The is a railway line in northeastern

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

, Japan that connects the prefectural capitals

Takamatsu 270px, Takamatsu City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Takamatsu city center 270px, View from Yashima to Takashima port is a city located in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 414,134 in 190120 households and a popul ...

( Kagawa) and

Tokushima is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 728,633 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,146 km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the nort ...

(

Shikoku Railway Company The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company has i ...

(JR Shikoku) owns and operates the line, whose name comes from the

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in the cities that the line connects: and . Sanuki, the name of the ancient

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

that preceded the modern

Kagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kagawa Prefecture has a population of 949,358 (as of 2020) and is the smallest prefecture by geographic area at . Kagawa Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the southwest and Tok ...

, appears in the names of four stations on the line.

Services

The '' Uzushio'' limited express serves the entire line. Two round-trips per day run through to/from . In addition to local trains that run the entire length of the Kōtoku Line, there are trains that run between Takamatsu and Orange Town, Sambommatsu, and Hiketa, as well as between Tokushima and Itano and Tokushima and Hiketa. For a single-tracked line service levels are quite high, except along the prefectural border between Itano and Hiketa. In Tokushima there are through trains to/from the

Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...

and

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lines, with one train per day running from Takamatsu to via . Since the completion of electrification work between Takamatsu and Iyoshi on the Yosan Line, the Kōtoku Line has received some of the newest DMUs on the JR Shikoku network. Local services often use 1000 series, 1200 series and 1500 series DMUs, while limited express services are handled by N2000 series DMUs.

Station list

* Local trains stop at all stations. For details of the '' Uzushio'' limited express service see that article. * Trains can pass one another at stations marked "◇" and "^" and cannot pass at those marked "｜".

History

The first part of what is now the Kotoku Line was built by the Tokushima Railway, being the Sako to Tokushima section of its line from Kamojima (now the Tokushima Line) opened on February 16, 1899. That company was nationalised in 1907. In 1916 the Awa Electric Railway opened a line from Nakahara to Naruto, including the Yoshinari to Ikenotani section, which is now part of the Kotoku Line. The Takamatsu to Hikida section was opened between 1925-28 by the (then) Japanese Imperial Railways. In 1933 the Awa Electric Railway was nationalised, and in 1935 the Hikida to Ikenotani and Yoshinari to Sako sections were opened, completing the line. In 1977 CTC signalling became operational for the line, and freight operations ceased in 1986. With the privatization of

JNR 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 pre ...

, the line became part of the Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku) on April 1, 1987. On June 1, 1988 the line name changed from Kōtoku Main Line to Kōtoku Line. The elevated Sako Station was commissioned in 1993, and in 1998 track improvement allowing faster speeds was completed, and Orange Town Station opened.

Former connecting lines

* Itano Station: The Awa Electric Railway opened a 7 km line to Kajiyabara in 1923, it being taken over by the Japanese Imperial Railways when the company was nationalised in 1933. The line closed in 1972.

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia.

External links