I’m confused about usage of the pasmo card between Shinagawa and Haneda airport that I was hoping someone could educate me on.
A few weeks ago (Friday early morning) I went to pick up my parents from Haneda. My journey was Nakameguro Station -> Ebisu (Hibiya line); transfer to Yamanote line , get off at Shinagawa, transfer to the Keikyu line for Haneda. Used my pasmo the whole way with no problems. Let’s call this journey 1.
Then today (Tuesday early evening), we caught a cab to Shinagawa, entered at the main station gates with Pasmo, then attempted to transfer at the Keikyu gate for Haneda with the pasmo (same gate as per journey 1), but the gate threw an error when we tapped on, and we had to buy a transfer ticket from the special desk. Let’s call this journey 2.
My question is – why did the pasmo work fine (end to end) for journey 1 but not for journey 2? Is it something having to do with the day and time of travel? Or the fact that in journey 1, the start of my journey was before Shinagawa station?
This has happened to me a few times now and I’m annoyed that I can’t figure it out so I’d appreciate if someone could explain 😅
Thx in advance
9 comments
Sounds like you entered Shinagawa through the JR ticket gates, then attempted to enter the Keikyu part of the station through the transfer gates? That will never work (at least without a regular commuter pass which covers both lines via Shinagawa); you need to enter on the Keikyu side.
You can’t enter a station and then immediately transfer at the same station to another line. You can only transfer if you came from a different station.
There’s also no need to transfer at the station you entered if you just entered the correct line from the start.
Why did you try to transfer to Keikyu when it has its own gate at Shinagawa? That’s why. Transfer gates are for passengers that have come from elsewhere. You should enter straight to the Keikyu line if you want to use it.
As others have mentioned, there’s a specific entrance to Keikyu’s station in Shinagawa. You entered through JR Shinagawa and then tried to immediately transfer into Keikyu Shinagawa without riding any train . This is equivalent to like entering JR Shinagawa, and then immediately leaving back through the same gates without riding a train (will cause an error as well). They might do this to prevent idk people from entering to just use the bathroom and go out. Or from using the train to go somewhere, then go back to the starting station without exiting the station.
When transferring, if you came from a different JR station to JR Shinagawa, then you may transfer into Keikyu. Need to be careful which stations you enter depending on which lines you want to ride, especially for the start of trips.
Did you get JR staff to cancel your entry? This might cause a problem the next time you go to use the card as the gate will think you are still inside the system. I had a problem where I tapped to get out, it let me out, but the money didn’t leave my card so I had to talk to the staff on my way home. 🤦🏼♀️
The staff will sometimes charge you for making that mistake because so many foreigners do it. Be careful
I understand your confusion. The thing is, there are no ‘main station gates’ in Shinagawa. There are JR station gates, and there are Keikyu station gates. JR Shinagawa station and Keikyu Shinagawa station are run by 2 different companies.
You can’t make a transit to another company’s railway and exit at the same station. Similarly, you can’t enter a station and make a transit to another company’s railway at the said station, which is what you tried to do in your journey 2. The key element here is transit between different companies, where you have to go through an extra gate.
Same thing would happen between Toei subway and Tokyo Metro subway, with a few exceptions where they provide “改札通過サービス”.
There’s different entries. The one you’re used the first time is for transfer only meaning you take the “JR” train from somewhere to Shinagawa station and want to transfer to keikyu line.
– if you want to start at Shinagawa station but not use JR line but use the Keikyu line you have to go to the Keikyu ticket machine without entering the JR ticket machine. It’s somewhere on the ground floor. There’s sign pointing at it.
This is treated as you entered a gate in a station and exit at another gate of the same station. They usually charge you the minimum fare when you do this unless you have a commuter pass for that station. I usually do this when I want to go to the other side of the station but going around takes too long or confusing, i.e. Shinjuku station.