Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway Company, Limited (神戸高速鉄道株式会社 ''Kōbe kōsoku-tetsudō'') is a railway infrastructure company in central

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Lines

Kobe Rapid Railway owns two lines. * Tozai Line (east-west) * Namboku Line (north-south) The Tozai and Namboku lines have been operated since the founding of the railway company while the Hokushin Line is a recent addition to its business. The company is a under the 1986 Railway Business Act of Japan in respect to all three lines.

Tozai Line and Namboku Line

The company does not run its own services on these lines, but provides the necessary infrastructure for four private railway lines (

Hankyu Kobe Line , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...

(

Hankyu , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho G ...

Hanshin Main Line The is a railway line operated by the private railway company Hanshin Electric Railway in Japan. It connects the two cities of Osaka and Kobe, between and stations respectively. Outline The Main Line of Hanshin is the southernmost railw ...

(

Hanshin , derived from the second kanji from and the first kanji from (but in ''on''-reading instead of ''kun''-reading), refers generally to Osaka, Kobe, and the surrounding area in the Kansai region of Japan. In the context of a region of Hyōgo ...

Shintetsu Arima Line The is a commuter railway line in Kobe, Japan operated by Kobe Electric Railway. It connects central Kobe with its northern suburbs in Kita-ku and Arima Onsen. The line is long, extending from in Hyogo-ku to in Kita-ku. Service is divided ...

( Shintetsu) and

Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the private railway operator Sanyo Electric Railway. It stretches from Kobe west to Himeji via Akashi, Kakogawa and other municipalities in Hyōgo Prefecture. The line runs parallel to West Japan Rail ...

(

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

) to be able to run trains through Kobe. The company operated and administered the stations on the Tozai Line and the Namboku Line (except for

Sannomiya Station Kobe-Sannomiya Station (), or simply Sannomiya Station (), is a major interchange station located in the Sannomiya area in the heart of Kobe, Japan. This station is the main transport hub of Kobe. Lines Sannomiya is served by the following ...

operated by Hankyu, Motomachi Station operated by Hanshin, Nishidai Station operated by Sanyo and Minatogawa Station operated by Shintetsu) until September 2010, when the operation of the stations on the Tozai Line were transferred to Hanshin and Hankyu, and Shinkaichi Station on the Namboku Line to Shintetsu.

Hokushin Line

The Hokushin Line was formerly owned by the operator Hokushin Kyuko Electric Railway. When Hokushin Kyuko suffered financial difficulties in 2002, Kobe Rapid Railway purchased the assets of the railway trackage from Hokushin Kyuko. Unlike the Tozai Line and the Namboku Line stations, the stations of the Hokushin Line are operated and administrated by Hokushin Kyuko (

Tanigami Station is a railway station in northern Kobe, Japan, serving the Shintetsu Arima Line and the Kobe Municipal Subway Hokushin Line. Layout Tanigami Station consists of five tracks and three island platforms An island platform (also center platform ...

) and

Kobe Municipal Subway The is a rapid transit system in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Like other large Japanese cities, Kobe's subway system is heavily complemented by suburban rail. In addition, two people mover lines also serve the Kobe area: the Port Island Line ...

( Shin-Kobe Station). On 1 June 2020, the operation of the line was transferred to

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobe Rapid Transit Railway Transport in Kobe Railway companies of Japan Underground rapid transit in Japan Railway infrastructure companies