The is a Japanese railway line owned and operated by the

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as and officially Kinki-Nippon Railway, is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railw ...

, a

private railway A private railway is a railroad run by a private business entity (usually a corporation but not need be), as opposed to a railroad run by a public sector. Japan In Japan, , commonly simply ''private railway'', refers to a public transit railway o ...

operator. It connects the cities of

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, Uji, and

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

, and competes with the Nara Line of

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), which also connects those cities. Many trains on the line continue to the Nara Line to Kintetsu Nara Station or the Kashihara Line via Yamato-Saidaiji Station. The line also provides the through train services with the Karasuma Line of Kyoto Municipal Subway.

History

The Kyoto Line was built by in November 1928 as dual track electrified at 600 V DC. The track between Kyoto Station and Horiuchi Station (present-day Kintetsu-Tambabashi Station) was placed on the site of a removed railway, which had been rerouted and is now called the JR Nara Line. The railway provided the through services to the lines of Kintetsu (originally, Osaka Electric Tramway) from the beginning. As of September 1961, Kintetsu was the largest shareholder of Nara Electric Railway with 980,000 shares out of the company's 1.9 million shares, while

Keihan Electric Railway The , known colloquially as the , , or simply , is a major Japanese private railway operator in Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga Prefectures. The transit network includes seven lines; four main lines with heavy rolling stock, two interurban lines, and a ...

owned 710,000 shares. Through a deal between the two major shareholders, the shares owned by Keihan were transferred to Kintetsu in April 1962 and the company was merged into Kintetsu from October 1963. Between 1945 and 1968, there were through services with the Keihan Main Line using crossovers at Tambabashi. The line voltage was increased to 1,500 V DC in 1969, and in 1988 through services with the Karasuma Line were introduced.

Stations

*S: All trains stop *M: Only express trains operated from Kyoto to Kintetsu Miyazu stop *X: limited stop of limited express trains (northbound in the morning and southbound in the evening and night) *, : Trains pass *Local trains stop at every station between Kyoto and Yamato-Saidaiji. *''SE'': Semi-express *''Ex'': Express *''LE'': Limited express Trains down to *Local:

, *Express: Nara, , Kashiharajingū-mae *Limited Express: Nara, Kashiharajingū-mae,

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the

Japanese Wikipedia The is the Japanese-language, Japanese edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-source online encyclopedia. Started on 11 May 2001, the edition attained the 200,000 article mark in April 2006 and the 500,000 article mark in June 2008. As of , it has ...

External links

Tourist Guide of Kintetsu
{{Kintetsu Lines Kyoto Line Kyoto Municipal Subway Rail transport in Kyoto Prefecture Rail transport in Nara Prefecture Standard-gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1928 1928 establishments in Japan