London
22 °C
Manchester
Glasgow
Dublin
18 °C
Belfast
Washington
Denver
Atlanta
29 °C
Dallas
Houston Texas
New Orleans
El Paso
30 °C
Phoenix
Los Angeles
21 °C
29 °C
5 °C
37 °C
29 °C
A station a day on Tokyo's teeming Yamanote Line / Photo: Richard A. Brooks - AFP
A station a day on Tokyo's teeming Yamanote Line
In service since 1885, the Yamanote is Tokyo's most important and most famous train line, with millions cramming into the 35-kilometre (22-mile) route's distinctive green carriages every day.
AFP photographer Richard A. Brooks photographed the Yamanote's 30 stations in June -- a different one every day -- capturing the hustle and bustle at the heart of the world's biggest urban area.
The elevated tracks loop around the centre of the Japanese metropolis in 60 minutes, connecting the main commercial, transport and tourist areas including the stations of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Tokyo.
Trains depart every two to four minutes, trundling clockwise and counter-clockwise -- "sotomawari" and "uchi-mawari" -- taking "salarymen" to offices, kids to baseball practice and lonely pensioners nowhere in particular.
Twenty-eight of the stations have safety platform doors, the first ones installed in 2011 after a visually impaired traveller fell onto the tracks.
O.Rivas--HdM
