The is a commuter railway line in

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, ...

, Japan, operated by the

Kobe Electric Railway , often called , is a Japanese private railway company in Kobe and surrounding cities. It is a subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Lines * Arima Line ( Minatogawa - Arima Onsen) *Sanda Line The is a commuter railway line in Hyōgo Prefe ...

(Shintetsu). It connects

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, w ...

with its northwestern suburb, Ono. The line is long, extending from Suzurandai in Kita-ku to Ao, where the line connects with 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, and ...

(JR West)

Kakogawa Line The is a railway line in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West), which connects the cities of Kakogawa and Tamba. The line begins at Kakogawa Station on the JR Kobe Line ( Sanyō Main Line) and ends at Tan ...

, although all trains continue past Suzurandai to

Shinkaichi is a district of Kobe, Japan. It is one of the major downtown areas in the city. The name of Shinkaichi means "newly opened area". It was named so because the district was really newly developed after moving the Minato-gawa (river) from this a ...

via the Shintetsu Arima Line and

Kobe Rapid Railway Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

Namboku Line. Between Suzurandai Station and Kizu Station, track gradient can reach 50

‰ Per mille (from Latin , "in each thousand") is an expression that means parts per thousand. Other recognised spellings include per mil, per mill, permil, permill, or permille. The associated sign is written , which looks like a percent sig ...

at most.

History

The Miki Electric Railway Co. opened the Suzurandai – Hirono Golf-jo-mae on 28 December 1936. DMUs operated until the section was electrified the following year and extended to Miki Uenomaru, with the extension to Miki opening in 1938. In 1947 the company merged with the Kobe Electric Railway Co., which extended the line to Ono on 28 December 1951, and from Ono to Ao on 10 April 1952. The Nishi-Suzurandai – Aina section was duplicated in 1982, and the Kizu – Oshibedani section was duplicated between 1979 and 1989.

Former connecting lines

* Miki station – The Miki Railway Miki Line operated between 1917 and 2008.

Stations

* S indicates that the service stops at the station * indicates that the service skips the station

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia Transport in Kobe Railway lines in Japan 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Railway lines opened in 1936 {{Japan-rail-line-stub