Tama Monorail Extension: When It Opens and Tachikawa’s Future Guide

Sixteen kilometres to Machida, and an answer called Plan B

The extension towards Machida is not yet a project. But on the question of where it would run, an answer has been given once already.

For sections where the road to carry the line had not been decided, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government set up a route study committee to consider an objective, rational route. The committee met four times from October 2019, and at its fourth meeting, on 27 December 2021, it chose Plan B out of four options.

The study results Tokyo published line the four plans up in numbers. Plan A: about 13 km long, demand of about 80,000 people a day, a cost-benefit ratio of about 1.4. Plan B: about 16 km, about 75,000 people, about 1.1. Plan B’, a shortened version of B: about 16 km, about 74,000 people, about 1.1. Plan C: about 13 km, about 73,000 people, about 1.4. On numbers alone, Plan A, shortest and with the most demand, wins. Even so, the one chosen was Plan B, the longest way round.

The reason lies in how it fits with town planning. Plan B runs south as far as the Machida municipal athletics stadium, then passes Nichidai Sanko (Nihon University Daisan High School), the Oyamada Sakuradai housing estate and the Obirin school campus before heading for Machida Station. The study admitted that Plan B was somewhat slower than the others, but rated it highly because it passes through places where demand can be counted on now, because it follows existing roads so new development can be expected around the new stations, and because it also passes places such as the stadium and high schools where demand is expected to grow. Plan A, which would pass under Oyamada Ryokuchi, a green park, in a tunnel, was judged to leave little room for development along the line and to raise concerns about its effect on the environment. This is what “more haste, less speed” looks like when a government office turns it into a table.

The story has not stopped there, though. According to Machida City, from fiscal 2024 Tokyo began the “Tama Toshi Monorail Machida Extension Liaison and Coordination Conference”, made up of Tokyo, Machida City, Tama City and the monorail company. To settle the route, including the locations of the stations, it is taking Plan B as the basis while re-examining the project’s viability and profitability, including Plan A, which was shown at the time of the council’s report, and taking into account the recent rise in construction costs. Tokyo itself adds that, depending on how far town planning deepens and on the results of the profitability review, Plans A and C may be considered again. Even an answer once given still has margins written in pencil.

Machida City is not waiting for those margins to be filled in. The city is running the “Tama Toshi Monorail Machida Extension Acceleration Project”. It is buying up, ahead of Tokyo’s start on the project, the land for Urban Planning Road 3-3-36 (about 1 km, from around Tokyo Metropolitan Machida High School to around Serigaya Park), the road that would carry the monorail. The first plot, about 1,000 square metres, was acquired on 1 October 2019; the second, about 160 square metres, on 19 December 2023. In March 2024 the city also drew up its “Monorail Corridor Town Planning Concept”. Getting the land and the plan ready before the track arrives. This ruler, too, is a long one.

The other direction, Hachioji, gets very different wording in the council’s report. Where the report said that “concrete coordination should go ahead” for Hakonegasaki and Machida, for Hachioji it said only that, because the project’s viability is an issue, it “expects” sufficient consideration of a project plan. In the language of Japanese government documents, “expects” is at the modest end of the scale.

Tachikawa at the middle of Tama’s backbone

At this point, try turning the map upright in your head.

Today the Tama Toshi Monorail runs 16.0 kilometres with 19 stations, from Tama-Center in the south to Kamikitadai in the north. According to the company’s fare table, Tachikawa-Kita Station is 10.6 km from Tama-Center and 5.4 km from Kamikitadai. Extend the line 7.0 km to Hakonegasaki, and the distance to the northern end becomes 12.4 km (my own calculation). 10.6 km to the south, 12.4 km to the north. When the extension is finished, Tachikawa-Kita Station will stand almost exactly at the middle of a road in the sky running straight through Tama from top to bottom.

This line has had Tachikawa as its pivot since the day it was born. According to the company, the first section to open was Tachikawa-Kita to Kamikitadai, on 27 November 1998; Tama-Center to Tachikawa-Kita came next, on 10 January 2000. The company’s head office is in Tachikawa too. Machida City writes that the monorail’s overall concept was about 93 kilometres. What runs today is only about a sixth of it. The first thread of a 93-kilometre dream was tied in Tachikawa.

