The is a railway line operated by

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

(JR East). It connects

Aomori Station is a railway station in the city of Aomori in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The station has been operating since September 1891, though the most recent station building, which consists of three island platforms connected to the station building by a ...

and

Minmaya Station is the northern terminal railway station on the JR East Tsugaru Line located in the town of Sotogahama, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Lines Minmaya Station is a terminal station on the Tsugaru Line, and is located from the opposing terminal of th ...

on the

Tsugaru Peninsula The is a peninsula in Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshū island, Japan. The peninsula projects north into the Tsugaru Strait separating Honshū from Hokkaidō. The western coast is on the Sea of Japan, while on its eastern coast ...

in western

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

. The section of the line between Aomori Station and

Naka-Oguni Station is a railway station on the Tsugaru Line in the town of Sotogahama, Aomori, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Naka-Oguni Station is served by the JR East Tsugaru Line and is 31.4 km from the southern terminus ...

is a part of the

Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line The was a railway line in northern Japan that linked Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture and Hakodate Station in Hokkaido. The Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line was actually made up of portions of four separate lines: the Tsugaru Line, operated by East Japan ...

connecting

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

and

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

History

Plans existed to link the prefectural capital of

Aomori is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 278,964 in 136,457 households, and a population density of 340 people per square kilometer spread over the city's total area of ...

with the northern tip of the

from the time of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Railway Construction Act The was promulgated by the Diet of Japan on June 21, 1892, and designated government support for a network of thirty-three railway lines covering most of Japan, with the exception of Hokkaidō. On April 11, 1922, the Diet amended the law to add an ...

. In 1930, the privately held

Tsugaru Railway The is a railway line in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, connecting in the city of Goshogawara and in the town of Nakadomari, in central-southern Tsugaru Peninsula. The line is the only railway line operated by the Tsugaru Railway Company, which ...

began operations on the western side of Tsugaru Peninsula, and surveying work was completed by the

Japanese Government Railways The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

(JGR) to build a government-operated line on the eastern side of Tsugaru Peninsula. These plans were postponed by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and were only resumed in the 1950s under the

Japanese National Railways 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 pref ...

(JNR). On December 5, 1951, the first segment of the Tsugaru Line was completed from to . This was extended by October 21, 1958 to the present northern terminus at . Additional intermediate stations were added in 1959 and 1960. All scheduled freight operations were suspended on December 10, 1984. With the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the JNR on April 1, 1987, the line came under the operational control of JR East. From March 13, 1988, the tracks between Aomori Station and the Shin Naka-Oguni Signal are jointly used by JR East,

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to using its official abbreviation of . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a sm ...

and

Japan Freight Railway Company , or , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It provides transportation of cargo nationwide throughout Japan. Its headquarters are in Shibuya, Tokyo near Shinjuku Station. The Japan Railways Group was foun ...

(JR Freight). In 1988 the Aomori - Shin Naka-Oguni section was electrified in conjunction with the opening of the

Seikan Tunnel The Seikan Tunnel ( ja, 青函トンネル, or , ), is a dual-gauge railway tunnel in Japan, with a portion under the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait, which separates Aomori Prefecture on the main Japanese island of Honshu from the northern isla ...

and associated

Station list

The portion from Aomori and Naka-Oguni is electrified.

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia. * Harris, Ken and Clarke, Jackie. ''Jane's World Railways 2008-2009''. Jane's Information Group (2008).

External links

JR East website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsugaru Line Rail transport in Aomori Prefecture Lines of East Japan Railway Company Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1951

History

Station list

See also

References

External links