I’ve been in about 15 subway systems. Only in the Tokyo system have I seen these helpful features:
- Walking distances. The signs within a station that show where to go to get to Line X (the platform where you catch Line X trains) include distances (in meters). How far you have to walk to get there. A nearby platform might be 100 m; a distant one 250 m.
- Station-to-station distances in minutes. In several places you are told how many minutes (on the train) it takes to get to each station. Most stations are about 2 minutes apart. The nearest station is 2 minutes away, the next is 4 minutes, etc.
- Letter-number names for each station. In addition to the usual names for each station (e.g., Ginza) each station has a letter-number name. The letter is the line; the number is the position on the line (1, 2, 3, etc.). For a north-south line, for example, the southmost station is 1, the station just north of it is 2, and so on. On the Akususa Line, for example, the stations are named A1, A2, A3, etc., in addition to the usual names. This makes it easy to figure out how far you are from your destination. If you’re going to Station A15 and you’re now at Station A12, you have 3 stops to go.
The Osaka subway system has #3 too.
I live in Tokyo and I love the signs for the trains. I barely ever had a chance to use the subway in America, but I knew when I got here that the Japanese system must be special. Though from what my UK friends tell me, #2 would be impossible in London, for example, because you first need a system that is on time.
If you have a cell phone in Japan, you can mark a #4 for the continually updated web service that gives arrival and departure times, travel time, station distances, and price. Also searchable with a wide variety of parameters including cost, quickest time, fewest transfers and whether to include buses/subway/bullet train/etc.