Why was the line conceived in the first place? The company’s explanation is short. To make Tokyo a city with a good balance between work and home, and to further improve public transport in the Tama area. It was imagined not as a line for commuting into central Tokyo but as a line for people to move around within Tama. Machida City, too, puts first among the reasons for the Machida extension the further improvement of north-south public transport in the Tama area. In a Tama where the east-west lines grew ever thicker, one more line running north to south. That thinking has not changed since the days of the original concept.

Above Tachikawa Station, two axes cross. East to west runs the JR Chuo Line, which brings you from Shinjuku with no change of trains, while the Nambu Line comes in from Kawasaki, again with no change. North to south, the monorail passes overhead. Tokyo’s plan describes the effect of the extension like this: JR Hakonegasaki Station and Tama-Center Station will be linked, strengthening the Tama area’s public transport network. If I may add my own reading, the knot in that strengthened network is Tachikawa. Someone boarding at Hakonegasaki on the Hachiko Line rides south along the road in the sky without changing, changes to the Chuo Line at Tachikawa, and heads into central Tokyo. Or, if a line from Machida is one day joined to Tama-Center, then Machida, which borders Kanagawa Prefecture, and Mizuho, close to Saitama Prefecture, will become one line with Tachikawa at its middle.

In the numbers, that future has already begun. In its results for fiscal 2025, announced in June 2026, the company reported total passenger journeys of about 53,033,000, about 145,000 a day on average, and record highs for both passengers and fare revenue. Commuter passes, student passes and ordinary tickets all rose on the previous year. The company explains that it was supported by the pulling power of commercial facilities along the line and by housing development along it. The road in the sky is getting crowded even before it grows.

Then, now and next

Back then, there were no beams in Tachikawa’s sky. At the end of the Showa era (1926–1989), if you stood at the station’s North Exit and looked up, there was only the wide sky of a town whose base had been handed back. As I wrote in this series’ Tama Monorail article, the company was founded in April 1986 and the first construction work began in November 1990.

Now, at the platform of Tachikawa-Kita Station, four-car trains set off astride the grey beam. Ride 13 minutes north and you reach Kamikitadai, the terminus where the track breaks off in mid-air.

Next, beyond that broken-off end, seven stations will line up. On Shin-Ome-kaido Avenue, where the extension is drawn, work to widen the road is going ahead first. The road in the sky itself does not exist yet. Nobody can say whether the mid-2030s target will be kept to the letter. Even so, for eyes that have followed the ten years of procedure, step by step, from recommendation to approval, at least this much is clear: this line was not drawn on a whim.

Praising the future is not enough: the open questions

For fairness, the points of debate need writing down too.

First, money. The extension costs about 129 billion yen, or about 18.4 billion yen per kilometre over 7.0 km (my own calculation). The company itself, in announcing its fiscal 2025 results, wrote cautiously about what lies ahead. Equipment renewals and major repairs as facilities age, soaring prices, and on top of that capital investment for the extension getting into full swing: so it expects its business environment to become even tougher. On the very same sheet of paper that reports record results sit sentences telling everyone to brace themselves.

There are bitter memories too. As I touched on in the monorail article in this series, the company once fell into negative net worth, with debts larger than its assets, and got out of the crisis with financial support from Tokyo in fiscal 2008. With a road in the sky, keeping it going is harder than making it longer.

For the Machida branch, Tokyo and the city alike name town planning that will generate demand, and a close review of profitability, as the issues. Tokyo has not ruled out rethinking the route in light of rising construction costs. The Hachioji branch remains where the council’s report left it: with the project’s viability marked as a problem.

On the environmental side, the Hakonegasaki extension has gone through an environmental impact assessment covering eight items, from noise and vibration to landscape and historic sites and cultural properties. Once an elevated structure stands in the middle of the avenue, the roadside scenery will certainly change. The people waiting for the extension and the people who will miss the old view may well live along the same road.

