Renovation of Tokyo Metro Tozai Line Takebashi Station, which connects directly to the Palaceside Building, is moving along steadily. Exit 1a on the Imperial Palace moat side =photos above, left= and Exit 2 =photos above, right= have just been renewed.
Memory is a shaky thing (?), so for those wondering what the exits used to look like, here is the old face. Photo right is Exit 2 five years ago. What a change! Recent Tokyo Metro station exits tend to be bright, glass-walled ones. They look lovely against the fresh green.
Besides the two exits just finished, we reported on March 30 that Exit 1b — across Uchibori-dori from Exit 1a, coming up beside the Palaceside Building — had its handrails and signs improved. One more, Exit 4 on the Otemachi side in front of the Japan Meteorological Agency, is still under construction =see photo below. Takebashi Station also has Exits 3a and 3b in front of JBIC and the KKR Hotel Tokyo; a station staffer said those have no renovation plans.
Beside Exit 2 an elevator =photo left= is also complete, a big step for barrier-free access. Takebashi Station had no elevator before; when wheelchair users came, several staff would lift them up the stairs. The building and Tokyo Metro studied putting one on the Palaceside Building side, but the building goes a long way down to the fifth basement, and the moat and tracks tangle, so an elevator there was judged impossible. Metro therefore built its own at Exit 2 on the Otemachi side. As in the station map at the end, elevators now connect each platform (second basement) with the ticket-gate floor (first basement), and after the gates, beside the Exit 2 stairs
another elevator links to the street =photo left, below. Three in all.
This series of works was of course about aging facilities, but it was also meant as a facelift for Tokyo 2020. The Games were postponed a year, yet the station renovation seems largely on schedule — a gift to riders.
