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-Wakamatsu Station is a junction passenger railway station located in the city of Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Kintetsu. Lines Ise-Wakamatsu Station is a station on the Nagoya Line and is located 40.8 rail kilometers f ...

(

Suzuka, Mie is a city in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 197,977 in 87,680 households and a population density of 1000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Suzuka is in northeastern Mie Prefecture, in ...

) and Hiratachō Station (Suzuka, Mie Prefecture) in Japan. The line connects with the Nagoya Line at Ise-Wakamatsu Station. Students and factory workers make up the majority of the line's ridership and trains are generally only crowded during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: o ...

History

Kambe Line

The Suzuka Line was originally built by

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'') in the 1920s and was known as the ) and for many years the track ended at Ise-Kambe Station (what is now

Suzukashi Station is a passenger railway station in located in the city of Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Kintetsu Railway. Lines Suzukashi Station is a station on the Suzuka Line, and is located 4.1 rail kilometers ...

Steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s were used on the line for its first two years of operation but were soon replaced when the line was

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

in 1927. Though the line was built by Iseden, ownership of the Kambe Line was passed between various railway companies during the late 1930s and early 1940s due to many mergers occurring within the Japanese private railway industry at that time. It came under the ownership of Kintetsu in 1944. Kintetsu made some improvements to the line in the late 1950s and 1960s. The

track 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 ...

on the line, originally was widened to so that it could connect directly with the Nagoya Line, also widened to at that time. A few years later, the line was extended, two new stations were built, and Hiratachō Station became the new terminus. It was at this time that the line received its current name.

Timeline

*December 20, 1925 - Ise Railway (''Iseden'') opens the line as the Iseden Kambe Line (Ise-Wakamatsu ~ Ise-Kambe). *December 26, 1927 - Electrification of the entire line completed. *September 15, 1936 -

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'') acquires Iseden and all of its lines. Line is officially renamed Ise Kambe Line. *March 15, 1941 -

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'') 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''). Line officially renamed Kambe Line. *June 1, 1944 - Kankyū changes its name to Kinki Nippon Railway (''Kintetsu''). Line officially renamed Kintetsu Kambe Line. *November 23, 1959 -

Gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

along entire line widened from 1067 mm to 1435 mm. *April 8, 1963 - Ise-Kambe ~ Hiratachō extension opens. Ise-Kambe Station officially renamed Suzukashi Station. Line officially renamed Kintetsu Suzuka Line. *October 17, 1968 - ATS system activated on entire line. *March 16, 1995 - Maximum speed on the line raised from ; total ride time from end-to-end reduced by one minute. *June 13, 1998 - ''One man'' (conductor-less) train service begins.

Service

LO Local (; ) : For : For :(Locals stop at every station.) :(Trains run twice per hour during the day, four times per hour in the mornings and evenings.)
EX Express (; ) : For : For :(Stops at every station on the Suzuka Line.) :(Trains run once a day in the morning on weekdays.)

Stations

References

Kintetsu Line Archives - Suzuka Line

External links

{{Kintetsu Lines

Suzuka Line The is a railway line of the Japanese private railway company Kintetsu Railway, connecting Ise-Wakamatsu Station (Suzuka, Mie) and Hiratachō Station (Suzuka, Mie Prefecture) in Japan. The line connects with the Nagoya Line at Ise-Wakamatsu ...

Rail transport in Mie Prefecture Standard gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1925 1925 establishments in Japan