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Can anyone confirm if you can use a single Suica card to travel from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko via:

  • Chuo Line (Rapid & Local) from Shinjuku to Otsuki
  • Fujikyu Line (Local) from Otsuki to Kawaguchiko

From what I read on JR East's site the entire Chuo Line (Rapid & Local) can be ridden with IC cards without any extra fees. Likewise on Fujikyu Railway's site they claim that you can use an IC card when traveling from Otsuki to Kawaguchiko.

Can anyone confirm this? Note: I am NOT taking any limited express trains, only the Rapid & Local ones.

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  • Also: If you time it right, there are Chuo line trains that go to Kawaguchiko.
    – muru
    Commented Jul 1 at 14:19

2 Answers 2

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Yes, you can use Suica on all JR East regular services (like the Chuo Line) and all Fujikyu lines.

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  • Thank you for the confirmation!!
    – Cooper
    Commented Jun 30 at 23:39
  • @Cooper Glad I could help! Please accept the answer by clicking on ✔️ if it worked for you. Commented Jul 1 at 10:02
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Generally speaking, every single line (excluding reserved trains) in the greater Kanto area can be accessed with a single Suica/Pasmo card.

There are exceptions, which fall into three categories:

  • Suica accepted until a specific boundary, e.g. Suica is not accepted past Namie (Jōban Line), Kuroiso (Tōhoku Line), Minakami (Jōetsu Line), Matsumoto (Chūō Line). Usually paper tickets are required past these locations but as a tourist it is highly unlikely that you will end up in one of these situations.
  • IC card area boundary changes, so trips must tap out and then back in at the boundary station, e.g. Atami (Tōkaidō Line), Kōzu (Gotemba Line). This is a common faux pax even for locals visiting a new area for the first time, since JR East and JR Central routinely run trains across the territorial border on the Tōkaidō and Gotemba Lines, as does Odakyu's Romancecar service.
  • Small private railway or rural local line that doesn't take IC cards at all or has a custom ticketing option, e.g. Yukarigaoka Line, Choshi Electric Railway, Kominato and Isumi Railway Lines, Ryutetsu. In these cases you will typically tap out first and be greeted with a cash only ticket machine to proceed further, or station staff who can help you purchase a ticket.

Pasmo publishes a map at https://www.pasmo.co.jp/visitors/en/area/pdf/all.pdf that shows the full network where you can ride on a single journey. For the webpage linking to this map, see https://www.pasmo.co.jp/visitors/en/area/ (in case the PDF link ceases to work).

Fujikyu and the Chūō Line deep into Nagano Prefecture support Suica, Pasmo, and any of the other interoperable IC cards, so in your particular case you should be fine. I am not sure if Fujikyu requires that you tap in/out when transferring at Ōtsuki but instructions at the station should be clear.

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    An exception that may catch people out is the Shibayama Railway. It interlines with Keisei, an operator who uses Pasmo, but the sole station it owns does not support IC cards.
    – Noch
    Commented Jul 5 at 11:45
  • Excellent point - despite having used it myself I completely forgot that Shibayama Railway doesn't accept IC cards despite literally being operated by Keisei as a Keisei extension. However, the only foreigners riding the Shibayama Railway are those who either get horribly lost in the airport or those who are specifically trying to take it for the novelty.
    – Andrew Fan
    Commented Jul 6 at 14:53

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