaru had a long-standing friendship with Alweg founder Axel Wenner-Gren and partly because Hitachi—tasked with building the system—was eager to develop the technology further. The Ministry of Transport authorized the project in December 1961, a groundbreaking ceremony followed on 1 May 1963, and construction progressed rapidly.
Planners originally intended to extend the line from the airport to Shimbashi or Tokyo Station, and the license granted permitted construction to either location. However, local opposition near the Shibaura Canal, along with government budget constraints caused by cost overruns on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, resulted in a shorter initial route terminating at Hamamatsuchō Station. To reduce costs further, the alignment was routed over public waterways donated by local municipalities, avoiding private land acquisition but requiring the monorail to run over reclaimed areas of Tokyo Bay and several rivers and canals. This resulted in the removal of several fishing and aquaculture operations, including a long-established seaweed field in Ōta Ward that had produced Omori no nori, a premium nori brand dating to the Edo period.
In May 1964, the company adopted its current name, Tokyo Monorail Co., Ltd. The project cost ¥21.1 billion (approximately US$60 million in 1964), including ¥20 billion for construction and ¥1.1 billion for rolling stock. Hitachi manufactured the first-generation vehicles in Japan under license from Alweg through a joint venture, and the Tokyo Monorail opened as the world's first commercial monorail and Japan's first airport rail link.
Service commenced on 17 September 1964, 23 days before the Olympic opening ceremony on 10 October. The initial line was 13.1 kilometres (8.1 mi) long, served only two stations, Hamamatsuchō and the airport, and ran almost entirely over open water, as most of Tokyo Bay's artificial islands had not yet been reclaimed. A one-way fare cost was ¥250 (equivalent to ¥1,234 in 2024), making the monorail more expensive than other options; for example, a group of four could reach the airport by taxi for less than the cost of four monorail tickets. A recession following the Olympics reduced airport traffic, causing a sharp decline in ridership. In 1966, fares were lowered to ¥150 (equivalent to ¥653 in 2024) in an effort to attract more passengers. An overpass linking the monorail platforms with the JR lines at Hamamatsuchō opened in November 1967, improving transfers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tokyo Monorail, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3