The , commonly known as the Sangi Hokusei Line, is a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railway line owned and operated by the , a Japanese private railway company. The line connects Nishi-Kuwana Station in

Kuwana, Mie is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 141,045 in 60,301 households and a population density of 1000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kuwana is located in northern Mie Pr ...

with Ageki Station in

Inabe, Mie 260px, Mount Ryu and Mount Fujiwara with Sunflower field is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 43,114 in 17314 households and a population density of 200 persons per km². The total area of the city ...

, in Japan. For many years the line was owned by major railway operator

Kintetsu ''Kintetsu'' is the abbreviation of , or Kintetsu Railway, a Japanese railway corporation. It may also refer to: Companies * Kintetsu Group Holdings, the holding corporation of the Kintetsu Railway ** Kintetsu Bus, a bus company and a subsidiary ...

but control was transferred to Sangi in April 2003. The name ''Hokusei'' (北勢) means "northern Mie". It is a

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

abbreviation of "north" (北) and "Ise" (伊勢). Ise (as opposed to "Mie") is used in the name because the northern and central parts of present-day Mie Prefecture were called

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

during the

Edo era The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

before the modern prefecture system was established.

Services

All services are classified , stopping at every station, and are ''wanman''

driver-only operation One-person operation (OPO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one-man operation (OMO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), similarly to Driver Controlled Operation, is operation of a train, bus ...

. Two services per hour operate during the day, increased to three per hour in the morning and evening peaks.

Stations

Kuwana Station is an interchange passenger railway station located in the city of Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan. It is jointly operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tōkai), and they private railway operator Kintetsu Railway and its subsidiary Yō ...

, a short walk from Nishi-Kuwana Station, passengers can transfer to 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 compan ...

, the Nagoya Line, and the Yōrō Line.

History

The section of the line between (present-day Nishi-Kuwana Station) and was opened on 5 April 1914 by the Hokusei Railway, with services operated using steam haulage. The line was extended to on 8 July 1931 and electrified at 600 V DC. On 11 February 1944, the line became part of , and in 1954, the line voltage was increased to 750 V DC. Kintetsu acquired the line on 1 April 1965, and from 1 April 2003, it was operated by the Sangi Railway.

Narrow gauge

The

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...

is especially narrow. In the early 20th century many of Japan's local railway lines were built using this gauge, however the vast majority of them were widened in the mid 20th century. Today, there are only four gauge train lines in operation in Japan, of which the Hokusei Line is the longest. This rarity makes the Hokusei Line (as well as the other gauge lines) popular with Japanese and other railway enthusiasts.

762 mm gauge railways of Japan

* Sangi Railway: Hokusei Line (this line) * Yokkaichi Asunarou Railway: Utsube Line (also in northern Mie Prefecture) * Yokkaichi Asunarou Railway: Hachiōji Line (small line branching off of the Utsube Line) *

Kurobe Gorge Railway The , or for short, is a private, narrow gauge railway company operating the Kurobe Gorge Main Line along the Kurobe River in the Kurobe gorge area of Toyama Prefecture, Japan. The railway was built to serve the construction of the Kurobe dam f ...

( Kurobe, Toyama)

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia. {{Kintetsu Lines Rail transport in Mie Prefecture 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in Japan 750 V DC railway electrification