The is a railway line of the Japanese private railway company

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as , is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railway network connects Osaka, Nara, Ky ...

, connecting

Ise-Nakagawa Station is a major junction station owned and operated by the private Kintetsu railway company in the city of Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture. The station is served by all trains on that company's Yamada Line and most trains on its Nagoya and Osaka Lines. Th ...

(

Matsusaka, Mie is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 157,235 in 66,018 households and a population density of 250 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The city is famous for Matsusaka beef. Geograph ...

) and Ujiyamada Station (

Ise, Mie , formerly called Ujiyamada (宇治山田), is a city in central Mie Prefecture, on the island of Honshū, Japan. Ise is home to Ise Grand Shrine, the most sacred Shintō shrine in Japan. The city has a long-standing title – Shinto (神都) ...

) in Japan. The line runs parallel to parts of the

JR Central is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical r ...

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Ce ...

and

Sangū Line The is a railway line run by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), connecting Taki Station ( Taki, Mie) with Toba Station (Toba, Mie) in Japan. The line connects with the Kisei Main Line at Taki Station. From Taki, the line runs parallel ...

. The line connects with the

Toba Line The is a railway line operated by the Japanese private railway company Kintetsu Railway, connecting Ujiyamada Station in Ise, Mie with Toba Station in Toba, Mie. The line runs parallel to JR Central's Sangū Line. The line connects with the ...

at Ujiyamada Station. The Yamada Line, Toba Line, and

Shima Line The is a railway line in Mie Prefecture, Japan, operated by private railway operator Kintetsu Railway, connecting Toba Station in Toba with Kashikojima Station in Shima. The line connects with the Toba Line at Toba Station. The Yamada Line, T ...

form a single train line that begins at

and serves the

Ise-Shima The region of Japan, also called the , refers to the areas of eastern Mie Prefecture in or around Ise-Shima National Park, which include the cities Ise, Toba, Shima, and parts of the town of Minami-Ise. The area thrives on tourism, with many res ...

tourist region. In 1941 when the line received its name, the city of Ise was called Ujiyamada and was actually a merger of two towns formerly called Uji and Yamada. The heart of the old town of Yamada was near modern-day Ujiyamada Station, the terminus, and thus the line was named the "Yamada Line".

Services

LO Local (; ) : For : For , , :(Locals stop at every station.)
EX Express (; ) : For ; via and ( Kashihara) : For ; via and : For , , , :(Typically ends at Ujiyamada and Isuzugawa.)
RE Rapid Express (; ) : For ; via and ( Kashihara) : For , , :(Only runs mornings and evenings.) :(Typically ends at Ujiyamada and Isuzugawa.)
LE Limited Express (; ) : For and ; via and ( Kashihara) : For ; via (

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

) : For ; via and : For , , , :(Seat reservations and limited express fee required.)
NS Non-stop Limited Express (; ) : For : For : For :(Runs twice a day on weekends.) :(Seat reservations and limited express fee required.) SV Premium Express Shimakaze (; ) : For : For : For : For :(Train to and from Osaka runs once a day except on Tuesday with some exceptions.) :(Train to and from Kyoto runs once a day except on Wednesday with some exceptions.) :(Train to and from Nagoya runs once a day except on Thursday with some exceptions.) :(Seat reservations, limited express fee and "Shimakaze" special vehicle fee required.)

Stations

History

The Yamada Line was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s to provide a more direct link for pilgrims and travelers going between

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

and

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie, Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . ...

in Ujiyamada (now

Ise Ise may refer to: Places *Ise, Mie, a city in Japan ** Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie * Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria * Ise, Norway, a village in Norway * Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan * River Ise, a tributary of ...

) and was designed to compete with 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 pre ...

(now owned by

Sankyū Main Line

Originally built and operated by

Sangū Express Electric Railway , usually abbreviated as Sankyū (参急), was a private railway company that operated in Nara Prefecture and Mie Prefecture, Japan for 14 years from 1927 to 1941, when it merged with its parent company, Ōsaka Electric Railroad (''Daiki''). Sanky� ...

(''Sankyū'') the line was designed to link directly with what is now the

Osaka Line is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...

. However, at that time the Osaka Line, which was operated under a different name by

Osaka Electric Railroad is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. ...

(''Daiki''), only ran to and Sankyū managed the section from Sakurai to ; this railway was known as the . During the construction of the easternmost section of the Sankyū Main Line (most of what is now the Yamada Line), another private railway company,

Ise Electric Railway , usually abbreviated as Iseden (伊勢電), was a private railway company that operated mostly in Mie Prefecture, Japan, for 25 years from 1911 to 1936, when it was absorbed by Sangū Express Electric Railway. At its height, Iseden operated thr ...

(''Iseden''), was constructing another line right alongside that would eventually link with and was known as the

Iseden Main Line , usually abbreviated as Iseden (伊勢電), was a private railway company that operated mostly in Mie Prefecture, Japan, for 25 years from 1911 to 1936, when it was absorbed by Sangū Express Electric Railway. At its height, Iseden operated thr ...

