Useful everyday kanji - trains

Since I am taking an interest in kanji myself at the moment, I thought I'd start this little series on kanji for everyday life. As I've said before, I am not an expert, and please note that most of these kanji have several different 'readings' (that is, ways to pronounce them); I haven't always listed them all.

If you're in Japan for any length of time, you'll see most of these kanji a lot. Seeing them frequently will help you remember them.

Train stations

駅 (eki) means station.
車 (sha) means 'car' or 'vehicle'. This is a very good kanji to learn. It can also be pronounced kuruma, which means 'car'. 電車 (densha) means 'train'. You'll also see the 車 on train carriages to tell which car number it is.

入口 (iriguchi) means entrance, and
出口 (deguchi) means exit. The kanji 入 and 出 are useful to learn as they appear in many words. By itself, 口 (kuchi) means 'mouth'.

東 (higashi) means 'east'
西 (nishi) means 'west
北 (kita) means 'north'
南 (minami) means 'south'
Usually, train station exits are labelled as 'north exit', etc, so this may be handy.

Note that the pronunciation of kanji can change depending on the word they are in. For example, many kanji have a different pronunciation when they are a standalone word, or when they are in a compound word.
For example, 東北 is not pronounced 'higashikita', but 'touhoku'. Touhoku is the name of a region in the north-east of the main island of Japan. The Keihin-Touhoku/Negishi line is an important JR train line in Yokohama.

各駅 (kakueki) - a 'kakueki teisha' is a 'local train', ie one that stops at every station. If you take trains, this is probably one of the first words you'll learn, as you'll hear constant announcements like 'kakueki teisha mairimasu' (the local train is coming), stand behind the yellow line, etc.
In some areas, local trains are called 普通 (futsuu) - like 'normal' trains.
快速 (kaisoku) - a 'rapid train', which skips some minor stations
急行 (kyuukou) - an 'express train', which only stops at major stations

線 (sen) means 'line'. As in English, it can have the dual meaning of 'stripe' ('please stand behind the yellow line') and 'train line' (please change here for the Keihin-Touhoku line).