The very first extended Japanese most travellers actually hear — before they order coffee, before they check into a hotel — is a train announcement. It pours out of the platform speakers in a smooth, unhurried stream of keigo, and almost none of it is composed on the spot: it is a fixed script, recited (or pre-recorded) the same way at every station on the line. That is good news for a learner. Learn the handful of formulas below once and you have unlocked a text you will hear dozens of times a day. This page walks through a complete commuter-line announcement — arrival, safety warning, destination, transfer, doors, and send-off — one sentence at a time.
Here is the whole announcement first, as you would hear it on the platform and then on board:
まもなく、三番線に電車がまいります。危ないですから、黄色い線の内側までお下がりください。この電車は、各駅停車、東京行きです。中央線ご利用のお客様は、次の神田でお乗り換えください。まもなく、ドアが閉まります。ご注意ください。次は、神田、神田です。ご乗車ありがとうございました。
Now let's take it apart.
Arrival: まもなく〜がまいります
まもなく、三番線に電車がまいります。
mamonaku, san-ban-sen ni densha ga mairimasu
The train will be arriving shortly on Track 3.
Two things carry the register here. まもなく ("shortly, before long") is the announcement's stock adverb of imminence — more formal than the everyday もうすぐ, and paired reflexively with arriving and departing trains. Then comes the word that trips up almost every learner: まいります. This is not a special "train verb." It is the polite form of 参る, the humble (謙譲語) equivalent of 来る / 行く. The railway company is humbling its own train's action toward you, the customer — exactly the same 謙譲語 you would use for yourself in 明日、参ります ("I'll come tomorrow"). If you only know 来ます, まいります can sail past unrecognised. Learn it as the service-register "comes/goes." See 参る／まいる for the full picture.
The safety warning: an お＋stem＋ください command
危ないですから、黄色い線の内側までお下がりください。
abunai desu kara, kiiroi sen no uchigawa made o-sagari kudasai
It's dangerous, so please step back behind the yellow line.
お下がりください is the workhorse pattern of the whole genre: お＋verb-stem＋ください, the honorific way to say "please do X." It is built from 下がる ("step back") → stem 下がり → お下がりください. The key point for English speakers is that this is a polite command, not a description. Learners sometimes parse お下がりください as "someone lowers something" and miss that they are being told to move. It is the respectful cousin of the plain 下がってください, and the same machine generates お待ちください ("please wait"), お進みください ("please move along"), and お気をつけください ("please take care"). The pattern is covered in depth on お〜ください: the honorific request. Note also 危ないですから — even the reason clause stays in polite です form; the whole announcement is 丁寧語 throughout.
The destination line: 各駅停車、〜行き
この電車は、各駅停車、東京行きです。
kono densha wa, kakueki-teisha, tōkyō-yuki desu
This train is a local service bound for Tokyo.
Two fixed pieces of rail vocabulary. 各駅停車 (literally "each-station-stopping") is the "local" train that stops everywhere, contrasted with 快速 (rapid) and 急行 (express). And 〜行き is the destination suffix "bound for —." A learner's ear-trap: 行き here is read ゆき (yuki), the traditional destination reading, not いき — so 東京行き is tōkyō-yuki. You will see it on the side of every carriage and hear it in every announcement.
The transfer cue: お乗り換え
中央線ご利用のお客様は、次の神田でお乗り換えください。
chūō-sen go-riyō no o-kyakusama wa, tsugi no kanda de o-norikae kudasai
Passengers for the Chūō Line, please change trains at the next stop, Kanda.
This sentence bundles three service-keigo signals. ご利用 is the honorific noun form of 利用する ("to use") — ご＋Sino-Japanese noun, the ご-partner of the お-prefix (the choice between them is not random; see お vs ご). お客様 is the maximally elevated word for "customer/passenger," 客 wrapped in both お and 様. And お乗り換え is the fixed "transfer" cue — お＋乗り換え (the compound noun "change of trains"). When you hear お乗り換え, that is your signal that a connection is being announced; it reappears as お乗り換えです ("this is a transfer point") and お乗り換えのお客様は… ("passengers changing trains…"). Here it takes the same お＋stem＋ください request frame as お下がりください.
The closing doors: a warning fused with a request
まもなく、ドアが閉まります。ご注意ください。
mamonaku, doa ga shimarimasu. go-chūi kudasai
The doors will be closing shortly. Please take care.