. The two lines opened within just a few weeks of each other in 1930 which led to there being three parallel lines (the third being the

) owned by three different companies running between

Matsusaka is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 157,235 in 66,018 households and a population density of 250 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The city is famous for Matsusaka beef. Geography ...

and Ujiyamada. Sankyū and Iseden pledged to work together to ensure they both prospered, however both companies soon began a merger struggle and, in 1936, Sankyū won the battle and acquired Iseden and its lines. The Iseden Main Line became known as the Sankyū Ise Line. Sankyū now owned two lines that both terminated in Ujiyamada: The Main Line which ran west towards Osaka and the Ise Line which ran north to with plans for an extension to Nagoya. However, the last of both lines closely paralleled each other, so Sankyū developed a plan to utilize one of these two sets of tracks to provide service to both Osaka and Nagoya and to phase out and eventually close the other. It was decided that the Sankyū Main Line was the better line for this task and that Sankyū-Nakagawa Station (now ) would serve as the three-way meeting point of trains bound for Osaka, Nagoya, and Ujiyamada. This plan became a reality within just a couple of years; the Ise Line was extended northeast to Nagoya and a new track connecting the Ise Line (at ) to Sankyū-Nakagawa was completed (this would later become the

Kintetsu Nagoya Line ''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 ...

). Once this major change took place, ridership on the Matsusaka ~ Ujiyamada section of the Main Line became significantly higher and the parallel section of the Ise Line was closed in 1942.

Yamada Line

In 1941, Sankyū and its parent company Daiki merged to form Kansai Kyuko Railway (''Kankyū''), the precursor to Kintetsu. Before this merger, the Sankyū Main Line had originated at Sakurai and terminated at Ujiyamada, however after the merger the various lines were combined and renamed, resulting in the section between Sakurai and Ise-Nakagawa, along with part of Daiki's lines, becoming the Osaka Line and the section between Ise-Nakagawa and Ujiyamada becoming the Yamada Line, as it is today. In 1944, following mergers with other

Kansai area The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

railway companies, Kankyū became Kintetsu and the line came under its current ownership and name. Although the city of Ujiyamada (the basis for the name "Yamada Line") changed its name to Ise in 1955, the train line still maintains the same name to this day. Even though Kintetsu owned both the Nagoya Line and the Yamada Line, direct service between Nagoya and Ujiyamada was not possible because the Sankyū Main Line (Yamada Line) was built using a

railway 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 d ...

of , however the Sankyū Ise Line (Nagoya Line) was built using a gauge of , so it was necessary for passengers to change trains at Ise-Nakagawa. However, in September 1959, the Nagoya Line suffered severe damage due to the

Ise-wan Typhoon Typhoon Vera, also known as the , was an exceptionally intense tropical cyclone that struck Japan in September 1959, becoming the strongest and deadliest typhoon on record to make landfall on the country as a Category 5 equivalent storm. Th ...

and while repairing the line, Kintetsu widened the gauge of the entire line to 1,435 mm so that express trains could travel directly from Nagoya to Ujiyamada without changing; this service began in early 1960. Direct service from both Osaka and Nagoya was extended from Ujiyamada to in 1970 with the opening of the

which provided a connection between Ujiyamada at the end of the Yamada Line and at the beginning of the then-isolated

Timeline

*March 27, 1930 - Matsusaka ~ Gekū-mae (now Miyamachi) section opens. Line is operated by

(''Sankyū'') *May 18, 1930 - Sankyū-Nakagawa (now Ise-Nakagawa) ~ Matsusaka section opens. *September 21, 1930 - Gekū-mae ~ Yamada (now Iseshi) section opens. *March 17, 1931 - Yamada ~ Ujiyamada section opens. Sankyū Main Line officially completed. Direct service between (via what is now the Osaka Line) and Ujiyamada begins. *July 4, 1931 - Obata Station opens. *March 1, 1933 - Gekū-mae Station officially renamed Miyamachi Station. *September 15, 1936 - Sankyū acquires

(''Iseden'') and all of its lines. Iseden Main Line is officially renamed Sankyū Ise Line. *November 3, 1937 - Sankyū-Matsue Station closed. Matsugasaki Station becomes the intersecting station between the Sankyū Main Line and the Sankyū Ise Line. *March 15, 1941 -

(''Daiki'') and Sankyū merge to form

Kansai Express Railway The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

(''Kankyū''). Sankyū-Nakagawa Station officially renamed to Ise-Nakagawa Station. Sankyū-Nakahara Station officially renamed to Ise-Nakahara. Ise-Nakagawa ~ Ujiyamada section officially named Kankyū Yamada Line. *August 11, 1942 - Ise Line: Shin-Matsusaka ~ Daijingū-mae (Ise Grand Shrine) section closes. *October 23, 1943 - Koishiro Station opens. *June 1, 1944 - Kankyū becomes Kinki Nippon Railway (''Kintetsu''). Line officially renamed Kintetsu Yamada Line. *July 15, 1959 - Yamada Station officially renamed Iseshi Station. *January 20, 1960 - Direct service between Nagoya and Ujiyamada begins. *March 1, 1968 - ATS system activated on entire line. *March 12, 1992 - Passing tracks for express trains open at Kushida Station. *March 14, 1992 - Passing tracks for express trains open at Akeno Station. *March 18, 2004 - ''One man'' (conductor-less) train service begins.

Former connecting lines

* Matsugasaki station - the

1067mm gauge line to Daijingumae connected here, opened between 1926 and 1930, and closed between 1943 and 1961. * Matsusaka Station: Mie Kotsu operated 762 mm line to Oishi between 1912 and 1964. The line was electrified at 600 V DC in 1927, although steam locomotives continued to be used until 1938.

References

Kintetsu Line Archives - Yamada Line

External links

* ttp://hisaai.hp.infoseek.co.jp/Kintetsu/os/Yd_s_eg.html Hisakyu - Kintetsu Yamada Line
Japan Guide - Shima Peninsula Travel - Ise Shrines

{{Kintetsu Lines Yamada Line Rail transport in Mie Prefecture Standard gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1931