Another discount airport bus "The Access Narita" launched. Y1,000 year round
 

*update* Dec 2013

Heiwa Kotsu has recently started "The Access Narita" bus service between NRT and central Tokyo. They are not good at PR and I found this service when I happened to see their bus stop. Always 1000 yen one way and operated once to three times per hour in the daytime.

Website.
http://accessnarita.jp/en/home/

Pretty good price, and fairly competitive with the Keisei line limited express.

Thank you for posting! Information in English can be found here: http://heiwakotsu.com/img/language2.pdf.

This is great info! I will try this service on my stopover next week.

Just took this bus to Narita Airport this morning. I hoped to take it into the city too but I just missed it.

The bus is almost brand new. It has 4+1 seats per row. The fare box has a felica reader for ic cards such as suica, but when I inquired the driver said cash only. The bus does not have onboard lavatory. There was another company rep along to assist with loading and unloading of luggages.

I boarded the bus at the starting bus stop near Yurakucho station. 4 passengers in all boarded here. The Yurakucho station is also used for other routes depending on time of hour. The bus left right on time at 7:25.

At the Yaesu stop, the bus picked up about 7-8 pasengers. The bus departed about 3 min late, but still made it to T1 at scheduled time of 8:40. We did not encounter any traffic during the outbound trip.

In all I am very happy with the price and performance of this service.

http://yfrog.com/h3f79ubj
http://yfrog.com/h2iq9xnj

How is this viable? 12 passengers equals 12,000 yen. Do buses actually pay the posted tolls? Large vehicles are normally double so it's 900 for the Shuto and then ~1400 yen so 2300 x 2 = 4600 yen in tolls alone.

The Limousine bus got on and off the Shuto to avoid the back-up over the Rainbow bridge (he took the non-toll portion). Getting on and off incurs more cost for a regular vehicle even with the new distance based tolls.

Most buses are in the "extra large" category so the toll would probably be north of 6,000 yen. I suppose the service is only viable with more passengers....

No doubt they are operating at a loss with only 12 passengers, but it is an early morning schedule. Maybe later buses have more passengers, or perhaps the ridership will pick up in time as more people know about this service. Hope this service will be successful, as competition is good for us consumers.

I think you were close to arriving around the peak for people who arrive 2 hours before mid-morning departures.

The service may also be subsidized somehow by NRT, which would make sense as they are making efforts to lure low-yield domestic traffic away from HND.

Deleted.
Reason. Website withdrawn.

I'll note that I took this bus a few weeks ago on my way to the US (happened to be in the area, and it was actually easier to jump on at the Ginza stop than trek over to Tokyo station for the N'Ex) and was quite impressed. Like the others, only a few passengers -- and almost everyone got out at the first T2 bus stop for the LCCs. Only two of us went on to T1, where the stop is right in front of the south side terminal.

Unless there's ridiculous congestion, this basically runs at the same speed as the N'Ex, and for a third of the price. Recommended.

I took it a few days ago and appreciate its convenient bus stop in Yaesu (hop over to the depachika in Ginza, then maybe a few antenna shop). The bus was less than half-full, and at the same cost as the Keisei line from NRT to Nippori, it's much more preferred.

I remember taking the Airport Limousine bus last year, and a single trip cost me 3000 Yen from Narita to Shinjuku, compared to 1000 Yen for this :eek: I might give this a try in future if it is a convenient option ^

If you're heading to Shinjuku, then you can alight at the Yaesu (by Tokyo station) bus stop, head over to Tokyo station and then hop on the Marunouchi line. Naturally, taking much luggage makes this less fun.