The is a railway line in

Kyoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture ...

, Japan, 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). It connects Ayabe and Higashi-Maizuru, the line beyond there being called the

Obama Line The is a railway line on the Sea of Japan coast of central Japan. It is operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The long single track railway connects Tsuruga Station on the Hokuriku Main Line in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture and Higa ...

connecting to Tsuruga.

Stations

History

The line opened in the autumn of 1904 to transport troops and

materiel Materiel or matériel (; ) is supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commerce, commercial supply chain management, supply chain context. Military In a military context, ...

to the naval base and Maizuru-Higashi Port during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

, which commenced in February of that year. Although built by the Japanese Government, it was initially leased to the Bantsuru Railway Co, which opened the Ayabe – Fukuchiyama section of what is now the

Sanin Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

the same year. The company was nationalised in 1907, the year the 2 km from Nishi-Maizuru to Maizuru Port opened. Passenger services operated on that branch between 1913 and 1924, and it closed in 1985. Nishi-Maizuru was also the junction for the 4 km to Naka-Maizuru which operated between 1919 and 1972. The line was electrified in 1999. From the start of the revised timetable on 13 March 2021, Rapid trains that passed through Magura Station were discontinued and were changed to Local trains. From the start of the revised timetable on 18 March 2023, 125 series trainsets began operation on the Maizuru Line.

References

{{West Japan Railway Company Lines Lines of West Japan Railway Company Rail transport in Kyoto Prefecture 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1904 1904 establishments in Japan 1500 V DC railway electrification