The Nambu Line ( ja, 南武線,) is a Japanese railway line which connects Tachikawa Station in

Tachikawa, Tokyo file:Autumn colors in Showa memorial park.jpg, 250px, Showa Memorial Park is a Cities of Japan, city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 184,383 in 93,428 households, and a populat ...

and Kawasaki Station in

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the eighth most populated city in Japan (including ...

. For most of its length, it parallels the

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Japanese government. Its total length is , and the total of the river's basin area spans . The rive ...

, the natural border between Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures. It lies along the Tama Hills. It is part of the

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

(JR East) network. The line forms part of what JR East refers to as the "Tokyo Mega Loop" ( ja, 東京メガループ, links=no) around Tokyo, consisting of the Keiyo Line, Musashino Line, Nambu Line, and the

Yokohama Line The Yokohama Line ( ja, 横浜線, ) is a Japanese railway line of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) connecting Higashi-Kanagawa Station in Yokohama, Kanagawa and Hachiōji Station in Hachiōji, Tokyo. The line forms part of what JR E ...

. The name refers to the southern ( ja, 南, links=no) part of the ancient province of Musashi ( ja, 武蔵, links=no) (now Tokyo and northern Kanagawa prefecture), through which the Nambu Line runs.

Basic data

*Operators, distances: **Total: ***Passenger: ***Freight: **

(JR East) (Services and tracks) ***Kawasaki – Tachikawa: ***Shitte – Hama-Kawasaki: ***Shitte – Shin-Tsurumi Signal Station – Tsurumi: (no regular service) **

Japan Freight Railway Company , or , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It provides transportation of cargo nationwide throughout Japan. Its headquarters are in Shibuya, Tokyo near Shinjuku Station. The Japan Railways Group was fou ...

(JR Freight) (Services only) ***Shitte – Tachikawa: ***Shitte – Hama-Kawasaki: ***Shitte – Shin-Tsurumi Signal Station: *Stations: 29 **Main line: 26 **Branch line: 3 *Double-tracking: Kawasaki – Tachikawa *

Railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enor ...

: Automatic Block System

Station list

Main line

"Rapid" service trains (two trains per hour between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m) do not stop at Shitte, Yakō, Hirama, Mukaigawara, Tsudayama, Kuji, Shukugawara, Nakanoshima, Yanokuchi, Minami-Tama, Nishifu, Yaho, Yagawa, or Nishi-Kunitachi. All other trains except for some seasonal services are "Local" services, stopping at all stations.

Nambu Branch Line

* All stations are located in Kanagawa Prefecture. * Trains can pass each other only at Kawasaki-Shinmachi.

Freight branch

The connects Shitte Station and Shin-Tsurumi Yard on the Tōkaidō Main Line (

Hinkaku Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The Yokosuka Line connects Tokyo Station with in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. Officially, the name Yokosuka Line is assigned to the 23.9 km segment between an ...

) and the Musashino Line. Freight trains operating between Tokyo Freight Terminal and northern Japan operate on both branch lines.

Rolling stock

the following fleet of electric multiple unit (EMU) trains is used on Nambu Line services, with all trainsets based at Nakahara Depot. * 205-1000 series 3 x 2-car EMUs (Nambu Branch Line services, since August 2002) * E233-8000 series 35 x 6-car EMUs (since 4 October 2014) * E233-8500 series 1 x 6-car EMU (since 15 March 2017) From 15 March 2017, the last remaining 209 series trainset, set 53, was replaced by a six-car Ome Line and Itsukaichi Line E233-0 series set 670 modified and renumbered to become E233-8500 series set N36. File:JRE 205 1000.JPG, A Nambu Branch Line 205-1000 series in August 2009 File:Series-E233-8000-N7.jpg, A Nambu Line E233-8000 series in October 2020

Previously used

* 72/73 series 4/6-car EMUs (from 1963 until 1978) *

101 series 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

4/6-car EMUs (from 1969 until January 1991) *

103 series 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

6-car EMUs (from 1982 until December 2004) *

2-car EMUs (Nambu Branch line services, until November 2003) * 205-0 series 6-car EMUs from (March 1989 until December 2015) * 205-1200 series 6-car EMUs (from 2004 until January 2016) * 209-0 series 6-car EMUs (from April 1993 until February 2015) * 209-2200 series 6-car EMUs (from 2010 until March 2017) File:73 Nambu Line Musashi-Mizonokuchi 19750119.jpg, A 73 series EMU on the Nambu Line in January 1975 File:101 Shitte 20020713.jpg, Nambu Branch Line 101 series in July 2002 File:103 set 21 Nambu Line Shukugawara 20010626.jpg, A Nambu Line 103 series in June 2001 File:Nanbu line 205kei Rapid.JPG, Nambu Line 205-0 series set 36 in April 2011 File:JR East 205-1200 set 46 Musashi-Nakahara 20141004.JPG, A Nambu Line 205-1200 series in October 2014 File:JRE 209-Naha1.jpg, A Nambu Line 209-0 series in January 2008 File:Nanbu line 209kei Rapid.JPG, A Nambu Line 209-2200 series in April 2011

History

The private

Nambu Railway The Nambu Line ( ja, 南武線,) is a Japanese railway line which connects Tachikawa Station in Tachikawa, Tokyo and Kawasaki Station in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. For most of its length, it parallels the Tama River, the natural border between Tokyo ...

opened the line in five stages between 1927 and 1930 (freight branches are omitted): * March 27, 1927: Kawasaki – Noborito * November 1, 1927: Noborito – Ōmaru (near Minami-Tama) * December 11, 1928: Ōmaru – Bubaigawara (then called Yashikibun) * December 11, 1929: Bubaigawara – Tachikawa * March 25, 1930: Shitte – Hama-Kawasaki Passenger trains utilised electric multiple units (EMUs) from the beginning. Freight initially consisted primarily of

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

hauled from the

. When the railway reached Tachikawa and made connection with the Ōme Electric Railway,

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

became one of the main freight commodities. The railway was controlled by Asano zaibatsu, which enabled the transport of limestone from its own quarry in Western Tokyo to its cement plant in Kawasaki without using the government railways. On April 1, 1944, the railway was nationalised by the imperial government and became the Nambu Line of

Japanese Government Railways The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, there were several calls for the privatisation of the line, but the line remained a part of the

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

(JNR) until its privatization in 1987. The postwar growth of the Tokyo urban area resulted in the conversion of most of the farmlands along the Nambu Line into residential areas and increased the passenger traffic on the line. Freight traffic reduced after the opening of the Musashino Line (parallel to the Nambu Line) in 1976 and the discontinuance of the limestone freight in 1998, except for the Nambu Branchline, which remains a major freight route. Limited-stop "Rapid" services between Kawasaki and Noborito with stops at Musashi-Kosugi and Musashi-Mizonokuchi started on December 15, 1969, but were discontinued by the timetable revision on October 2, 1978. After 33 years, Rapid services between Kawasaki and Tachikawa with more stops started on April 9, 2011, postponed from the originally scheduled March 12 due to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six m ...

References

External links

Stations of the Nambu Line
(JR East) {{Authority control Lines of East Japan Railway Company Railway lines in Tokyo Railway lines in Kanagawa Prefecture 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1927 1927 establishments in Japan