Saitama is the prefecture just north of Tokyo, linked by several JR and private railways. Saitama City with its major centre at Omiya has some 1.2 million inhabitants.

The New Shuttle, also known as Ina Line, is a manually driven guideway system, which runs alongside the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen routes in Saitama Prefecture in the north of the Tokyo conurbation (12.7 km, 13 stations)

22-12-1983: Omiya – Hanuki
02-08-1990: Hanuki – Uchijuku

Opened on 28 March 2001, this line is actually a northern extension of the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line, running mostly underground outside Tokyo in Saitama Prefecture. It is 14.6 km long and has 8 colour-coded stations:

Akabane-Iwabuchi - Kawaguchi Motogo - Minami Hatogaya - Hatogaya - Araijuku - Totsuka Angyo - Higashi-Kawaguchi - Urawa Misono.

Saitama New Shuttle

Saitama Railway

JR East (Commuter Railways)

Railway Operators in Japan 4: Central Tokyo by Makoto Aoki (from Japan Railway & Transport Review)

All About Japanese Trains (includes a section on Tokyo subway rolling stock) by Mike Nakada

BLOG: Read your webmaster's impressions of the Saitama New Shuttle & other Greater Tokyo railways (April/May 2016)

Tokyo Metro & TOEI Subway at UrbanRail.Net