Yōrō Railway Yōrō Line


The Yōrō Line is a railway line of a Japanese private railway operator Yōrō Railway. The line traverses the northeastern side of the Yōrō Mountains and connects Kuwana Station in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture and Ibi Station in Ibigawa, Gifu Prefecture.
The northern portion of the section is locally and unofficially called the Ibi Line, as Ōgaki is a reversing station.
Kintetsu Railway, one of largest private railway companies in Japan, owns the tracks and rolling stocks of the line whereon Yōrō Railway, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kintetsu, operated trains until 2018.

Descriptions

History

Initially steam powered, the line was constructed as a Class 1 railway by Yōrō Railway and opened in 1913 between,, and. In 1919, the present line was completed with extensions from Yōrō to and Ikeno to. In 1922, Yōrō Railway merged with Ibi River Electric and the following year the line was electrified. In 1928, its railway was transferred to Yōrō Electric Railway. Since then, the operator has changed several times, namely to Ise Electric Railway in 1929, to Yōrō Dentetsu in 1936, to Sangu Kyūkō Railway in 1940, to Kansai Kyūkō Railway in 1941, finally to Kintetsu, then known as Kinki Nippon railway, in 1944.
Following typhoon damage in 1959, the Kintetsu Nagoya Line was regauged to, the Kintetsu standard which enables through trains to Osaka. However, the Yōrō Line remained at partly due to through freight trains to the Japanese National Railways lines at Ōgaki and Kuwana, as the line provided a shortcut between these stations.
With accumulating deficit, Kintetsu Corporation decided to split off the operation of the Yōrō Line in 2007. Local governments along the line made an agreement of financial aid to the Yōrō Railway until 2010.

Stations

All stations are unattended with the exceptions of Ōgaki, Nishi-Ōgaki, Ibi, Yōrō, Komano, Tado, and Kuwana.

Connections

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