The is a railway line in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, running from

Gobō Station is an interchange passenger railway station in located in the city of Gobō, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and the private railway company Kishū Railway. Lines Gobō Station is served by the Kise ...

Nishi-Gobō Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Gobō, Wakayama, Gobō, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private Kishū Railway Lines Nishi-Gobō Station is a terminal station on the Kishū Railway Line and is 2.7 kilometers fro ...

. The railway line is located entirely within

Gobō ''Arctium lappa'', commonly called greater burdock, , edible burdock, lappa, beggar's buttons, thorny burr, or happy major is a Eurasian species of plants in the family Asteraceae, cultivated in gardens for its root used as a vegetable. It has b ...

Wakayama Wakayama may refer to: * Wakayama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan * Wakayama (city), the capital city of Wakayama Prefecture, Japan * Wakayama Station, a train station in Wakayama, Wakayama * Wakayama University, a national university in Wakayama, ...

. It is the only remaining private railway line in

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

that is entirely non-electrified, and is the second-shortest railway line in Japan.

Overview

The railway line is operated by , and is also referred to by locals as , which is an

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

of the company's name. It is the only line operated by the company, as the company mostly focuses in the real estate and hotel sectors. The current Tokyo-based company, which was previously not a railway operator, took over the line in 1973 in order to gain the prestige and

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust (law), a legal relationship in which one person holds property for another's benefit * Trust (bu ...

associated with operating a railway line. The railway is the second shortest railway line in service in Japan, the shortest being the

Shibayama Railway The is a third-sector railway company in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It operates Japan's shortest narrow-gauge railway line, the Shibayama Railway Line between Higashi-Narita Station and Shibayama-Chiyoda Station, largely underneath Narita Int ...

Additional basic data

*Traction: internal combustion (diesel) *

Railway signalling Railway signalling (), or 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 enormous weight ...

: staff token

Operation

Trains stop at all stations along the line. The entire line is single-track, and none of its railway stations have

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains o ...

s. The railway depot for the line is located adjacent to Station. Most trains are timetabled to allow for onward connections to the

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Cen ...

trains at .

Station list

Rolling stock

, the railway operates a fleet of two Kitetsu 1 diesel railcars, numbered Kitetsu 1 and 2. Diesel railcar KR301, formerly SKR301 used on the Shigaraki Kohgen Railway in

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

until October 2015 was introduced on the line from 30 January 2016.

History

The opened the 1.8 km section from Gobō to Kii-Gobō section on 15 June 1931, extended 0.9 km to Nishi-Gobō on 10 April 1932, and to Hidakagawa on 10 August 1934. The Gobō Rinkō Railway became the Kishu Railway from 1 January 1973. The 0.7 km section from Nishi-Gobō to Hidakagawa closed on 1 April 1989.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kishu Railway Line Railway lines in Japan Rail transport in Wakayama Prefecture Railway lines opened in 1931