まもなく returns to mark imminence, now for departure rather than arrival. ドアが閉まります uses the intransitive 閉まる ("to close, of itself") — the doors close, no agent named, which is why it is 閉まります and not the transitive 閉めます. Then ご注意ください: once more the ご＋noun＋ください request, "please be careful." You will hear the parallel 駆け込み乗車はおやめください ("please refrain from rushing onto the train") on busy lines — same polite-command grammar.
The next-stop announcement: built-in redundancy
次は、神田、神田です。
tsugi wa, kanda, kanda desu
The next stop is Kanda — Kanda.
Notice the station name is said twice. This is not a stutter; it is deliberate. Platforms and moving trains are noisy, so the critical piece of information — which station — is repeated by design so a passenger who missed it the first time still catches it. You will hear the same doubling on arrival: 東京、東京です. Once you know the pattern, the repetition stops sounding odd and starts sounding reassuring.
The send-off
ご乗車ありがとうございました。
go-jōsha arigatō gozaimashita
Thank you for riding with us.
ご乗車 is ご＋乗車 ("boarding/riding"), and the whole line is the railway's thanks to the customer. Note the past tense ございました: the thanks is offered as the journey concludes, framing the completed act of riding. On the Shinkansen and on premium lines this politeness climbs a further rung into でございます — 東京駅でございます ("this is Tokyo Station"), the ultra-formal copula covered on でございます. A commuter line typically stops at です・ます plus the お／ご request forms; a bullet train layers でございます on top. Both live in the broader world of service language and its scripted customer-service keigo.
A common extra line worth recognising:
お忘れ物のないよう、ご注意ください。
o-wasuremono no nai yō, go-chūi kudasai
Please take care not to leave any belongings behind.
お忘れ物 (お＋忘れ物, "forgotten items") with 〜のないよう ("so that there is no —") is the standard "don't forget your things" reminder as you arrive.
Common mistakes
Treating まいります as an unknown special verb. It is simply 来る／行く in humble keigo. English speakers who only drilled 来ます don't connect it, and the arrival line becomes noise.
❌ まもなく、三番線に電車が来まいります。
Incorrect — 来 and まいる are two attempts at the same verb; まいります already IS 来る in humble form.
✅ まもなく、三番線に電車がまいります。
mamonaku, san-ban-sen ni densha ga mairimasu
The train will be arriving shortly on Track 3.
Reading お下がりください as a statement. お＋stem＋ください is a polite command directed at you, not a description of an event.
❌ 黄色い線の内側までお下がりします。
Wrong — お〜します is the humble 'I do it' form. A request to the passenger needs お〜ください, not お〜します.
✅ 黄色い線の内側までお下がりください。
kiiroi sen no uchigawa made o-sagari kudasai
Please step back behind the yellow line.
Confusing 閉まります with 閉めます. The announcement uses the intransitive: the doors close of themselves. The transitive 閉めます would imply a named person closing them.
❌ まもなく、ドアを閉めます。
Sounds like a person announcing 'I will close the door' — wrong voice for an automatic doors-closing warning.
✅ まもなく、ドアが閉まります。
mamonaku, doa ga shimarimasu
The doors will be closing shortly.
Missing お乗り換え as the fixed transfer cue. Learners hear it as a literal "honorable changing" and don't register that a connection is being announced.
❌ 中央線に乗り換えしてください。
Understandable but flat and non-standard — the announcement register uses the set お乗り換えください.
✅ 中央線ご利用のお客様は、お乗り換えください。
chūō-sen go-riyō no o-kyakusama wa, o-norikae kudasai
Passengers for the Chūō Line, please change trains here.
Key takeaways
- A station announcement is scripted service keigo — learn the formulas as whole units and you decode the entire genre.
- まいります = 来る／行く in humble form (謙譲語); it is the register's "comes/goes," not a special verb.
- お＋stem＋ください (お下がりください, お乗り換えください, ご注意ください) is a polite command directed at the passenger — an instruction, never a description.
- お客様, ご利用, ご乗車, お乗り換え are the fixed customer-service nouns; the お／ご honorific prefix marks every one.
- The deliberate repetition of station names (神田、神田です) is engineered redundancy for noisy platforms, not an error.
- Commuter lines stay at です・ます plus お／ご requests; Shinkansen and premium services add the ultra-formal でございます on top.
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