Yōrō Railway Yōrō Line

Yōrō Line
Yōrō Line
	A Local train, 620 series
Service
Operator(s)	Yōrō Railway Co., Ltd.
Technical
Line length	57.5 km (35.7 mi)
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Minimum radius	160 m (520 ft)
Electrification	1,500 V DC, overhead lines
Operating speed	65 km/h (40 mph)
Maximum incline	25 ‰

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Yōrō Line

Legend

km

JR Central Kansai Main Line

Kintetsu Railway Nagoya Line

Sangi Railway Hokusei Line

0.0

Nishi-Kuwana│Kuwana

Sangi Railway Hokusei Line

JR Central Kansai Main Line

Kintetsu Railway Nagoya Line

0.7

Higashikata truck

conversion facility

1.6

4.0

6.6

8.6

11.9

14.2

16.2

19.8

24.5

28.8

31.8

34.5

Makita River Bridge

over Makita River

36.0

Ōtoba

37.4

Tomoe

39.4

Mino-Yanagi

JR Central Tōkaidō Shinkansen

41.2

Nishi-Ōgaki│

Ogaki Depot

43.0

Ōgaki

JR Central Tōkaidō Main Line
Tarumi Railway Tarumi Line

44.1

Muro

44.5

JR Central Tōkaidō Main Line

45.4

Kita-Ōgaki

closed 1974

47.5

50.3

51.9

53.5

54.4

55.2

57.5

Ibi

km

The Yōrō Line (養老線, Yōrō-sen) is a railway line of a Japanese private railway operator Yōrō Railway (養老鉄道, Yōrō Tetsudō). The line traverses the northeastern side of the Yōrō Mountains and connects Kuwana Station in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture and Ibi Station in Ibigawa, Gifu Prefecture.

The northern portion of the Ōgaki section is locally and unofficially called Ibi Line (揖斐線, Ibi-sen), as Ōgaki is a reversing station.

Kintetsu Railway, one of largest private railway companies in Japan, owns the tracks and rolling stocks of the line whereon Yōrō Railway (II), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kintetsu operates trains as of October 1, 2007.

Descriptions[]

Company: Yōrō Railway (Category-2), Kintetsu Railway (Category-3)
Length: 57.5 km (35.7 mi)
Gauge: 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Power: Electric 1500 V DC
No. of stations: 27 incl. both ends
Track: single
Maximum speed: 65 km/h (40 mph)
Operation: All Local trains

History[]

Initially steam powered, the line was constructed by Yōrō Railway (I) and opened in 1913 between Yōrō - Ōgaki - Ikeno, in 1919 present line was completed with extensions of Yōrō - Kuwana and Ikeno - Ibi. In 1922 Yōrō Railway merged with Ibi River Electric (揖斐川電気, Ibigawa Denki) and the following year the line was electrified (1500 V DC). In 1928 its railway was transferred to Yōrō Electric Railway (養老電気鉄道, Yōrō Denki Tetsudō). Since then the operator has changed several times, namely in 1929 the Ise Electric Railway (伊勢電気鉄道, Ise Denki Tetsudō), in 1936 Yōrō Dentetsu (養老電鉄), in 1940 Sangu Kyūkō Railway (参宮急行電鉄, Sangū Kyūkō Dentetsu), in 1941 Kansai Kyūkō Railway (関西急行鉄道, Kansai Kyūkō Tetsudō), finally in 1944 Kinki Nippon railway (近畿日本鉄道, Kinki Nippon Tetsudō) which is the present Kintetsu.

Following typhoon damage in 1959, the Kintetsu Nagoya Line was regauged to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), the Kintetsu standard which enables through trains to Osaka, but the Yōrō Line remained 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) partly due to through freight trains to the then Japanese National Railways (JNR) at Ōgaki and Kuwana, because the line is shorter between these stations than JNR lines and used as the shortcut.

With accumulating deficit, Kintetsu Corporation decided to split off the operation of the Yōrō Line in 2007. Local governments along the line made an agreement of financial aid to the Yōrō Railway until 2010.

Stations[]

Name	Location
Kuwana	Kuwana	Mie
Harima
Shimo-Fukaya
Shimo-Noshiro
Tado
Mino-Matsuyama	Kaizu	Gifu
Ishizu
Mino-Yamazaki
Komano
Mino-Tsuya
Yōrō	Yōrō, Yōrō District
Mino-Takada
Karasue
Ōtoba	Ōgaki
Tomoe
Mino-Yanagi
Nishi-Ōgaki
Ōgaki
Muro
Kita-Ōgaki
Higashi-Akasaka	Gōdo, Anpachi District
Hiro-Gōdo
Kita-Gōdo
Ikeno	Ikeda, Ibi District
Kita-Ikeno
Mino-Hongō
Ibi	Ibigawa, Ibi District