For visitors from overseas: from the airport to the road in the sky

The Tama Monorail’s English company name is Tokyo Tama Intercity Monorail Co., Ltd. A monorail linking city to city. To my mind it conveys the line’s job better than its Japanese name, which translates roughly as “Tama City Monorail”.

The way in for travellers from abroad is slowly being smoothed out too. According to the company’s notice, PASMO Co., Ltd. announced that it would start selling “TOURIST PASMO”, an IC fare card for visitors to Japan, in May 2026 at railway stations around Narita and Haneda airports and similar places. The idea is that a single card picked up at the gateway to Japan should be enough to bring you all the way to Tama’s road in the sky.

From Haneda Airport to Tachikawa there is also an airport bus with no changes. The Haneda Airport Line, run by Tachikawa Bus and Keikyu Bus, links Akishima Station, Tachikawa Station, Kunitachi Station and Yaho Station with Haneda Airport. When heading from Tachikawa to the airport, no reservation is needed: seats are first come, first served, up to the seating capacity, and transport IC cards can be used. Fares and timetables change, so please check Tachikawa Bus’s official information.

Inside the ticket gates at Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of ecute Tachikawa, is the Tama branch of the Tokyo Tourist Information Center. According to GO TOKYO, Tokyo’s official tourism site, of the six tourist information centres run by the Tokyo government, this is the only one outside the 23 wards.

If I had to name one thing likely to surprise visitors from overseas, it would be the look of the vehicle itself. The train sits astride a single thick beam as it runs. Under the beam, ordinary roads carry ordinary traffic. One day that beam will stretch on into the sky beyond Kamikitadai.

Quiz answer

The answer is (A), Tama Nambokusen, the Tama North-South Line. According to Tokyo’s pamphlet, the dedicated way on the extension section was designated in the town plans as “Tachikawa Urban Planning Road 9-6-1, Tama Nambokusen” and “Fussa Urban Planning Road 9-6-1, Tama Nambokusen”. In town-planning terms, the monorail beam counts as a “special street (urban monorail way)”, which is to say a kind of road.

Before you go

• From Tachikawa to the start of the extension: Tachikawa-Kita Station to Kamikitadai Station on the Tama Monorail is 5.4 km and takes about 13 minutes (according to the company’s fare and journey-time information). From around Kamikitadai Station you can look up and see where the track ends in mid-air. On Shin-Ome-kaido Avenue beyond it, road widening is under way and there is no extension structure yet. Please stay out of the construction areas and look from the pavement.
• Tama Toshi Monorail official site (fares, timetables, extension news): https://www.tama-monorail.co.jp/
• Official documents on the extension: MLIT’s licence announcement https://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/content/001888276.pdf / Tokyo’s announcement of the start of the project https://www.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/information/press/2025/11/2025112701
• The Machida branch: Machida City, “Overview of the Tama Toshi Monorail Machida extension” https://www.city.machida.tokyo.jp/kurashi/sumai/kotsu/tetsukido/tamamonorail/tamamonorail.html
• Getting there: from central Tokyo, take the JR Chuo Line from Shinjuku to Tachikawa Station without changing trains. From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line links Kawasaki Station and Tachikawa Station with no change. From the Yokohama side, you can also take the Yokohama Line to Hachioji and change to the Chuo Line. From Haneda Airport, there is an airport bus to Tachikawa Station (Tachikawa Bus Haneda Airport Line: https://www.tachikawabus.co.jp/highway/haneda/ ). Check timetables and journey times on each operator’s official site.
• Combine with: right in front of Tachikawa-Kita Station is Faret Tachikawa, a district full of public art (see Faret Tachikawa). Tachihi, two stops north on the monorail, and a southbound ride spent looking for Mount Fuji from the window each have an article of their own in this series.
• General tips: carry an IC card such as Suica or PASMO (or TOURIST PASMO) for trains, buses and the monorail, and check timetables and opening days on the official sites before you go.

