Kobe Subway 3625F at Gakuentoshi Station

The is a

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

system in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

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 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. 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 The , commonly known as is an urban automated guideway transit (AGT) system in Kobe, Japan, operated by Kobe New Transit. Opened in 1981, the Port Liner was the world's first driverless urban transit system, a few years ahead of the VAL syste ...

and the Rokko Island Line.

History

Construction of the first line of the subway system, the Seishin Line, began on November 25, 1971. The line opened on March 13, 1977, running for between Myōdani and Shin-Nagata stations. A second line, the Yamate Line, opened on June 17, 1983, running for between Shin-Nagata and Ōkurayama stations. On June 18, 1985, the Yamate Line was extended to Shin-Kobe and the Seishin Line was extended to Gakuen-toshi. When the final stage of the Seishin Line, an extension to Seishin-Chuo, opened on March 18, 1987, the Seishin Line and the Yamate Line were merged into the

Seishin-Yamate Line The , also known by its nickname of "Midori no U-Line" ( ja, みどりのUライン, lit=The green "U" line), is one of the two lines of the Kobe Municipal Subway. It links the central districts to the east and western suburbs of Kobe. The line ...

. The

Hokushin Kyūkō Electric Railway The is a line of Kobe Municipal Subway connecting Tanigami in Kita-ku, Kobe and Shin-Kobe in Chūō-ku, Kobe. The line has only these two stations. Formerly operated by the third-sector Hokushin Kyuko Railway (a subsidiary of Hankyu railway ...

opened the Hokushin Line extension between Shin-Kobe and Tanigami on April 2, 1988; services on the Hokushin Line have through service onto the Seishin-Yamate Line. On January 17, 1995, the Seishin-Yamate Line was damaged in the

Great Hanshin earthquake The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and ha ...

. The day after the earthquake, limited services resumed between Seishin-Chuo and Itayado; full service was restored to the entire line in March 1995 after repairs were completed. On July 7, 2001, the long

Kaigan Line The , also known as the "Yumekamome" ( ja, 夢かもめ), is one of two lines of the Kobe Municipal Subway. Trains of the line are propelled by linear motors. This is the third linear motor rapid transit line to be built in Japan. History C ...

opened between Sannomiya-hanadokeimae and Shin-Nagata. On June 1, 2020,

Hokushin Line The is a line of Kobe Municipal Subway connecting Tanigami in Kita-ku, Kobe and Shin-Kobe in Chūō-ku, Kobe. The line has only these two stations. Formerly operated by the third-sector Hokushin Kyuko Railway (a subsidiary of Hankyu railway ...

was transferred to Kobe Municipal Subway.

Lines

Network map

Notes

References

External links