The is a Japanese railway line in
Tottori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the least populous prefecture of Japan at 570,569 (2016) and has a geographic area of . Tottori Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to the west, Hiro ...
operated by the
third-sector operating company . The line connects
Kōge Station in
Yazu
is a town located in Yazu District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. As of October 1, 2015, the town has a population of 16,985 and a density of . The total area is .
Yazu was formed on March 31, 2005, by the merger of the towns of Funaoka, Hattō ...
with
Wakasa Station
is a passenger railway station located in the town of Wakasa, Yazu District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the third sector company Wakasa Railway.
Lines
Wakasa Station is a terminus of the Wakasa Line, and is located 19. ...
in
Wakasa. It is the only railway line operated by the Wakasa Railway. The third-sector company took over operations of the former
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) line in 1987.
Owners and operator
![Wakasa Railway head office entry 20140905](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Wakasa_Railway_head_office_entry_20140905.jpg)
The line is operated by Wakasa Railway Co., Ltd. Although the company originally owned the railway line, on April 1, 2009, the ownership was transferred to the municipalities (towns) where the line exists and the company became a pure operator of the railway as a
Category 2 Railway Operator. The town of Yazu owns 16.5 km of track and the town of Wakasa owns 2.7 km of track as
Category 3 Railway Operators.
Stations
* Some trains operate through from the JR West
Imbi Line
The is a railway line operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) between Tottori, Tottori Prefecture and Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan.
Route data
*Operating Company:
**West Japan Railway Company (Services and tracks)
*Dist ...
(Tottori - Kōge).
Rolling stock
Diesel railcars
From the start of third-sector operations in 1987, the line was operated using a fleet of four WT2500 series
diesel cars. Three of these were subsequently refurbished, becoming WT3000 series, and a new stainless steel WT3300 series diesel car, WT3301, was also added to the fleet.
File:Wakasa Railway WT3000-3003 WT3300-3301 WT3000-3001.jpg, WT3000 series car 3003 ''Sakura 3'' in August 2009
File:Wakasa Railway WT3300-3301 WT3000-3001.jpg, WT3300 series car 3301 in August 2009
Locomotives
The railway owns a former
JNR Class DD16
The is a four-axle Bo-Bo wheel arrangement diesel-hydraulic locomotive type operated in Japan since 1972. A total of 65 locomotives were built between 1971 and 1975, and , one locomotive remains in service, operated by East Japan Railway Compa ...
diesel locomotive, number DD16 7, previously used at the
Railway Technical Research Institute
, or , is the technical research company under the Japan Railways group of companies.
Overview
RTRI was established in its current form in 1986 just before Japanese National Railways (JNR) was privatised and split into separate JR group compani ...
in
Kokubunji, Tokyo, and former
JNR Class C12
The Class C12 is a type of 2-6-2T steam locomotive built by the Japanese Government Railways and the Japanese National Railways from 1932 to 1947. A total of 282 Class C12 locomotives were built and designed by Hideo Shima .
Service outside J ...
2-6-2T steam locomotive number C12 167.
File:DD16 wakasa.jpg, Class DD16 diesel locomotive DD16 7 in April 2013
File:C12 167.jpg, Class C12 steam locomotive C12 167 in April 2013
History
The line opened on 20 January 1930 as the 4.5 km Wakasa Line from Kōge to Hayabusa. The entire line to Wakasa opened on 1 December 1930.
The original plan was to extend the line beyond Wakasa to the
Sanin Main Line
The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Ky ...
, near
Yōka Station, but this was never realized.
Freight services were discontinued from 1 October 1974.
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 ...
in April 1987, the Wakasa Line was transferred to the ownership of
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). However, JR West ceased operations on the line on 13 October 1987, with operations taken over by the third-sector Wakasa Railway Company from 14 October.
See also
*
List of railway companies in Japan
List of railway companies in Japan lists Japanese railway operators.
Those in ''italics'' are the third-sector operators; being half-public, half-private.
Japan Railways Group
The Japan Railways Group consists of the seven companies that were fo ...
*
List of railway lines in Japan
References
External links
*
{{Specified local lines, state=collapsed
Railway lines in Japan
Rail transport in Tottori Prefecture
1067 mm gauge railways in Japan
Japanese third-sector railway lines