The is a Japanese railway line operated by the private railway operator Hankyu Railway. It connects

Umeda Station is a railway station in Kita-ku in the northern commercial center of Osaka, Japan. It is the busiest station in western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005. Umeda Station is served by the following railways: * Hankyu Railway ( K ...

in downtown

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

with Takarazuka Station in Takarazuka, Hyogo. It has a branch line, the Minoo Line, and the

Nose Electric Railway The , occasionally abbreviated as Nose Railway or , is a Japanese private railway company headquartered in Kawanishi, Hyogo, which links several areas in the mountainous Nose, Osaka, area to Kawanishi-noseguchi Station in Kawanishi, where one can ...

is another longer branch line. The Imazu Line connects at Takarazuka, but it is treated as a branch of the Kobe Line. The Takarazuka Main Line is commonly called the for short, but the name Takarazuka Line is sometimes used as the name for the network composed of the main line and the branches. The line has numerous sharp curves from the line's origins as a tramway, built and opened by its predecessor . The sharp curves have long hindered high speed operation, contrasting to the Hankyu's other main lines,

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

and

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

History

The Minoo Arima Electric Tramway opened the entire line on 10 March 1910 as 1435mm gauge dual track, electrified at 600 VDC. Although the line was not a prospect

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

as Takarazuka was not a big city, it saw initial success thanks to the company's aggressive measures. It strategically developed housing areas along the line for the increasing white-collar population who would commute to central Osaka by train. It also opened a zoo in Minoo (on the Minoo Line) in November 1910, a hot spring in Takarazuka in May 1911, and a ballpark in Toyonaka in 1913. The track between Umeda and Jūsō was shared with the Kobe Line from 1920 to 1926 when the original double track was replaced by an elevated four-track line. In comparison with the Kobe Line, cars used on the Takarazuka Line were small and old. Larger (Kobe Line standard) cars could not operate on the line until 1952 due to its small

structure gauge A structure gauge, also called the minimum clearance outline, is a diagram or physical structure that sets limits to the extent that bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure can encroach on rail vehicles. It specifies the height and width of pl ...

. Small cars were eliminated in December 1963. On 24 August 1969 the voltage was raised to 1500 VDC. As the commuters increased, Hankyu's first 10-car operation began on the Takarazuka Line in March 1982. Following the elevation work of Kawanishi-Noseguchi Station, through services to

began on 17 November 1997. Since the 1970s there have been plans to build a spur line to

Itami Airport , often referred to as is the primary regional airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. Classified as a first class airport, it is the airport closest to Kyoto, southwest of Kyoto Statio ...

from Sone Station. Although Hankyu shelved the plans in the 1980s due to capacity constraints, the plans were reportedly revived in 2017 and remain under consideration as of 2018.

Service patterns

As of diagram revision on 21 March 2015 ; :All-stations service ; :Operated on weekday mornings ; ; :Simply "Limited Express" in English, operated from Kawanishi-Noseguchi to Umeda on weekday mornings. The trains are composed of 10 cars and the last car (Kawanishi side) is only for women. ; :From Nissei-Chūō on

to Umeda in the morning and vice versa on weekday evenings.

Stations

*● : Trains stop. *, : Trains pass. *↑: Trains pass only in one direction.

Rolling stock

* 1000 series EMU (from 28 November 2013) * 5100 series EMU * 6000 series EMU *

7000 series 7000 series may refer to: Japanese trains * Chichibu Railway 7000 series electric multiple unit (EMU) * Echizen Railway 7000 series EMU * Hankyu 7000 series EMU * Hokushin Kyuko Electric Railway 7000 series EMU operating for the Kobe Municipal Su ...

EMU * 8000 series EMU * 9000 series EMU * Nose Electric Railway 6000 series EMU File:Hankyu1000II.JPG, 1000 series, December 2013 File:Noseden 6000 umeda.JPG, Nose Electric Railway 6000 series, August 2014

Former

* 1100 series EMU * 1200 series EMU * 2021 series EMU * 2100 series EMU * 3000 series EMU * 3100 series EMU

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Hankyu Takarazuka Main Line * Takarazuka Line Rail transport in Osaka Prefecture Rail transport in Hyōgo Prefecture Osaka University transportation