A rest at the middle of the road in the sky

Ride out to Kamikitadai, look up at the end of the track hanging in the air, and come back to Tachikawa-Kita. The time you spend sitting on the monorail is short, but going up and down the station stairs and the pedestrian deck leaves more tiredness in your legs than you expect.

A one-minute walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店). It is a hot yoga studio with heated lava-stone floors, and it also offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30. Whether you ride the first monorail of the morning to see the northern end, or come back from Tama-Center in the south at night, there is time to drop in.

For first-timers there is a trial yoga lesson for ¥1,980 including tax, with two bath towels, one face towel and mat rental included, so you can come empty-handed.

Pregnant guests cannot join lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available. Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself. She holds Eiken Grade 1 and a perfect TOEIC score, once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and lived in Alaska for three years. If you don’t speak Japanese, just mention it when you book.

• On the Shore: https://ontheshore.jp/
• Book a trial lesson: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

Thinking about the day that broken-off end in the air finally reaches the far bank, I breathe out slowly at the middle of Tachikawa. The sky ten years from now is not yet visible to anyone.

Cover photo: A Tama Monorail 1000-series train at Tachikawa-Kita Station, which will sit near the middle of the extended line (Photo: プログラマリオ / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

• Tachikawa Air Raids: WWII History and a Memorial Walk Guide
• Tachikawa Autumn Leaves Guide: Ginkgo, Zelkova and Where to Walk
• Tachikawa Base Town History: Cola Bottles, Yuming, the Laundry Gate
• Tachikawa Air Base History Walk: The Sunagawa Struggle and After
• Tachikawa Sento Guide: Public Baths, Their History and Bath Etiquette
• Tachikawa Disaster Base and Life Safety Learning Center: A Guide
• Tachikawa Bridges Walk: ‘Nameless Bridge’ to a Double-Deck Crossing
• Tachikawa Cinema City Guide: Tokyo’s First Multiplex and Its Big Sound
• Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do
• Tachikawa Cycling Guide: Showa Kinen Park’s 14 km and the Tama River
• Tachikawa Festivals Guide: Bon Dances, Flamenco, Nebuta and Yokai
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People, from Seiji Ozawa to a Comet
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People Who Passed Through the Town
• Tachikawa Public Art Walk: A Guide to the 109 Works of Faret Tachikawa
• Tachikawa Farms Guide: Farm Stands, Harvest Days and Tokyo’s Fields
• Tachikawa History: Japan’s Firsts, from Electric Cars to Sazae-san
• Tachikawa Folktales and Legends: A History Walk Through Old Stories
• Tachikawa Walk: Fusai-ji Temple’s National Treasure and Suwa Shrine
• Tachikawa Business Guide: Where West Tokyo Works and Starts Up
• Tachikawa Culture Guide: Ballet, Ice, Anime and Art Near the Station
• Tachikawa’s Green Future: Zero Carbon, Farmland and Springs Guide
• Tachikawa for Foreign Visitors: Haneda Bus, Things to Do, Future
• Tachikawa Population and Family Life: A Guide to the Town’s Future
• Tachikawa and Tokyo’s Next Big Earthquake: Disaster Base Guide
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: The Future of Tachikawa’s Unfinished Park
• Tachikawa Station Redevelopment: A Guide to the Future Station Area
• Tachikawa’s Next Decade: Tachihi, GREEN SPRINGS and a New Hotel Guide
• Tachikawa GREEN SPRINGS Guide: Goats, a Rooftop River, Things to Do
• Tachikawa Travel Guide: Things to Do, Walks and History West of Tokyo
• Tachikawa Walk: Slopes, River Terraces and a Flat City’s Hidden Tilt
• Tachikawa History Walk: How a Mulberry Village Became Tama’s Hub
