The was a rail line of a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese minor

private railway A private railway is a railroad run by a private business entity (usually a corporation but not need be), as opposed to a railroad run by a public sector. Japan In Japan, , commonly simply ''private railway'', refers to a public transit railway o ...

, Kōnan Railway in

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

, from Kawabe Station in Inakadate to Kuroishi Station in Kuroishi. Originally the line was opened as in 1912, merged to Kōnan Railway in 1984, and closed in 1998.

History

The line was initially constructed by Ministry of Railways as Kuroishi

Light railway A light railway is a Rail transport, railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more Grade (slope), steep gradients and Minimum railway curve radius, tight curves to ...

line in August 1912. The phrase "Light railway" was removed from the name of the line in 1922. The line suffered from the decrease in passengers due to the opening of the

Kōnan Railway Kōnan Line The is a railway route operated by the Japanese private railway operator Kōnan Railway in Aomori Prefecture, from Hirosaki Station in Hirosaki to Kuroishi Station in Kuroishi. Station list * Tamboāto Station is open from April to Novemb ...

in 1950. In 1968, the Kōnan Railway offered to take over the operation of the line. The line was listed in the 1st phase of

Specified local lines The were the railway lines specified by Japanese National Railways (JNR) under the 1980 to be closed. All of 83 lines were closed and substituted by buses or transferred to other railway operators between 1983 and 1990. Selection Article 8 of ...

due to low passengers, and it was transferred to Konan Railway on 1984. However, through services through the

Gonō Line The is a railway line in Japan linking Higashi-Noshiro Station in Akita Prefecture with Kawabe Station in Aomori Prefecture, in the northern Tōhoku region of Honshu. The line stretches 147.2 km (91.5 mi) along the Sea of Japan coast ...

were abolished, and overall fares were raised when the line was transferred which resulted in further decline in usage. The line closed in 1998 due to the lack of users, and the line was turned into a bus route operated by the name company.

Route data

Kōnan Railway Company The , also known as Konan Tetsudo, is a railway company that provides transportation services in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The company operates two regional railway lines: the Kōnan Line, which connects Hirosaki Station in the city of ...

*Total distance: 6.2 km (Kawabe - Kuroishi) (6.6 km before 1984) *

Rail Gauge In rail transport, track gauge 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 different track gauges exist worldwide, gauge dif ...

: 1067mm *Stations: 3 *Tracks: Single-track *

Electrification 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. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

: None *Block system: Automatic block system

Station list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konan Railway Kuroishi Line Closed railway lines in Japan Railway lines opened in 1912 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Railway lines closed in 1998 1912 establishments in Japan