Sennichimae Line


The Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line is an underground rapid transit line in Osaka, Japan. It is one of the lines of Osaka Metro. It links the northwestern district of Fukushima-ku and the southeastern district of Ikuno-ku with the central commercial and entertainment district of Namba.
The line is paralleled by the underground Kintetsu Namba Line/Hanshin Namba Line connection line in its central section. Its official name is Rapid Electric Tramway Line No. 5, while the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau refers to it as Osaka City Rapid Railway Line No. 5, and in MLIT publications, it is written as Line No. 5 . Station numbers are indicated by the letter S.
Platform screen doors are located at all of the stations. The first station, Minami-Tatsumi, had them installed on March 14, 2014 and operation started in April. The final station, Nodahanshin, had them installed and operating in December. All platforms are long enough for eight-car trains however a part of each platform has been blocked off, since only four-car trains are needed to carry the amount of traffic on the line. In 2013 the line carried on average 181,238 passengers per day.
WWW Official Site

History

According to the original plans for the Sennichimae Line from 1948 it was meant to run from the lower bank of the Kanzaki River to Hirano-ku.
  • 16 April 1969 – Nodahanshin – Sakuragawa
  • 25 July 1969 – Tanimachi Kyūchōme – Imazato
  • 10 September 1969 – Imazato – Shin-Fukae
  • 11 March 1970 – Sakuragawa – Tanimachi Kyūchōme
  • 2 December 1981 – Shin-Fukae – Minami-Tatsumi

Future plans

A southeastern extension to Mito Station in Higashiōsaka has been proposed since 1989.

Stations

All stations are in Osaka.
No.StationJapaneseDistance
TransfersLocation
野田阪神0.0Fukushima-ku
玉川0.6 – Fukushima-ku
阿波座1.9 Nishi-ku
西長堀2.9 Nishi-ku
桜川3.8Hanshin: Hanshin Namba LineNaniwa-ku
難波・なんば4.9Chūō-ku
日本橋5.6Chūō-ku
谷町九丁目6.6Tennōji-ku
鶴橋7.7Tennōji-ku
今里9.2 Higashinari-ku
新深江10.1Higashinari-ku
小路11.1Ikuno-ku
北巽12.0Ikuno-ku
南巽13.1Ikuno-ku

Rolling stock

Current

Since 2015, all Sennichimae Line trains support automatic train operation with one-person operation as fallback. ATO was previously trialled on the Sennichimae Line between October 1973 and July 1974.
Until 2011, the Sennichimae Line had a depot near Imazato station. Nowadays, Sennichimae Line rolling stock are stored at Morinomiya Depot on the Chūō Line where it is linked via a connecting track at Awaza. Since 2016, the regular inspection of the trains used on the third rail lines of Osaka Metro has been consolidated at Midorigi Depot on the Yotsubashi Line, so a new spur track has been constructed near Hommachi Station for Sennichimae Line trains to access Midorigi Depot.

Former