The Fukuoka City Subway (福岡市地下鉄) serves Fukuoka, Japan. It consists of three subway lines, the Kūkō (or Airport Line), the Hakozaki Line and the Nanakuma Line. The lines are operated by the Fukuoka City Transportation Bureau. Unlike most other public operators in Japan, the company only operates subways without any bus lines. All stations are equipped with automatic platform gates. All lines are automatically operated by ATO system, although drivers are used as a precaution. The lines introduced Hayakaken, a smart card system from March 2009. This superseded the prepaid magnetic card systems.

Lines

Hakata and Nakasu-Kawabata stations are counted twice (as Kūkō-Nanakuma and Kūkō-Hakozaki interchanges, respectively). The total number of individual stations is therefore 36.

Airport rail link

Visitors traveling to Fukuoka by Shinkansen (bullet train) disembark at JR Hakata Station. They can then transfer to the Fukuoka City Subway system by changing to Hakata Subway station, located under JR Hakata station. Fukuoka Airport is also linked to the Fukuoka City Subway. Downtown Fukuoka City can be reached in about 10 minutes by subway, making Fukuoka Airport one of the most accessible major-city airports in the world.

Station logos

Fukuoka City Subway employs unique logos (symbol mark and symbol color) for each station, much like Mexico City Metro. For example, Fukuokakūkō Station (Airport), has a logo symbolizing an airplane. The symbol marks of Kūkō and Hakozaki Line stations were designed by Isao Nisijima, with those of Nanakuma Line stations being designed by his son Masayuki Nisijima, building on his father’s posthumous works.

Rolling stock

Fares

Ticket prices for the subway lines are determined by the distance traveled (¥200-340). Tickets for the subway can be purchased at all subway station ticket machines.

Special tickets

Magnetic cards

Contactless smart card

Hayakaken is a rechargeable contactless smart card for the Fukuoka City Subway. It can also be used as a Commuter Pass (Chika Pass is included) except as a transferable pass for other company's lines. Starting in 2010, it became compatible with Nishi-Nippon Railroad's nimoca, JR Kyushu's SUGOCA and JR East's Suica. As of March 2013, it also became compatible with PASMO, Manaca, PiTaPa, JR West's ICOCA, JR Central's TOICA and JR Hokkaido's Kitaca. For details, please see Hayakaken.

Fukuoka City Transportation Bureau

Fukuoka City Transportation Bureau (福岡市交通局) is a public organization of transportation in Fukuoka, Japan. The organization operates subways. It was founded in 1973.

Network map