The Yokohama Line ( ja, 横浜線, ) is a Japanese railway line of the

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 ar ...

(JR East) connecting

Higashi-Kanagawa Station is a junction passenger railway station located in Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Higashi-Kanagawa Station is served by the Keihin-Tōhoku Line and Yokohama Line. It is from the termin ...

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

Kanagawa is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagaw ...

and Hachiōji Station in Hachiōji, Tokyo. The line forms part of what JR East refers to as the "Tokyo Mega Loop" ( ja, 東京メガループ, links=no) around Tokyo, consisting of the Keiyo Line,

Musashino Line The is a railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It links Tsurumi Station in Yokohama with Nishi-Funabashi Station in Chiba Prefecture, forming a 100.6 km unclosed loop around central Tokyo. Passenger operations a ...

Nambu Line The Nambu Line ( ja, 南武線,) is a Japanese railway line which connects Tachikawa Station in Tachikawa, Tokyo and Kawasaki Station in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. For most of its length, it parallels the Tama River, the natural border between Tokyo an ...

, and Yokohama Line. The line's name comes from the section between Nagatsuta and Higashi-Kanagawa that runs through the city of Yokohama. Nicknamed the by locals, the line serves commuters in the southwestern suburbs of Tokyo and northeastern suburbs of Yokohama.

History

The line was opened by the

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

on 23 September 1908 and leased to the government in 1910. The line was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

on 1 October 1917. The Higashi-Kanagawa to Haramachida (now Machida) section was electrified on 1 October 1932, with the Haramachida to Hachiōji section electrified on 14 April 1941. The Higashi-Kanagawa to Kozukue section was double-tracked by 1968, extended to Aihara by 1980, and completed to Hachiōji on 6 March 1988. Through service trains from the

Sagami Line The is a railway line in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It approximately parallels the east bank of the Sagami River. The line connects Hashimoto Station in Sagamihara and Chigasaki Station ...

began on 16 March 1991, when that line was fully electrified. The through service operation ended on 11 March 2022.

Operation

Despite the line's name, only approximately half of all trains run as far as

Yokohama Station is a major interchange railway station in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It is the busiest station in Kanagawa Prefecture and the fifth-busiest in the world as of 2013, serving 760 million passengers a year. Lines Yokohama Station is served by the ...

. trains operate every 20 minutes during the daytime.

Stations

* Local trains stop at all stations. * Information on the limited express '' Hama Kaiji'' service can be found on its page. * Rapid trains stop at stations marked "●" and pass those marked "｜". * From Yokohama to Ofuna, the stations are the same stations served by the Negishi Line.

Rolling stock

Local and Rapid services Series-E233-6000-H017

* E233-6000 series 8-car EMUs (since February 2014)

Former

* 72 series * 103 series (from 2 October 1972 until 26 February 1989) * 205 series 8-car EMUs (1988 to August 2014)

through services * 205-500 series 4-car EMUs (from 16 March 1991 until 25 February 2022) * E131-500 series 4-car EMUs (from 18 November 2021 until 11 March 2022) 8-car 205 series EMU trains were introduced in 1988. In these sets, the second car from the Higashi-Kanagawa end had six pairs of doors on each side to allow rapid boarding and disembarking during peak periods. The last 205 series set on the Yokohama Line ran on 23 August 2014.

References

External links

JR East website
{{Authority control Lines of East Japan Railway Company Railway lines in Kanagawa Prefecture 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1908 1908 establishments in Japan