is one of several

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

lines and services in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, operated by

West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

(JR West). The line, whose name literally means "east-west", runs underground through central

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and connects the

Gakkentoshi Line The , officially nicknamed the , is a commuter rail line and service in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area of Japan, owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The line connects Kizu Station in Kyoto Prefecture and Kyōb ...

at Kyobashi Station in

and the

JR Takarazuka Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting Osaka and Fukuchiyama, Japan. Within JR West's "Urban Network" covering the Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto metropolitan region, the line from Osaka to Sasayamaguchi is also ...

and the

JR Kobe Line The is the nickname of portions of the Tokaido Main Line and the Sanyo Main Line, between Osaka Station in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture and Himeji Station in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. The line, along with the JR Kyoto Line and the Biwako Line, ...

Amagasaki file:Amagasaki Castle Tenshu 20181125.jpg, 270px, Amagasaki Castle file:Amagasaki city center area Aerial photograph.1985.jpg, 270px, Aerial view of Amagasaki city center file:Amagasaki st03s3000.jpg, 270px, Amagasaki Station is an industrial Citi ...

. All stations on this line are in the city of Osaka, except for the western terminus in

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

Basic data

*Operators, distances: 12.5 km / 7.8 mi. **

( Category-2, Services) **Kansai Rapid Railway Co., Ltd. ( Category-3, Tracks) *

Railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormou ...

:Automatic * CTC centers:Ōsaka Operation Control Center *CTC system:JR Takarazuka – JR Tozai – Gakkentoshisen traffic control system ( JR west traffic control system)

Operation

All trains are local services and stop at every station on the line. Some trains terminate at Amagasaki, but most westbound trains continue on the Kobe Line to Nishi-Akashi and on the Takarazuka Line to Tsukaguchi and Takarazuka. All eastbound trains continue past Kyobashi on the Gakkentoshi Line.

History

The line was initially proposed in 1971 by

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

(JNR) as a link between the

Katamachi Line The , officially nicknamed the , is a commuter rail line and service in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area of Japan, owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The line connects Kizu Station (Kyoto), Kizu Station in Kyoto P ...

, which connected

to its eastern suburbs, and

Fukuchiyama Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting Osaka and Fukuchiyama, Kyoto, Fukuchiyama, Japan. Within JR West's "Urban Network" covering the Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto metropolitan region, the line from Osaka to S ...

, which connected the city to its northwestern suburbs. Osaka's municipal government had maintained tight controls over transportation within the city, and most intercity lines terminated outside the city center. The line, provisionally known as , and would give commuters a single-seat ride from the suburbs and an east-west connection through central Osaka. A permit to lay the track was given 10 years later, but the project stopped because of JNR's financial problems. In 1988, after JNR privatized and split into Japan Railway companies,

formed a private-public entity called with the prefectural governments of

and Hyōgo, and the cities of

and

. The line was completed and opened as JR Tozai Line in 1997.

Stations

Rolling stock

* 207 series (from 1991) * 321 series (from 2005)

Former

* 223-6000 series (from March 2008, until March 2011)

References

External links

JR Tozai Line
{{DEFAULTSORT:JR Tozai Line Railway lines opened in 1997 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan