Kaikyo Line between Tappi-Kaitei Station and Tsugaru-Imabetsu Station

The is an 87.8-kilometer long railway line operated mainly by the

Hokkaido Railway Company 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 ...

(JR Hokkaido). The line connects Naka-Oguni Station in

Sotogahama is a town located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan and a part of the Aomori metropolitan area. , the town had an estimated population of 5,429, and a population density of 25.4 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Geography Sotogahama i ...

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 ...

, through 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 isl ...

between

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 separat ...

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 lar ...

, to

Kikonai Station is a railway station in Kikonai, Hokkaido, Japan, operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) and South Hokkaido Railway Company. Lines Kikonai Station is served by the following lines. * South Hokkaido Railway Line *Kaikyō Line (frei ...

in Kikonai, Hokkaido. Two stations on the Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line,

Tappi-Kaitei Station was a railway station on the Kaikyo Line in Sotogahama, Aomori, Japan, operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido). The station is located within the Seikan Tunnel below the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait linking the main Japanese islan ...

and

Yoshioka-Kaitei Station was a railway station on the Kaikyo Line in Fukushima, Hokkaido, Japan, operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido). The station was underground and was located within the Seikan Tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait linking the main Japanese ...

(both closed since 2014), were inside the tunnel.

Facilities

The approximately 82 km section of concrete-slab track-bed was built to accommodate the

Hokkaido Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line that links up with the Tōhoku Shinkansen in northern Aomori Prefecture in Honshu and continues on into the interior of Hokkaido through the undersea Seikan Tunnel. Construction started in May ...

, and is

dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

, with both narrow (national standard) 1,067 mm gauge and 1,435 mm gauge track. As all regular passenger services are

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond ...

, the Kaikyō Line is normally used only by freight trains. The line was originally electrified at 20 kV AC (50 Hz) and was changed in 2016 to the Shinkansen-standard 25 kV AC (50 Hz). To comply with freight operations,

JR Freight , 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 ...

introduced Class EH800 dual-voltage locomotives.

Stations

* Naka-Oguni Station *

Okutsugaru-Imabetsu Station is a railway station on the Hokkaido Shinkansen in the town of Imabetsu in Aomori Prefecture, on the island of Honshu, Japan. It is operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido), and is the last stop in Honshu before the Seikan Tunnel to H ...

(Shinkansen station with facilities for freight trains on the Kaikyō Line) *''

'' (closed 2014) *''

'' (closed 2014) *'' Shiriuchi Station'' (closed 2014) *

History

The line was opened on 13 March 1988 in conjunction with the opening of the Seikan Tunnel. Originally the line ran both freight and passenger trains; the latter included daytime limited express '' Hakuchō'' and night train ''

Hokutosei The was a limited express sleeping car train service in Japan which operated between Ueno Station in Tokyo and Sapporo Station in the northern island of Hokkaido, taking approximately 16½ hours. It was operated jointly by East Japan Rail ...

''. Three of the stations on the Kaikyō Line, Tappi-Kaitei, Yoshioka-Kaitei, and Shiriuchi, were closed on 15 March 2014 due to construction work connected with the

, which opened on 26 March 2016. From that time, all passenger services through the line were discontinued.

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaikyo Line Lines of Hokkaido Railway Company Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Seikan Tunnel

Facilities

Stations

History

See also

References