The of

Hankyu Railway , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Gro ...

is one of the three major commuter heavy rail lines in the

Keihanshin is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population () of 19,302, ...

conurbation of Japan. It links the urban centres of

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 ...

and

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, w ...

by connecting the major stations of

Umeda is a major commercial, business, shopping and entertainment district in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, and the city's main northern railway terminus ( Ōsaka Station, Umeda Station). The district's name means "plum field". History Umeda was histori ...

in Osaka and Sannomiya in Kobe. The

Hanshin Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway company of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group that links Osaka and Kobe. It also owns the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. The first character for Kobe (神戸) and the second character for Osaka is a designated cit ...

Main Line and

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, and ...

(JR West) Tokaido Main Line (this section nicknamed

JR Kobe Line The is the nickname of portions of the Tokaido Main Line and the Sanyo Main Line, between Osaka Station in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture and Himeji Station in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. The line, along with the JR Kyoto Line and the Biwako Line, ...

) are the two lines parallel to the Hankyu Kobe Line within a short distance of each other.

Definition

The line is commonly called for short, but in the broader sense 'Kobe Line' refers to the entire network of the trunk Kobe Main Line and connecting branch lines of Itami, Imazu and Kōyō Lines.

Network

At the Kobe end of the line some trains continue through onto the

Kobe Rapid Railway 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, whic ...

, an underground line allowing interchange between the lines of several commuter rail companies operating in Kobe. The Kobe Main Line has interchanges at several of its stations with other lines operated by Hankyu. The Hankyu main lines to

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 ...

and Takarazuka share stations at Umeda and Juso with the Kobe Line. The other lines with connections to the Kobe line are smaller lines with only local trains: the Itami Line connects at Tsukaguchi, the Imazu Line at Nishinomiya-kitaguchi and the Koyo Line at Shukugawa.

History

The Umeda - Juso section was opened in 1910 as part of the Hankyu Takarazuka Line. The Juso - Oji-Koen section opened as a 1435mm gauge line electrified at 600 VDC in 1920. In 1926 the line was duplicated, and in 1936 it was extended to Kobe Sannomiya. In 1967 the voltage was increased to 1500 VDC. Until 1936, the line's terminal in Kobe was in Kamitsutsui. As a branch of the main line, the line between Oji-Koen Station and Kamitsutsui Station continued to provide a connection to the Kobe tram network until 1941. The Kobe Main Line was damaged by the

Great Hanshin earthquake The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and h ...

in January 1995. Restoration work on the Kobe Line took 7 months to complete. Station numbering was introduced on 21 December 2013.

Future plans

A new station will be built near the Muko River between Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi and Tsukaguchi. The project, which includes a bicycle parking lot and reconstruction of the surrounding roads, is expected to cost . Aggrements to build the station were signed by the railway and the national treasury was signed in October 2022.

Train services

Regular train services on the lines come in two kinds: the local trains (普通) which stop at all stations, and the limited express trains (特急) which stop only at major stations along the line. Other commuter and express services operate only during limited time periods: *Express trains (急行) are operated from Umeda to Kobe-sannomiya or Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi in the morning on weekdays and every midnight. There is also the only eastbound express train operated from Kobe-sannomiya to Umeda every early morning and the only westbound express train from Umeda to Shinkaichi in the midnight except weekdays. *Rapid Express trains (快速急行) are operated between Umeda and Kosoku Kobe or Shinkaichi every midnight. There is also the only eastbound rapid express train operated from Shinkaichi for Umeda every early morning. *Commuter Express trains (通勤急行, simply "Express") are operated on weekdays, from Kobe-sannomiya to Umeda in the morning, and from Umeda to Kobe-sannomiya in the evening and at night. *Commuter Limited Express trains (通勤特急, simply "Limited Express") are operated in both directions on weekday mornings. *Semi-Express trains (準急) are operated from Takarazuka to Umeda via the Imazu Line and the Kobe Line on weekday mornings. *Maximum speed:

Stations

*● : All trains stop *| : All trains pass *◆ : Extra services to the Imazu Line pass

Rolling stock

* 1000 series EMU (from November 2013) * 5000 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 Municip ...

EMU * 8000 series EMU * 8200 series EMU ( Rush hour only) * 9000 series EMU

Former

* 1000 series EMU (1954) * 1010 series EMU * 1200 series EMU * 2000 series EMU * 2200 series EMU * 2300 series EMU (Temporary) * 3000 series EMU * 5100 series EMU * 5200 series EMU

References

External links

Official website (in English)

Official website (in Japanese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hankyu Kobe Main Line K Rail transport in Osaka Prefecture Rail transport in Hyōgo Prefecture Railway lines opened in 1936