Friday Roundtable: Tokyo’s Trams vs Seattle’s Streetcars

At first glance, the passenger rail systems in Seattle and Tokyo have nothing in common. Seattle has seven passenger rail lines (1 Line, 2 Line, S Line, N Line, First Hill Line, South Lake Union Line, Seattle Center Monorail). Meanwhile, Tokyo has 102 passenger rail lines. Seattle's system has 130 thousand daily passengers while Tokyo's has 41 million daily passengers. Despite these differences, there is one commonality between the transit systems: both Seattle and Tokyo each have two disconnected streetcar routes. (Note: Tram" and Streetcar" are used interchangeably in this article)

Tokyo's passenger rail network. The two tram lines are highlighted: Arakawa Line in green and Setagaya Line in yellow.Trams in Tokyo

Tokyo's passenger rail network is one of the best in the world. Subways, regional trains, and Shinkansen high speed trains carry over a million people every hour. Before many of these services were built, Tokyo had a dense network of trams called the Tokyo Toden. At its peak, the Toden system had 41 routes. Over the past 75 years, almost all of these routes have been replaced by subways or buses, except the Arakawa Line. The Arakawa Line is a 12.2km (7.6mi) cross-town route that connects several neighborhoods and ten subway lines. The route primarily uses a dedicated right-of-way (ROW) but it does have a short segment in mixed traffic. Despite 5 minute frequencies during the day, the trams are consistently full. In 2018, the Arakawa Line carried over 48,000 passengers every day.

Minowabashi bound tram on the Arakawa Line at Oji-ekimae Station. Shhimo-takaido bound cat themed tram on the Setagaya Line at Miyanosaka Station.

On the west side of Tokyo, trams also carry passengers on the Setagaya Line. This route was originally built as a branch of the Tamagawa Line (then a tram route). By the 1960s, the Tamagawa Line was plagued by traffic congestion as it ran in mixed traffic. A subway was built to replace the Tamagawa Line in 1969. As the Setagaya branch uses a dedicated ROW, it remained open. The Setagaya Line serves 10 stations along its 5km (3.1mi) route. Both terminus stations and one intermediate station have transfers to subway lines. In 2017, the route carried over 57,000 people each day. One of the trams on the route is cat themed to honor the nearby Gokoku-ji temple.

Streetcars in Seattle

Similar to Tokyo, Seattle also has two disconnected streetcar routes. The South Lake Union (SLU) Line opened in 2007 and travels between Lake Union and Westlake station, through the heart of SLU. The line was built to serve the quickly developing SLU neighborhood and connect it with the Link light rail system. The 1.3mi (2.1 km) route has sections in mixed traffic, bus only lanes, and a short section of dedicated ROW near Lake Union Park. Due to it's short distance, poor reliability, and redundant bus service, the SLU Line only had about 500 passengers per day in 2024.

Two northbound streetcars on the South Lake Union Line stuck in traffic.

Opened in 2016, the First Hill Line connects Capitol Hill, First Hill, Yesler Terrace, the International District, and Pioneer Square. The route was built as a replacement for the cancelled First Hill Link station. The First Hill Line follows a direct path on Broadway between Capitol Hill station and Yesler Terrace. Due to the steep grade, it takes a several block detour between Yesler Terrace and the International District. Outside of a 1 block section, the 2.5mi (4.0km) First Hill line operates in mixed traffic. In 2023, the route carried about 3,200 people every day.

Observations

While the rolling stock on the tram routes in Tokyo and on the streetcar routes in Seattle are similar, just about everything else is different. Tokyo's trams primarily run in dedicated ROW on longer routes with many destinations and transfers. Seattle's streetcars run in mixed traffic on short routes that only have a few destinations. Seattle's streetcars could be improved with the addition of transit only lane restrictions along their routes, but they are still short routes. A plan to connect the routes through downtown Seattle is all but cancelled. Unfortunately, Seattle's engineers were really good at removing or paving over tracks in the mid-20th century, so there are not many (if any) dedicated track ROWs that could be used for a tram. This mistake continues to cost the City, as building new tracks is really expensive. Perhaps it is time for Seattle to re-evaluate the necessity of it's streetcars.

This is an open thread.