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The is a bus service operated by the Bus Service Division, the . It is also called . The bureau mainly operates bus routes in the special wards of Tokyo, as well as those in the city of Ōme in the western Tama Area. It creates a virtual monopoly of bus routes in the central Tokyo (the area roughly within Yamanote Line loop), while those in other parts of Tokyo Metropolis and the Greater Tokyo Area are operated by many different companies. TMBT also operates a few other bus services, such as chartered bus, school bus, and community bus. Tokyo is one of the only two Japanese prefectures that directly operate bus routes, the other being Nagasaki Ken-ei Bus by the Transportation Bureau of Nagasaki Prefecture. As of April 2006, there are 138 routes with the total length of . If the sections shared by multiple routes are counted once, the length is . 1,467 bus vehicles serve 1,639 bus stops.〔(Toei Bus ) outline from TMBT official website.〕 Toei Bus has an official mascot called , a bug-like personification of a bus vehicle. ==History== When Tokyo Shiden (Tokyo City Streetcar, the current Tokyo Toden) lines were damaged by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, Tokyo City Electricity Bureau started 2 bus routes, originally as an emergency measure. They became the origin of Tokyo City Bus. In 1942, Tokyo City bought over 8 rivaling bus companies, including of , of , and others. In 1943, TCEB changed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation, as the city changed to the metropolis. Right after the World War II, there were only 12 routes still in operation. 400 surplus buses from U.S. force were sold to TMBT, helping its recovery. In 1948, its tourist bus division was assigned to , which now dominates tourist bus services in Tokyo. Toei Bus had a good financial condition in 1950s, but went into red from 1961. After 1963, many streetcar lines were closed, and new bus routes started their services as substitutes, making the backbone of the current network. In 1975, the bureau succeeded the routes in Ōme from Seibu Bus. Toei Bus had the highest ridership in 1972 fiscal year, with the average of 1,298,912 daily passengers. With the growth of subway network, the ridership is continuously decreasing. It had the average of 568,863 daily passengers in 2005 fiscal year.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toei Bus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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