• Tachikawa Airfield History: The 2:12 a.m. Flight to London, 1937
• Tachikawa Was Once in Kanagawa: A History Walk to the 1893 Transfer
• Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome: History, Guide and the Grand Prix’s Home
• Tachikawa Childhood History: Candy Shops, a Base Christmas, Showa Kids
• Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: Komorebi Village, Japanese Garden and Bonsai
• Tachikawa Libraries Guide: Raccoon Dogs, Lucky Cats, Local History
• Tachikawa Live Music Guide: Basement Venues and Where TM Meant Tama
• Tachikawa Manga Park Guide: 40,000 Manga in a Former City Hall
• Tachikawa Fireworks Festival Guide: History, Tips and Things to Do
• Akishima Day Trip from Tachikawa: Whale Fossil, Wisteria and History
• Fussa Day Trip from Tachikawa: Yokota Air Base History, Route 16 Walk
• Fussa Sake Brewery Walk: Day Trip from Tachikawa, Water and History
• Hachioji Castle Ruins from Tachikawa: History Walk and Silk Town Guide
• Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest
• Hino Day Trip from Tachikawa: Shinsengumi History Walk and Guide
• Kokubunji Walk from Tachikawa: Otaka-no-Michi Springs and History
• Kunitachi Walk from Tachikawa: Daigaku-dori, History and Yaho Tenmangu
• Mount Mitake Day Trip from Tachikawa: Wolf Shrine, Valley Walk Guide
• Ome Day Trip from Tachikawa: Showa Retro Walk, Things to Do, History
• Tachikawa Walk: Nekawa Green Path to the Tama River, a Riverside Guide
• Tachikawa Cat-Return Shrine Guide: History, Ema and Suitengu
• Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide
• Tachikawa at Night: Bar Alleys, Black Markets and Cinema History Walk
• Tachikawa Ramen and Udon Guide: Ramen Square and Noodle History
• Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky
• Tachikawa Old Villages Walk: History Guide, Shibasaki to Nishisuna
• Tachikawa Oni Park Guide: A Red Demon Slide and Trains for Kids
• Tachikawa Parks Guide: Things to Do Beyond Showa Kinen Park, a Walk
• Tachikawa Place Names: A History Walk Through Its Town-Name Origins
• Tachikawa Antarctic and Arctic Science Museum: Free Guide and History
• Tachikawa on a Rainy Day: Indoor Things to Do, a Local Guide
• Tachikawa History Museum Guide: Local History and Folklore, Free
• Tachikawa Cherry Blossoms Guide: Where to See Sakura, and the History
• Tachikawa Schools Walk: History of Night Classes, Bells, Antarctica
• Tachikawa Filming Locations Guide: Anime Pilgrimage and TV Dramas
• Tachikawa Silk History Walk: Japan’s No.1 Mulberry Village, Sunagawa
• Tachikawa Shopping Guide: Why It Has Everything, a History Walk
• Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa: A Walking Guide to Highlights and History
• Tachikawa and San Bernardino: The History of Tokyo’s First Sister City
• Tachikawa Souvenirs Guide: What to Buy, from Tokyo Sake to Paper
• Tachikawa Sports Guide: Things to Do for Fans, Runners and Walkers
• Tachikawa Station Guide: The History Walk of Tama’s Busiest Station
• Tachikawa in Summer: Things to Do, Water Play and Heat Tips Guide
• Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights
• Tachikawa Tachihi History Walk: Aircraft, a Beach and Things to Do
• Tachikawa History: The Samurai Clan Behind the City’s Name, a Walk
• Tama Monorail from Tachikawa: A Guide to Views, Mt. Fuji and History
• Tachikawa Tama River History Walk: Floods, Ferries and Bridges
• Tachikawa Walk: Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa History Guide
• Tachikawa Udo Guide: History of Tokyo’s Underground White Vegetable
• Tachikawa Trains Guide: Railway History and Where to Watch Trains
• Tachikawa Water History: Where the Tap Water Comes From, and Wells
• Tachikawa History: Why Tokyo’s First IKEA and Cinema Complex Came Here
• Tachikawa Wildlife Guide: Birdwatching, Fireflies and Tanuki Walks
• Tachikawa Yagawa Green Space Walk: Springs, Hake Cliffs and History
• Tachikawa from Yokota Air Base: A Weekend Guide and Things to Do

All Tachikawa Walks (English)