Re: [tlug] [OT] Pre-Flextime & Automatic Ticket Gates

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@example.com>]

On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 8:51 PM, SL Baur <steve@example.com> wrote:
>  I couldn't see all the way down the track.  Did they do that in every car?
>  I was crammed into a train like that all the time on the Inokashira-sen,
>  Shibuya Eki in 2000/2001 until I figured out to walk as far away as I could
>  from the ticket gates.

Now you mention it - I remember getting on the Inokashira Line in
Shimokitazawa (in 1984) and then at the stations between there and
Shibuya, the doors didn't even open due to the pressure of everyone
pushing against them.  (In Shibuya, people definitely wanted off, so
they pushed back from the doors enough to get them open, of course!)

That video of the smash-'em-in routine was taken on the
Seibu-Ikebukuro Line, and while you would typically have to use some
muscle  to get on anywhere on the train, certainly the front was the
worst.  Two of the four guys shoving at that first door are the
drivers from the junkyu and kyuko trains, by the way.  It was on that
line that learned the procedure of backing in and using all the
strength of my legs and arms (pulling from the inside edge of the door
frame) to get myself aboard.

>  I never figured out east from west in Shinjuku Eki even though I went
>  through it almost every day when I lived in Tokyo.  The Keio-sen
>  entrance was west, right?

I think so - certainly the Keio Department Store is on the west side
and there's that transfer on the west side, where you go down-stairs,
walk under something, and then up-stairs.. Going from JR to Keio, as
you come up the stairs, the entrance to the Keio Line is on the right.
 Of course, you can also go out the South Exit and connect that way,
but I think the fasted connect is that west side crossover.  I
sometimes use that when going to the west side Yodobashi Camera from
JR.

>  Thanks for the videos.

I'm glad they were of some interest.  There's a lot of material from
that time.  Most of it is junk, but some parts are not too bad and
some parts are downright historical already!

Lyle