Toei Bus on the map - two separate worlds, and stops below sea level

Spread the network on a map and a different picture emerges

Having looked at Toei buses through the figures in their timetables (Toei Bus by the numbers), this time we spread the route network out on a map. Seen that way, the network as a whole reveals things you could never notice while simply waiting for a bus at a stop. The figures in this article are our own analysis, based on timetables and stop locations as of August 2026.

Toei Bus contains two separate worlds

Place all 151 Toei Bus routes on a map and the network is not one connected web but two completely separate clusters: 141 routes (1,484 stops) on the central Tokyo side, and 10 routes (189 stops) out around Ome in the west.

The two worlds share not a single bus stop. Even at their closest, 11.4 km lie between 花小金井駅北口, the eastern edge of the Ome side, and 阿佐ヶ谷駅前 on the central side. In other words, no amount of transferring between Toei buses will take you from central Tokyo onto an Ome route. Inside the one name "Toei Bus" lives a second world, going about its business independently. It is the largest structural feature of the network, and one that only a map makes visible.

To the far end of the transfer chain - a seven-bus expedition

So within the connected central network, can you reach anywhere easily? Search for the pair of stops that demands the greatest number of rides when you travel by Toei bus alone, and the answer is 食肉市場前 in Minato City to 春江町五丁目 in Edogawa City: a full 7 buses. One possible chain of connections runs like this.

品 98 → 品 93 → 品 97 → 早 77 → 上 58 → 上 23 → 平 23

The whole trip stays inside Tokyo, yet the itinerary reads like a bus travelogue on television. Take a train and you would arrive far sooner, of course, but imagining the grand "buses only" expedition is one of the pleasures a map brings. Averaged over every pair of stops, incidentally, the figure comes to about 3.44 buses, and most places are two or three rides away.

The stop next door is 27 m away, or 5.5 km

The gap between one stop and the next varies enormously too. The closest neighbors are 足立区役所 and 足立区役所前, a mere 27 m apart. The bus has barely pulled away before it is already at the next stop.

At the other extreme is the 5.5 km run on 品 98 from 大田市場北門西 to 品川駅港南口. On this stretch the bus sweeps nonstop past the wholesale market district, covering a straight-line distance equal to several Yamanote Line stations without one stop along the way.

238 bus stops sit below sea level

Now let us read the map vertically, by elevation. The highest of all Toei bus stops is 上成木 on 梅 76 甲, which threads through the mountains around Ome, at an elevation of 302.5 m. The lowest is 北砂五丁目 in Koto City, at -3.1 m, meaning it stands below sea level.

And it is not alone: 238 stops in all sit below sea level. That is because Toei buses serve, in fine detail, the low-lying districts spreading across Koto City and Edogawa City where the ground itself lies beneath the waterline. Up in the hills, by contrast, a single route takes in as much as 136.6 m of height difference (梅 76 甲), which shows that the same "Toei Bus" counts both land below sea level and a mountainside among its territory.

Toei buses, yet the stops are in Saitama Prefecture

You might assume that buses run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation stay inside Tokyo, but look closely at the map and stops appear on the far side of the prefectural border. The stops at 上畑・下畑 (飯能市) と加賀中学校入口 (川口市) are all within Saitama Prefecture, reached by routes 梅 74 甲・梅 74 乙・里 48-2, each of which crosses the boundary into the prefecture.

Turn your attention to the rivers, and on the Ome side 梅 74 甲 crosses the meandering Tama River 10 times in a single ride. The water appears now on the right, now on the left: a modest tour of bridges from your seat.

The same destination, yet the two never meet

One more discovery that only a map delivers. 渋 88 and 都 06 are both routes linking 新橋駅前・渋谷駅前. Yet in between, the two share not one stop. 渋 88 goes by way of Roppongi and Toranomon, 都 06 by way of Ebisu and Azabu-Juban, joining the same two points along entirely different streets.

Judging by the destination sign alone they look identical, but the view from the window belongs to another world. Which one you board changes the neighborhoods you pass through, so when your destination lies somewhere in the middle, checking which route you are on matters. Learning to tell apart pairs like these, with the same terminals but different paths, widens the range of places the bus can take you.

Now that you have read the map, go and watch today's buses

A network split in two, an expedition of seven buses, 238 stops below sea level, and stops in Saitama Prefecture. On the map, Toei Bus turns out to be a world far wider and more three-dimensional than any single daily ride would suggest.

And where the buses are running across that map right now is something you can check at any time on the Busdoko home page. If a route caught your eye in this article, do watch the real buses making their way along it.

The figures in this article are our own analysis, based on timetables and stop locations as of August 2026. Elevations are derived from elevation data published by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.