The is an railway line in

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

, Japan, connecting

Hakata Station is a major railway station in Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. It is the largest and busiest railway terminal in Kyushu, and is a gateway to other cities in Kyushu for travelers coming from Honshu by rail travel. The San'yō Shinkansen from Osaka en ...

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

with Hakataminami Station in Kasuga. It is operated by the

West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

(JR West).

Service

Although the line uses

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It was initially built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond lon ...

equipment, trains are officially designated as

limited express A limited express is a type of express train or express bus service that stops at fewer locations compared to other express services on the same or similar routes. Japan The term "limited express" is a common translation of the Japanese ...

trains. In practice, however, most services are extensions of

San'yō Shinkansen The is a line of the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan. Operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West), it is a westward co ...

'' Kodama'' services. The

Kyushu Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed railway network. It is an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen from Honshu connecting the city of Fukuoka (Hakata Station) in the north of Japan's Kyushu Island to the city of Kagoshima (Kagoshima-Chuo Sta ...

, opened on 12 March 2011, shares part of the route. The trip from Hakata to Hakataminami takes ten minutes and costs ¥300. (¥100 until the end of March 2023) File:Tickets for Hakata-Minami Station sold at Hakata Station.jpg, A pair of tickets for travel from Hakata to Hakataminami. The ticket on top, corresponding to the express fare portion of the total cost, is priced at ¥100.

Rolling stock

Current * 500-7000 series 8-car sets * 700-7000 series 8-car '' Hikari Rail Star'' sets * N700-7000/ 8000 series 8-car sets Train of Hakata-Minami Line at Hakata-Minami Station 3.jpg, A 500 series Shinkansen at Hakataminami Station Train of Hakata-Minami Line at Hakata-Minami Station 4.jpg, A 700-7000 series Hikari Rail Star Shinkansen at Hakataminami Station 博多南駅 - panoramio (2).jpg, A N700-7000 series Shinkansen at Hakataminami Station Former * 0 series 4/6-car sets * 100 series 4/6-car sets Shinkansen Series0 R67 JNRcolor.jpg, Set R67 of the 0 series Shinkansen, similar to those running on the Hakataminami Line. This train is running a Kodama 638 service at Higashi-Hiroshima Station Series0-hakataminami.JPG, The side view of a 0 series Shinkansen bound for Hakataminami station Hakata-Minami line (3087128820).jpg, A 100 series Shinkansen at Hakataminami Station

History

The line was originally opened in March 1975 to transport

trains from the Hakata terminal to Hakata Depot in Kasuga. At that time, Kasuga was a rural region and did not merit a railway station of its own. By the late 1980s, however, the area had become a sprawling suburb of Fukuoka. JR decided to build a station adjacent to the depot, and inaugurated service on 1 April 1990 with

0 Series Shinkansen The trains were the first generation Shinkansen trainsets built to run on Japan's Tokaido Shinkansen, Tōkaidō Shinkansen High-speed rail, high-speed line which opened in 1964. The last remaining trainsets were withdrawn in 2008 after 44 years ...

trains.

References

{{Shinkansen Shinkansen High-speed railway lines in Japan Lines of West Japan Railway Company Rail transport in Fukuoka Prefecture Standard-gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1975

Service

Rolling stock

History

See also

References