The is a Japanese

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line connecting

Kiryū Station is a junction railway station in the city of Kiryū, Gunma, Japan, jointly operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the third-sector railway operating company Watarase Keikoku Railway. Kiryu Station is the easternmost JR stat ...

in Kiryū,

Gunma is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima P ...

and

Matō Station is a railway station on the Watarase Keikoku Line in the city of Nikkō, Tochigi, Japan, operated by the third-sector railway operator Watarase Keikoku Railway. Lines Matō Station is a terminal station on the Watarase Keikoku Line and is ...

Nikkō is a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 80,239 in 36,531 households, and a population density of 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is a popular destination for Japanese and ...

, Tochigi. This is the only railway line that the third-sector company operates. The company and line are also known as or . The company acquired the line from the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in 1989. As the name suggests, the line runs along the

Watarase River The is a major river in the northern Kantō region of Japan. A tributary of the Tone River, it is in length and drains an area of .Ashio Copper Mine The was a copper mine located in the town of Ashio, Tochigi (now part of the city of Nikkō, Tochigi), in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was the site of Japan's first major pollution disaster in the 1880s and the scene of the 1907 min ...

, and leased the line to

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 1913. Passenger services were introduced in 1914, and the line was nationalised in 1918. The copper mine closed in 1973, the same year the line was deviated for the construction of the Kusaki Dam, including the 5242m Kusaki Tunnel. In 1989 the Ashio-Motoyama - Mato section was closed and the operation of the balance of the line was transferred to the Watarase Keikoku Railway Co.

Basic data

*Distance: 44.1 km *

Gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, ...

: 1,067 mm *Stations: 17 *Double-tracking: None *Electrification: None *

Railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormo ...

: **Kiryū — Shimo-Shinden: Automatic **Shimo-Shinden — Matō: Simplified Automatic

Station list

*Trains stop at stations marked "●" and pass those marked "｜". *Local trains stop at all stations (other than Shimo-Shinden Signal Box).

References

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

External links

Watarase Keikoku Railway official website
Railway lines in Japan Rail transport in Gunma Prefecture Rail transport in Tochigi Prefecture 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Japanese third-sector railway lines {{Japan-rail-line-stub