The is a railway line in Japan operated by

Shikoku Railway Company The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company has it ...

(JR Shikoku). It connects

Ikenotani Station is a junction passenger railway station located in the city of Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR Shikoku. It has two station numbers: "T04" for the Kōtoku Line and "N04" for the Naruto Line. Lines Ikenotani Station is s ...

and

Naruto Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR Shikoku and has the station number "N10". Lines Naruto Station is the terminus by the JR Shikoku Naruto Line and is located 8.5&nbs ...

Naruto, Tokushima is a city located in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 54,989 in 26,206 households and a population density of 410 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Naruto is located in the northea ...

History

In 1916 the Awa Electric Railway Co. opened a line from Nakahara to Naruto, including the Yoshinari–Ikenotani section, which is now part of the Kotoku Line. In 1933 the company was nationalised. CTC signalling was commissioned in 1977, and freight services ceased in 1984.

Former connecting lines

* Naruto station - A ferry to Fukura on Awaji Island enabled connection to the Awaji Railway Co. 23km 1067mm gauge line to Sumoto, where a ferry service to Tanagawa operated. The line opened between 1922 and 1925, was electrified at 600 VDC in 1947 and closed in 1966.

Services

Although the official start of the line is at Ikenotani, rail services from Naruto are considered outbound, with the reverse being inbound. This is to allow for more efficient connecting service to the

Kōtoku Line The is a railway line in northeastern Shikoku, Japan that connects the prefectural capitals Takamatsu (Kagawa) and Tokushima (Tokushima). Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku) owns and operates the line, whose name comes from the characters in th ...

at Ikenotani. All regular trains are local service trains. Most trains run through to , with a few with service through onto the

Mugi Line The is a railway line in southeastern Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, owned and operated by Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku). It connects the prefectural capital of Tokushima with the town of Kaiyō in Kaifu District. The line's official nic ...

. There is no through service to or from , forcing passengers to transfer at Ikenotani. Moreover, connections to the '' Uzushio'' limited express service on the Kōtoku Line are poor, with waits of thirty minutes to an hour for a train. Some trains are ''wanman'' driver-only operated, with others also having a conductor on board. Due to short platform lengths, the trains of three cars or more only allow the doors of certain cars to open at those stations. In addition, the entire line is single-tracked, with no passing permitted anywhere along the line except at the terminuses of Ikenotani and Naruto.

Station list

* All stations are located in Naruto, Tokushima. * Local trains stop at all stations. * Trains can pass one another at stations marked "◇" and "^" and cannot pass at those marked "｜".

References

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

External links