The is an underground

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

line in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, Japan, operated by

Osaka Metro The is a major rapid transit system in the Osaka metropolitan area of Japan, operated by the Osaka Metro Company, Ltd. It serves the city of Osaka and the adjacent municipalities of Higashiosaka, Kadoma, Moriguchi, Sakai, Suita, and Yao. ...

. Its official name is , and in

MLIT The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法

publications, it is written as . The Sakaisuji Line is unique in the Osaka Metro system in that despite being regulated as a tramway under the Railway Business Act like the other lines, the line was constructed as an extension of a line governed as a railway, specifically the

Hankyu Senri Line The is a railway line in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, operated by Hankyu Railway. It commenced operation in 1921 and was completed on March 1, 1967. Through trains operate to and from the Hankyu Kyoto Line and the Osaka Municipal Subway Sakaisuji ...

, to which the Sakaisuji Line connects to at its northern end at Tenjimbashisuji Rokuchōme Station. Through services using both Osaka Municipal Subway and Hankyu rolling stock operates to and from the Senri Line and Arashiyama Line via the

Kyoto Main Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the private railway operator Hankyu Railway. It connects Osaka-umeda Station in Osaka and Kyoto-kawaramachi Station in Kyoto. Definition The Kyoto Main Line is often called the for short, and in a ...

History

The Sakaisuji Line was first envisioned in the Urban Transportation Council Report No. 3 (1958) as an underground line running from Tenjimbashisuji Rokuchōme to

Tenma Tenma, known as ASTRO-B before launch (COSPAR 1983-011A, SATCAT 13829), was a Japanese X-ray astronomy X-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of X-ray observation and detection from astronomical obje ...

via Sakaisuji and Dobutsuen-mae, and it was to be operated by Hankyu Railway instead of the Osaka prefectural government. In 1963, the Urban Transportation Council Report No. 7 (1963) recommended that the southern terminus of the Sakaisuji Line be at Tengachaya instead of Tenma. Later unrealised plans for the Sakaisuji Line included two separate extensions to Nakamozu and Sugimotochō, and at one point it was envisioned that through-services between the

standard-gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

Hankyu Railway and the

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

Nankai Railway is a private railway in Japan, founded in 1884. The name ''Nankai'' (which means "South Sea") comes from the company's routes along the Nankaidō, the old highway that ran south from the old capital, Kyoto, along the sea coast. Nankai predates ...

would be realised by connecting them together with the Sakaisuji Line through the use of

dual gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

tracks, however that plan was abandoned due to the different electrification systems used by Hankyu and Nankai. The Sakaisuji Line opened on December 6, 1969 between Tenjimbashisuji Rokuchōme and Dōbutsuen-mae, at which point the previous ground-level southern terminal of the Hankyu Senri Line at Tenjinbashi was closed. The line was extended from Dōbutsuen-mae to Tengachaya on 4 March 1993, as a metro-based replacement of the former Nankai Tennoji Branch Line which closed at the same time.

Stations

Station numbers on the Sakaisuji Line (excluding Hankyu-operated stations) are indicated by the letter "K". The seasonal Limited Express service known as "Hozu" (operated by Hankyu between Tengachaya and Arashiyama) stops at the stations with a "●", while other trains (local trains, Sakaisuji Semi-Express trains, and trains to ) stop at every station. All stations are in Osaka.

Rolling stock

The Sakaisuji Line is the first Osaka subway line to use

overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, Electric multiple unit, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union ...

s instead of

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...

for power collection. All trains are based at Higashi-Suita Depot located on the Hankyu Senri Line.

Current

* Osaka Municipal Subway 66 series (since 1993) *

Hankyu 1300 series The is a commuter electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by the private railway operator Hankyu Corporation on Hankyu Kyoto Main Line services since March 2014. Overview Based on the 9000 series and 9300 series EMUs first introduc ...

(since 2014) * Hankyu 3300 series (since 1969) * Hankyu 5300 series (since 1979) *

Hankyu 7300 series The is an electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated in Japan by the private railway operator Hankyu Railway since 1982. Formations , the fleet consists of 83 cars formed as eight-car, six-car, and two-car sets as follows, with one car sp ...

(since 1989) *

Hankyu 8300 series The is an electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated in Japan by the private railway operator Hankyu Railway , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai re ...

(since 1989)

Former

* Osaka Municipal Subway 60 series (1969–2003)

References