The Nambu Line () is a Japanese railway line which connects Tachikawa Station in

Tachikawa, Tokyo 250px, Showa Memorial Park is a city located in the western portion of the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 184,383 in 93,428 households, and a population density of 7,600 persons per km2. The total area of t ...

and Kawasaki Station in

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

. For most of its length, it parallels the

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Government of Japan, Japanese government. It is long, an ...

, the natural border between Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures. It lies along the

Tama Hills is an area of hills stretching across southwest Tokyo and northeast Kanagawa Prefecture in the Kantō Plain on Honshū, Japan. Its total area is approximately 300 km2. The Tama River marks its northeastern boundary. The Tama Hills border th ...

. It is part of the

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and 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 are in ...

(JR East) network. The line forms part of what JR East refers to as the "Tokyo Mega Loop" () around Tokyo, consisting of the Keiyo Line,

Musashino Line The is a railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It links Tsurumi Station in Yokohama with Nishi-Funabashi Station in Chiba Prefecture, forming a unclosed loop around central Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tok ...

, Nambu Line, and the Yokohama Line. The name refers to the southern () part of the ancient province of Musashi () (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 foun ...

(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 (), 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 ...

: 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) and the

. Freight trains operating between Tokyo Freight Terminal and northern Japan operate on both branch lines.

Rolling stock

the following fleet of

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

(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) * E127-0 series 2 x 2-car EMUs (Nambu Branch Line services, since September 2023) * 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-Series205-1000-4.jpg, A Nambu Branch Line 205-1000 series in May 2023 File:JRE Series-E127-0 V1.jpg, A Nambu Branch Line E127-0 series in January 2024 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 The was a DC electric multiple unit (EMU) commuter train type introduced in 1957 by Japanese National Railways (JNR), and formerly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR-West). The last remaining tra ...

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

103 series The is a DC electric multiple unit (EMU) commuter train type introduced in 1963 by Japanese National Railways (JNR), and currently operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). They were also operate ...

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 opened the line in five stages between 1927 and 1930 (freight branches are omitted): * 27 March 1927: Kawasaki – Noborito * 1 November 1927: Noborito – Ōmaru (near Minami-Tama) * 11 December 1928: Ōmaru – Bubaigawara (then called Yashikibun) * 11 December 1929: Bubaigawara – Tachikawa * 25 March 1930: Shitte – Hama-Kawasaki Passenger trains utilised

s (EMUs) from the beginning. Freight initially consisted primarily of

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

hauled from the

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

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

became one of the main freight commodities. The railway was controlled by

Asano zaibatsu Asano zaibatsu 浅野財閥, one of the major second-tier zaibatsu ( conglomerates) in Japan, was founded in 1887 by Asano Sōichirō 浅野総一郎 with support from Shibusawa Eiichi 渋沢栄一, the founder of the Shibusawa zaibatsu 渋沢� ...

, 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 1 April 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 rail transport, railway system directly operated by the until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Railways Group. Name The English name "Japanese ...

. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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 pre ...

(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

(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 15 December 1969, but were discontinued by the timetable revision on 2 October 1978. After 33 years, Rapid services between Kawasaki and Tachikawa with more stops started on 9 April 2011, postponed from the originally scheduled 12 March due to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

. On 20 August 2016, station numbering was introduced with Nambu line stations being assigned station numbers between JN01 and JN26. Numbers increase towards in the westbound direction towards Tachikawa. In addition, station numbers JN51 to JN54 were assigned to the branch line stations with numbers increasing in the direction of Hama-Kawasaki. From 15 March 2025, Nambu line started operation as "wanman" (One-man)

driver-only operation One-person operation (OPO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one-man operation (OMO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), similarly to driver-controlled operation, is operation of a train, bus, ...

.https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2024/20241106_ho02.pdf

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