The is a railway line in western
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 ...
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). It connects
Tsuge on the
Kansai Main Line
The is a railway line in Japan, which connects Nagoya Station with JR Namba Station in Osaka. It is jointly run by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), with the boundary between both comp ...
with
Kusatsu on the
Biwako Line
The is the nickname used by the operator of the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) to refer to the portion of the Tōkaidō Main Line (between Maibara Station and Kyoto Station) and the Hokuriku Main Line (between Maibara Station and Nagahama ...
(
Tōkaidō Main Line
The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...
).
History
The Kansai Railway Co. opened the entire line in 1889/90, and was nationalised in 1907.
CTC signalling was commissioned in 1979, the line was electrified in 1980 and freight services ceased in 1987.
Construction of a new station, "Minami-Biwako", began in May 2006 and was planned to be completed in 2012; the station was proposed to allow passengers to transfer between the
Tōkaidō Shinkansen
The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 1964, ...
and Kusatsu lines; however, in September 2006, the Otsu district court concluded that Ritto City issuing bonds to fund the station's construction was illegal under local finance law and the project was halted; the project was officially abandoned in October 2007.
Stations
Train stops at all stations and operates as a local train within the line.
See also
*
List of railway lines in Japan
List of railway lines in Japan lists existing railway lines in Japan alphabetically.
The vast majority of Japanese railways are classified under two Japanese laws, one for and another for . The difference between the two is a legal, and not alwa ...
References
Lines of West Japan Railway Company
Transport in Shiga Prefecture
Transport in Mie Prefecture
Railway lines opened in 1889
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