The is a railway line operated by the third-sector railway operating company Shinano Railway in

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

, Japan, since 14 March 2015 following the opening of the

Hokuriku Shinkansen The is a high-speed Shinkansen railway line jointly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), connecting Tokyo with in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The first section, between and in Nagano Pr ...

extension north of Nagano and transfer of operations of the former Shinetsu Main Line from

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). It connects

Nagano Station is a railway station in the city of Nagano in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The station is operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the private railway operator Nagano Electric Railway (Nagaden). Lines Nagano Station is served by the f ...

in Nagano with Myōkō-Kōgen Station in

Myōkō, Niigata is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,374 in 12,408 households, and a population density of 70 persons per km². The total area are of the city was . Myōkō is a member of the World H ...

Service outline

All services on the line are all-stations driver-only operation trains. From the start of operations on the line, there are 21 return workings daily between Nagano and Jōetsumyōkō, and three return workings daily between Nagano and Toyono, an increase in two return services daily compared with JR East operations prior to March 2015. A small number of services continue to and from on the Shinano Railway Line operated by the same company south of Nagano. In addition to Shinano Railway services, JR East Iiyama Line through-running services to and from Nagano also use the section of the line between Nagano and Toyono. At Myōkō-Kōgen, the northern end of the line, a

cross-platform transfer A cross-platform interchange is a type of Interchange station, interchange between different lines at a rapid transit, metro (or other railway) station. The term originates with the London Underground; such layouts exist in other networks but ar ...

is provided to the

Echigo Tokimeki Railway Myōkō Haneuma Line The (ETR) is a Japanese third-sector railway operating company established in 2010 to operate passenger railway services on the sections of the JR East Shinetsu Main Line and JR West Hokuriku Main Line within Niigata Prefecture when they wer ...

continuing northward along the former Shinetsu Main Line, with Shinano Railway trains normally using platform 2 and Echigo Tokimeki Railway trains normally using platform 3.

Stations

Rolling stock

Services are operated using 115 series electric multiple unit (EMU) trains transferred from JR East.

History

The name of the line was chosen in March 2013 following a public ballot.

References

External links