JR East showed reporters the construction site of its new Haneda Airport Access Line in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, on the 6th, ahead of the start of tunneling by a shield machine. The line is scheduled to open in fiscal 2031.
The machine on display has a diameter of 11.8 meters. It will begin digging on the 16th of this month, with a target of about 10 meters a day. Over roughly a year it will bore 2.3 kilometers from the Tokyo Freight Terminal in Shinagawa Ward toward Haneda Airport, to connect with a tunnel the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is digging from the airport side.
The Higashi-Yamate route of the access line runs about 12.4 kilometers from near Tamachi Station to Haneda Airport. A new underground station will be built at the airport between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
A trip between Tokyo Station and Haneda Airport currently takes about 30 minutes. Once the line opens, the journey will take 18 minutes with no transfer required.