Osaka Line


The Osaka Line is a railway line in Japan owned by Kintetsu Railway, connecting Osaka and Mie Prefecture via Nara Prefecture. The line is the longest double-tracked railway of non-JR operators. Together with the Nagoya Line, this line forms the route for Kintetsu limited express services connecting Osaka and Nagoya in competition with the Tokaido Shinkansen.

Services

Along with limited express trains, local and express services are operated on the line.
;Local
;Suburban Semi-Express
;Semi-Express
;Express
;Rapid Express
;Limited Express

Stations

  • 〇 : All trains stop.
  • ▲ : Most trains stop
  • △ : Some trains stop

History

The Osaka Electric Railway opened the Osaka Uehommachi to Fuse section as gauge dual track electrified at 600 V DC in 1914. The line was extended to Kintetsu Yao in 1924, and to Onji the following year. The Yamato-Takada to Yamato-Yagi section opened the same year, and was then linked to Onji and duplicated in 1927. The line was then extended to Sakurai in 1929 and the voltage on the Sakurai to Fuse section increased to 1,500 V DC to permit through-running with the Sangu Express Railway line.
The Sangu Express Railway opened the Sakurai to Hase section in 1929, electrified at 1,500 V DC, and extended the line to Ise-Nakagawa the following year, single track beyond Nabari. The two companies became part of Kintetsu between 1941 and 1944.
The voltage on the Osaka Uehommachi to Fuse section was increased to 1,500 V DC in 1956, the Nabari to Iga-Kozu section was double-tracked between 1959 and 1961, and the rest of the line double-tracked between 1967 and 1975, when the 5,652 m Shin Aoyama tunnel was opened, at the time the longest tunnel built in Japan by a private railway.

Former connecting lines

  • Sakurai Station: The Hase Railway opened a gauge line to Hase in 1909. The company merged with the Osaka Electric Railway in 1928, the year before the Sangu Express Railway opened the Sakurai to Hase line in 1929, and the line closed in 1938. The Yamato Railway operated an 1,067 mm gauge line electrified at 600 V DC to Nishi-Tawaramoto on the Kashihara Line between 1923 and 1958.
  • Iga-Kambe Station: The Iga Railway opened a 1,067 mm gauge line between Iga-Ueno on the Kansai Main Line and Nishi-Nabari in 1922, including a connection at this station. The line was electrified at 1,500 V DC in 1926. The section to Nishi-Nabari closed in 1964, with the Iga Line operated by the Iga Railway after Kintetsu transferred operation of the line in 2007.
  • Ise-Ishibashi Station: The Dainippon Railway operated a gauge line between Hisai on the Nagoya Line and Ise-Kawaguchi on the Meisho Line that connected here between 1925 and 1943.