Yōrō Railway Yōrō Line

Yōrō Line
Yōrō Line
	A Local train, 7700 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 ‰

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

Shin-Muro

43.0

Ōgaki

JR Central Tōkaidō Main Line
Tarumi Railway Tarumi Line

44.1

Muro

44.5

Shiken-ya

JR Central Tōkaidō Main Line

45.4

Kita-Ōgaki

Gama

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	Japanese	Distance (km)		Transfers	Location
Name	Japanese	Between stations	Total	Transfers	Location
Kuwana	桑名	-	0.0	Kansai Main Line (CJ07) Kintetsu Nagoya Line (E13) Sangi Railway Hokusei Line (Nishi-Kuwana)	Kuwana	Mie
Harima	播磨	0.9	1.6
Shimo-Fukaya	下深谷	2.4	4.0
Shimo-Noshiro	下野代	2.6	6.6
Tado	多度	2.0	8.6
Mino-Matsuyama	美濃松山	3.3	11.9		Kaizu	Gifu
Ishizu	石津	2.3	14.2
Mino-Yamazaki	美濃山崎	2.0	16.2
Komano	駒野	3.6	19.8
Mino-Tsuya	美濃津屋	4.7	24.5
Yōrō	養老	4.3	28.8		Yōrō, Yōrō District
Mino-Takada	美濃高田	3.0	31.8
Karasue	烏江	2.7	34.5
Ōtoba	大外羽	1.5	36.0		Ōgaki
Tomoe	友江	1.4	37.4
Mino-Yanagi	美濃青柳	2.0	39.4
Nishi-Ōgaki	西大垣	1.8	41.2
Ōgaki	大垣	1.8	43.0	Tōkaidō Main Line (CA77) ■ Tarumi Railway Tarumi Line (TR01)
Muro	室	1.1	44.1
Kita-Ōgaki	北大垣	1.3	45.4
Higashi-Akasaka	東赤坂	2.1	47.5		Gōdo, Anpachi District
Hiro-Gōdo	広神戸	2.8	50.3
Kita-Gōdo	北神戸	1.6	51.9
Ikeno	池野	1.6	53.5		Ikeda, Ibi District
Kita-Ikeno	北池野	0.9	54.4
Mino-Hongō	美濃本郷	0.8	55.2
Ibi	揖斐	2.3	57.5		Ibigawa, Ibi District