Tadami Line

The Tadami Line (只見線, Tadami-sen) is a 135-kilometre (84-mile) scenic railway line in Japan operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Aizu-Wakamatsu Station at Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture with Koide Station at Uonuma in Niigata Prefecture.^[1]

The line opened in discontinuous stages between 1928 and 1971. Because of trouble financing rainstorm damage repairs, the line had no rail service between and station from July 2011 until October 2022.^[2][3][4] During this time, a replacement bus operated between Aizu-Kawaguchi and Tadami.^[5][6] Full service on the line resumed on 1 October 2022.

Services

All trains are local (all-stations) services, with approximately eight to nine trains in each direction per day. Only three round-trips operate over the entire line, and some seasonal trains operate through onto the line from the Ban'etsu West and Jōetsu lines. Due to the many curves on the line trains take over four hours to traverse its 135.2 km (84.0 mi) length.^[7]

Station list

• All trains stop at every station.
• Trains can pass each other at stations marked "◇", "∨", "∧"; they cannot pass at those marked "｜".

History

Openings

The eastern section of the line from to opened in 1928. The eastern section was extended to in 1941 and to in 1956. At that time, the Tagokura Dam was under construction and a light railway was built to link Aizu-Kawaguchi with the construction site in order to transport construction material. In 1963, after the dam was completed, the construction railway was upgraded and opened to as part of the eastern section.^[5]

In the meantime, the western section of the line, from to , had opened in 1942. In 1971, the two sections were connected with the opening of the passenger only line between Oshirakawa and Tadami.^[5]

Closures

Freight services ceased between 1980 and 1982.^{[citation needed]}

Damage from heavy rain storms in July 2011 forced the section of the line between and to be closed. The section between and Ōshirakawa was reopened on 1 October 2012, but the restoration of the remaining section between Aizu-Kawaguchi and Tadami proved more problematic.^[8] Eventually, JR East reached an agreement with Fukushima Prefecture under which the prefecture would buy the rail infrastructure and land while hiring out its operation to JR East.^[9] After 11 years with a replacement bus service, the closed section resumed operations on 1 October 2022.^[6]

Tagokura Station, located between Ōshirakawa and , was closed in 2013.^[10] Kakinoki Station, between and , was closed in 2015.^[11] Both of these station closures were due to very low usage.

Rolling stock

• KiHa E120 - Since March 2020
• KiHa 110 series - Since July 2020^[12]

Former

• KiHa 40 series - Until July 2020^[12]
• KiHa 58 series

References

1. ^ "Tadami Line". Japan Travel Planner. ANA. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
2. ^ "只見線全線運転再開につい て" [Regarding the resumption of operation of the entire Tadami Line] (in Japanese). East Japan Railway Company. 18 May 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
3. ^ Kushida, Izumi (2022-10-01). "JR只見線｢11年ぶり｣復活､地元住民たちの執念" [JR Tadami Line reopens after 11 years] (in Japanese). Toyo Keizai Online. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
4. ^ "Scenic Tadami Line reopens after storm damage". Railway Gazette International. 2022-10-05. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
5. ^ "Tadami Line User Manual". Union Workshop. Archived 7 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
6. ^ "只見線、2022年10月1日全線運転再開へ" [Tadami Line to resume operation on October 1, 2022] (in Japanese). tetsudo.ch. 18 May 2022. Archived 18 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
7. ^ JR Timetable, December 2010 issue
8. ^ "ja:ＪＲ只見線 全線早期再開は困難" [JR Tadami Line: Early reopening of the entire line difficult] (in Japanese). MSN Sankei News. Japan: The Sankei Shimbun & Sankei Digital. 13 September 2012. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
9. ^ Aukema, Justin (24 February 2022). "Japan's local rail lines become the latest pandemic victim". Global Voices. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
10. ^ "ja:只見線田子倉駅廃止について" [Closure of Tagokura Station on the Tadami Line] (in Japanese). Press release. Japan: East Japan Railway Company - Sendai Branch. 25 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
11. ^ "ja: ありがとう、柿ノ木駅 １４日に廃止、市民団体が集い" [Thank you, Kakinoki Station, closing on 14th] (in Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun. Japan: The Mainichi Newspapers. 9 March 2015. Archived from the original on 21 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
12. ^ "秘境の旅路彩り40年 最後の勇姿 魚沼 只見線キハ40系引退" [Tadami Line KiHa 40 series retired after 40 years] (in Japanese). Niigata Nippo. 2020-07-14. Archived from the original on 2020-07-17.

External links

Travel

• Pamphlet "Travel by Tadami Line" Archived 12 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine (Tadami River Power Source Region Promotion Association)
• Video "Travel around Oku Aizu" (YouTube)
• JR Tadami Line (Tadami Town Tourism Institute Planning Society)
• Oku-Aizu Bu-Ra-Ri Journey Archived 29 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine (Aizu Bus)

Timetable

• Timetable of Tadami Line, as of April 2020 (Tadami Line Portal Website) (in Japanese)
• Timetable of bus-operated section (Aizu-Kawaguchi - Tadami) Archived 18 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine (Kaneyama Town Government) (in Japanese)

Station list

• Stations of the Tadami Line (JR East) (in Japanese)

1. ^ All Aizu Line trains run through to Aizu-Wakamatsu Station.