Lamtsu Station
| Location | [Lamtsu City] |
|---|---|
| Owned by | [Shintetsu] |
| Operated by | [Shintetsu] |
| Line(s) | Yamate Line
Namboku Line Mihara Line Seiyo Shinkansen Shima Shinkansen |
| Platforms | 18 |
| Tracks | 18 |
| Connections | [Ginza Station] |
| Structure Type | Underground/At-Grade |
|---|---|
| Platform Levels | 3 |
| Disabled Access | Yes |
| Station Code | LT |
|---|
Lamtsu Station (楠梓駅, Nanshi-Eki), is a railway station in Lamtsu City, Lamtsu Capital City. The original station is built at-grade, and has the platforms facing east-west. The main station building exits in the front of the Sorano Parliament. The new underground section for commuter lines was constructed in the basement, with an arcade in the basement, allowing for transfers to and from the at-grade lines. As the station was constructed on an enbankment on a hill, the basement exits onto the southern exit, at-grade, adjacent to the Waterfront Business District, built on the old Lamtsu Port.
Served by the High-Speed Shinkansen network, on the , Lamtsu Station forms Sorano's main central intercity rail terminal. It is the busiest high-speed rail terminal in Sorano, with close to 500 trains arriving and departing every day, and the 7th busiest station in Lamtsu by passenger numbers. On average, 400,000 people use Lamtsu Station every day. The station is served by many regional commuter lines of the HRT (Lamtsu) Urban Network, as well as the Lamtsu Metro network.
Lines
Trains on the following lines are available at Lamtsu Station:
Harmony Rail Transit (Lamtsu)
Lamtsu Metro
The station is linked by underground passage to the Ginza Subway Station, which is the central station for the Lamtsu Metro, which is served by the Otaki Line, Ginza Line, Yurakucho Line, Rinkai Line, and the Meguro Line. It is possible to walk to Nanshibashimae as well, which is similar in time to Ginza.
Lamtsu Station is also served by the Misato City Tram, on lines 4 and 5.
Station Layout
The main station building faces the north, and was recently renovated by Harmony Rail Transit (Joban) in conjunction with New Tsihai Industries. The main platforms consist of 5 Island Platforms, facing east-west. Many platforms have Midori no Madoguchi ticket offices, for passengers changing fare zones. This allows for more convinient inter-city travel. The main concourse runs north-south below the platforms, and the commuter lines another level below that. The Shinkansen section of the concourse has seperate gates from the rest of the network, with the Lamtsu Metro and Harmony Rail Transit platforms being on seperate levels.
The Commuter Platforms are located at B2, consisting of 4 Island Platforms serving 8 tracks. Platform 2 is no longer in use after the discontinuation of the Mihara Line (Suburban) service, but has been considered for usage of a new limited express to Mihara Heliport. The platforms are laid out in a north-south fashion, perpendicular to the Shinkansen and Tozai Line platforms.
The Lamtsu Metro platforms are deep-level platforms, and run in a north-south direction, similar to the Commuter Platforms.
Harmony Rail Transit (Lamtsu)
Listed using the HRT (Lamtsu) platform order
| 1 | Mihara Line (Local) | For Tai Hing Forest |
| 2 | Unused | |
| 3 | Mihara Line (Rapid) | For Mihara |
| 4 | Mihara Line (Rapid) | For Yamate |
| 5 | Namboku Line | For Hayakawa |
| 6 | Namboku Line | For Meguro |
| 7 | Yamate Line | Clockwise via Kata |
| 8 | Yamate Line | Anticlockwise via Oshamambe |
| 9 | Tozai Line | For Miyama |
| 10 | Tozai Line | For Kakoro |
| 15 | Shima Shinkansen | For Shima |
| 16 | Sakura Shinkansen | For Sakura |
| 17 | Disembarking only | |
| 18 | ||
Harmony Rail Transit (Joban)
| 11 | Seiyo Shinkansen | For Central South | |
| 12 | Disembarking only |
Harmony Rail Transit (Ngo Tin)
| 13 | Nankaido Shinkansen | For Ming-Yuet |
| 14 | Disembarking only |
Lamtsu Metro
| 1 | Otaki Line | For Otaki |
Originally, platforms 11-18 were numbered platforms 3-10, but since the expansion works, platforms 1-8 have been allocated to the Commuter Lines on B2.
History
Lamtsu Station opened in 1947, as a small station on the Yamate Line, serving the Lamtsu port area. The Yamate Line platforms were built east-west, to allow for easier access to the depot, at the west of Lamtsu Station. This meant that trains had to reverse at Lamtsu, being a Bay Station, rather than continuing straight through. This caused passenger bottlenecks at the small 2-platform station. However, as the station was built under the request of the Lamtsu government to serve the Sorano Parliament, there was no way for the line to be rerouted. The station gained prominence in 1954, when the Tozai Line was opened from Lamtsu to Otaki, with the 3rd track slotting in-between the Yamate Line tracks, which a second platform had been constructed for to the east.
Lamtsu station was then designated the Central Station of the Misato City Railway, and was successively overhauled and expanded significantly. The Tozai Line was extended at both ends in 1957, with the western end going to the rich, coastal ward of Mibu. The western extension had been funded by the Mibu town council. The Tozai Line tracks then breached the connecting platform at the west of the rest of the platforms, and thus an overhead bridge was constructed for passengers. A 3rd platform was constructed to the east of the station, allowing cross-platform transfers between the Yamate Line and Tozai Line. It was at this time that the station building was overhauled and rebuilt, spanning 150 metres, parallel to Parliament Road. The station building featured a station hotel, as MCR had plans for expansion to the west to connect to the Nankaido Main Line (which has since been split up into multiple lines.)
The Namboku Line, which opened in 1968, used a similar arrangement to the Yamate Line, stopping at the bay platforms in Lamtsu. The Namboku Line was given 2 bay platforms at the east of the station, and from 1969 to 1972, rerouting works gradually went underway to allow for cross-platform transfer between the Yamate Line and Namboku Line instead of the Yamate Line and Tozai Line.
Lamtsu Station then became significantly more irrelavent as time passed, seeing no new lines for the next 50 years. However, Lamtsu Station was overhauled significanlty from 2012 to 2021. The 9-year project saw the Namboku and Tozai Lines be diverted under the parliament houses, and constructing new platforms under the existing ones. A new concourse was also constructed, with the footbridge that used to link the platforms demolished and replaced with an underground linkway. The underground platforms were equipped with Platform Screen Doors, being the only station in Lamtsu to have them, excluding Lamtsu Vtuber Park. The only Commuter Line not to be moved from the existing east-west platforms to the north-south platforms was the Tozai Line, but there is debate aboout replacing the Tozai Line tracks with a viaduct that follows the existing 10-track section leading to Misato Station.
Initially, there were plans to terminate the Seiyo Shinkansen at Misato, in a new terminal building on the west. However, with Lamtsu Station having 8 wide, free, and long platforms, the Shinkansen Lines were then decided to terminate at Lamtsu, and in just 1 year, the daily passenger numbers at Lamtsu Station almost doubled from 240,000 in 2020 to 430,000 in 2021.
Proposed Developments
There has been a proposal to demolish the existing Lamtsu Metro central station and join it to Lamtsu Station. However, as Ginza station is located in the centre of the Ginza financial district, moving it would be extremely controversial. Before Misato Station was rebuilt in 2022, there were plans to extend the Ome Line down to Lamtsu, with a few new tracks added to the south of the Lamtsu-Misato Corridor. However, those did not come to fruition, with the Ome Line being rerouted via Kata for Northbound services.