Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station (京都市役所前駅)
Located in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station is a stop on the Tozai Line of the Kyoto Municipal Subway. The station number is T12. Its station color is Korean red.
Because this station is located under the Kawaramachi Oike crossing, the description 'Kawaramachi Oike' is additionally placed on the station-name board (this description was added around the time that the line was extended to Rokujizo Station).
Station layout
It is an underground station with a platform serving two tracks. The ticket gates are provided only at a location within the station. Exiting from the gate, you will come to the east end of Zest Oike.
Some of the Keihan Keishin Line trains providing through-service return at this station. Therefore, side tracks are provided on the western side. In contrast with Misasagi Station, departure announcements aren't made even for the trains that start out from this station.
On the Keihan Keishin Line, all trains from the direction of Hamaotsu returned from this station before Uzumasa Tenjingawa Station became operational on January 16, 2008. Through-service wasn't provided up to Nijo Station, the former west-end station on the Tozai Line, and it is said that the reason generally pertained to relationships with Keihan Electric Railway about the usage rates of train cars. However, because passengers who would switch the train line at Karasuma Oike Station to Karasuma Line of Kyoto Municipal Subway had to change trains at the last stop before the station, complaints about the situation were sometimes heard. Even now, of the 76 round-trip operations each weekday conducted between the two lines, only 28 (approximately one-third) of them provide through-service up to Uzumasa Tenjingawa Station, except during the early morning and late night.
Station surroundings
Kyoto City Hall
Kyoto City Fire Department
Bank of Japan Kyoto Branch
Zest Oike (an underground shopping area above the station house)
Kyoto Hotel (directly connected with Zest Oike)
Kyoto Royal Hotel
Shimazu Foundation Memorial Hall
Site of the Ikedaya Inn
The Teramachi-dori shopping arcade
Bus stops
Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae
Kyoto City Bus
Route 3: Bound for Kitashirakawa Shibuse-cho / for Kyoto Zokeigeijitu daigaku-mae (in front of Kyoto University of Art and Design) in Kamihate-cho / for Matsuobashi via Kyoto University of Foreign Studies
Route 4: Bound for Kyoto Station (non-stop operation between Kawaramachi Gojo and Kyoto Station) / for Kamigamo-jinja Shrine
Route 10: Bound for Sanjo Keihan / for Yamagoe Naka-cho (via Kitano Tenmangu)
Route 15: Bound for Sanjo Keihan / for Ritsumeikan University (via Enmachi)
Route 17: Bound for Kyoto Station / for Jisho-ji Temple or Kinrin-shako Depot
Route 32: Bound for Ginkaku-ji Temple / for Kyoto University of Foreign Studies via Nishikyogoku
Route 37: Bound for Sanjo Keihin / Nishigamo Shako (via Kitaoji Bus Terminal)
Route 51: Bound for the direction of Shijo Kawaramachi/Shijo Karasuma
Route 59: Bound for Sanjo Keihan / for Yamagoe Naka-cho (via Rokuon-ji Temple)
Route 205: Bound for Kujo-shako Depot (via Kyoto Station) / for the direction of Kitaoji Bus Terminal (via Kawaramachi-dori Street)
Teramachi Oike/Kawaramachi Nijo
Kyoto Bus
Routes 21/41: Bound for Sanjo Keihan
Route 23: Bound for Iwakura Jisso-in Temple
Route 43: Bound for Iwakura Muramatsu
Routes 61/62/63: Bound for Sanjo Keihan / for Arashiyama (via the Eiga (movie)-mura village)
Route 65: Bound for Arisugawa (via the Eiga (movie)-mura village)
The Kyoto Hotel Okura bus stop
Osaka Airport Transport
Bound for Osaka International Airport
History
October 12, 1997: When operations between Daigo and Nijo started, the construction of this station was completed together with Zest Oike, an underground shopping area, as well as a large-scale underground public car park. Kyoto Hotel (the former Kyoto Hotel), against whose construction temples promoted a protest campaign saying it would disrupt the landscape, is connected with Zest Oike via an underground access.
Although it is sometimes misunderstood that the underground shopping area of Zest Oike is also connected to Karasuma Oike Station, the area is in fact connected only to Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station. This underground shopping area is different from large-scale facilities such as CRYSTA Nagahori in Osaka, to which more than one station is connected.
April 1, 2007: PiTaPa came into use.
About the station's name
Before the station started its operation, it was planned to name the station 'Shiyakusho-mae,' but the name was in fact changed to 'Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae' (at the same time, the name of the 'Kawaramachi-Nijo' stop on the routes of Kyoto City Bus was changed to match the name of the station.
However, private bus companies such as Kyoto Bus use the name 'Kawaramachi-Nijo' without changing it.)
This name is supposed to have been applied in consideration of the fact that there were trains coming from the direction of Otsu (the station nearest to the Otsu City Hall is Bessho Station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line, in Shiga Prefecture).
To indicate the area around this crossing, residents of Kyoto have mostly used the expression of the Kawaramachi Oike crossing, so the expression 'Shiyakusho-mae' is rarely used. This situation remains unchanged despite this station's start of operations.
Adjacent stations
Tozai Line
Sanjo Keihan Station (T11) - Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station (T12) - Karasuma Oike Station (T13)