Work to remove existing rail tracks from Tokyo Metro Ginza Line's Shibuya Station started Saturday, part of the station's relocation to a new building set to open Jan. 3.
The current Shibuya Station building opened in 1938. Aging of the structure and congestion caused by the narrowness of platforms had been issues needing to be resolved for years.
The new station building, located directly above Meiji-dori street, is about 130 meters east of the current location.
The platforms in the new building are wider, and is equiped with escalators. After the opening, the new station building will have platform doors and a passageway to cross over the building's roof.
For the relocation work, two sections of the Ginza Line are temporarily closed all day between Saturday and Thursday -- one between Shibuya and Omotesando stations, and the other between Aoyama-itchome and Tameike-sanno stations.
A Tokyo Metro official in charge of the work said, "We hope that the renovated Shibuya Station will be loved by people as a symbol of the area."
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