Fukuoka City Subway

Type 2000 trainset.

The Fukuoka City Subway (福岡市地下鉄, Fukuoka-shi Chikatetsu) serves Fukuoka City, Japan. It consists of three subway lines, the Kūkō, or Airport, Line (空港線), the Hakozaki Line (箱崎線) and the Nanakuma Line (七隈線).

The lines are operated by Fukuoka City Transportation Bureau (福岡市交通局, Fukuoka-shi Kōtsūkyoku). Unlike most other public operators in Japan, the bureau only operates subways, without any bus lines.

All the stations of the subway lines are equipped with automatic platform gates. All the lines are automatically operated by ATO system, although a driver does ride a train as a precaution. The lines will introduce a smart card system in spring, 2009, that will succeed the current prepaid magnetic card systems.

Lines

Fukuoka City Subway lines and services

Color	Name		First section opened	Last ex- tension	Length km/miles	Stations served	Journeys per annum (000's)
Red	Via trackage rights	JR Kyūshū Chikuhi Line	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Line 1	Kūkō Line	1972	1993	13.1/8.1	13	108,040
Blue	Line 1	Kūkō Line	1982	1983	8.1/5.0	9
	Line 2	Hakozaki Line	1982	1986	4.7/2.9	7
Green	Line 3	Nanakuma Line	2005	-	12.0/7.5	16	N/A

Airport rail link

Visitors travelling to Fukuoka by Shinkansen (bullet train) disembark at JR Hakata Station. They can then transfer to the Fukuoka City Subway system by changing to Hakata Subway station, located under the JR Hakata station.[1] Fukuoka Airport is also linked to the Fukuoka City Subway. Downtown Fukuoka City can be reached in about 10 minutes by subway, making Fukuoka Airport one of the most accessible major-city airports in the world.

Station logos

For the ease of users who can't read Japanese, subways in Japan often employ station-numbering scheme, which is to apply single letter for each line (such as "K" for Kūkō Line) and number each station (like "K01" for Meinohama Station, "K02" for Muromi Station, and so on). Fukuoka City Subway, however, does not employ this system. Instead, it employs unique logo for each station, much like Mexico City Metro. Fukuokakūkō Station (Airport), for instance, has a logo symbolizing an airplane. [2]

External links

• Template:Ja icon Fukuoka City Subway official website
• Template:En icon Fukuoka City Subway official website

See also

• List of rapid transit systems