The graph surfaced online displaying some interesting statistics. It’s a bar chart of the busiest train stations in the world, measured by the number of people who pass through them each year.
Perhaps coming as no surprise to those who have experienced its mind-numbingly complex transport complexes, Japan tops the list. What is surprising is the degree to which Japan dominates this list, with all but six stations residing here, and about half of them in the Tokyo area alone.
Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is the world's busiest train station with approximately 1,260,000,000 passing through each each year.
Many people are often in awe of Shinjuku Station’s massive size or complain about its complexity, built to handle over one million daily commuters. I don’t know what their problem is. Here’s a perfectly simple map of the place:
Actually this is just the JR-East railway section of the station which accommodates four other train operators. So multiply that map by about three and you’ll have the rough make-up of the basic station. Throw in all the other shopping and entertainment facilities often found around train stations and you have a labyrinth that’d make David Bowie give a whistling admiration.
Here’s the full list of 51 stations. If you don’t live in Japan there’s a slight chance your country is on there.
1 Shinjuku (Tokyo, Japan)
2 Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan)
3 Ikebukuro (Tokyo, Japan)
4 Umeda (Osaka, Japan)
5 Yokohama (Kanagawa, Japan)
6 Kita-Senju (Tokyo, Japan)
7 Nagoya (Aichi, Japan)
8 Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
9 Shinagawa (Tokyo, Japan)
10 Takadanobaba (Tokyo, Japan)
11 Namba (Osaka, Japan)
12 Shinbashi (Tokyo, Japan)
13 Tennouji (Osaka, Japan)
14 Akihabara (Tokyo, Japan)
15 Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan)
16 Sannomiya (Kobe, Japan)
17 Omiya (Saitama, Japan)
18 Yurakucho-Hibiya (Tokyo, Japan)
19 Nishi-Funabashi (Chiba, Japan)
20 Meguro (Tokyo, Japan)
21 Daimon-Hamamatsucho (Tokyo, Japan)
22 Ueno (Tokyo, Japan)
23 Oshiage (Tokyo, Japan)
24 Paris Nord (Paris, France)
25 Taipei Railway Station (Taipei,Taiwan)
26 Machida (Tokyo, Japan)
27 Gare de Chatelet (Paris, France)
28 Kawasaki (Kanagawa, Japan)
29 Roma Termini Railway Station (Rome, Italy)
30 Tamachi-Mita (Tokyo, Japan)
31 Kyobashi (Osaka, Japan)
32 Funabashi (Chiba, Japan)
33 Ayase (Tokyo, Japan)
34 Hamburg Central Station (Hamburg, Germany)
35 Yoyogi-Uehara (Tokyo, Japan)
36 Kamata (Kamata, Japan)
37 Gotanda (Tokyo, Japan)
38 Kichijoji (Tokyo, Japan)
39 Kanayama (Aichi, Japan)
40 Musashikosugi (Kanagawa, Japan)
41 Fujisawa (Kanagawa, Japan)
42 Oimachi (Tokyo, Japan)
43 Nakano (Tokyo, Japan)
44 Tachikawa (Tokyo, Japan)
45 Iidabashi (Tokyo, Japan)
46 Kashiwa (Chiba, Japan)
47 Hakata (Fukuoka, Japan)
48 Tsuruhashi (Osaka, Japan)
49 Nishi-Nippori (Tokyo, Japan)
50 Nakameguro (Tokyo, Japan)
51 Zurich Main Station (Zurich, Switzerland)
