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19-691: The Main Line of Hanshin is the southernmost railway to connect Osaka and Kobe. The other two lines, from south to north, are the West Japan Railway Company ‘s Tōkaidō Main Line (known as the JR Kobe Line ), and the Hankyu Railway 's Kobe Main Line . For nearly a century, the line served as a primary competitor to the Hankyū Kobe Line. However, in 2006, Hanshin and Hankyū were subsidiarized under

38-682: A railway license was issued to the Kobe Municipal Transportation Bureau to build a subway line linking the Myōdani district to the Shin-Kobe Shinkansen station; construction on the first segment of that line began on 25 November of that year. The first segment of the subway (between Shin-Nagata and Myodani, known as the Seishin Line) opened on 13 March 1977; a second segment of the line (between Shin-Nagata and Okurayama, known as

57-838: A similar fashion. Then another competing railway company, Hankyū (then Hanshin Kyuko Railway), opened the Kobe Main Line in 1920. The Kobe Main Line was designed as a faster electric mainline railway, and in response Hanshin began upgrading its interurban mainline to become more railway like. Operations included realigning and grade separating street running portions, using high platforms, and introducing express trains. In 1968 Kobe Rapid Railway opened its Tōzai Line , and Hanshin began through operations to Sumaura-Kōen of Sanyo Electric Railway via Kobe Rapid (and Sanyo trains to Ōishi of Hanshin and Rokkō of Hankyū). Through limited express trains to Sanyo Himeji were introduced in 2001. Then,

76-924: A single share holding company, Hankyu Hanshin Holdings . The Main Line started operation on April 12, 1905, by the company. The company found a solution to construct a competing line to the then JNR owned Kobe Line using a loophole in the Tram Act, allowing large portions of the line to be built using street running . It became the first interurban in Japan. This inspired other railways such as Keihan Electric Railway , Minoo Arima Electric Tramway (present Hankyu Hanshin Holdings , Inc.), Osaka Electric Tramway (present Kintetsu ), Keihin Electric Railway (present Keihin Electric Express Railway ) to build their first lines in

95-664: Is highly automated, and during peak hours trains run as often as every two minutes. JR-West's Urban Network competes with a number of private commuter rail operators around Osaka, the "Big 4" being Hankyu Railway / Hanshin Railway (Hankyu bought Hanshin in April 2005), Keihan Railway , Kintetsu , and Nankai Railway . JR-West's market share in the region is roughly equal to that of the Big 4 put together, largely due to its comprehensive network and high-speed commuter trains (Special Rapid Service trains on

114-804: 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 is also one of only three Japan Railways Group constituents of the Nikkei 225 index: the others are JR East and JR Central . It was also listed in the Nagoya and Fukuoka stock exchanges until late 2020. JR-West's highest-grossing line

133-664: Is one of the two lines of the Kobe Municipal Subway . It links the central districts to the east and western suburbs of Kobe . The line color is green. The line has a reciprocal through service with the Hokushin Line (formerly the Hokushin Kyukuo Electric Railway) ; all trains run between either Tanigami or Shin-Kobe and Seishin-chūō , stopping at every station. During rush hours, additional trains run between Shin-Kobe and Myōdani . On 15 October 1971,

152-772: Is the Sanyo Shinkansen high-speed rail line between Osaka and Fukuoka . The Sanyo Shinkansen alone accounts for about 40% of JR-West's passenger revenues. The company also operates Hakata Minami Line , a short commuter line with Shinkansen trains in Fukuoka . The "Urban Network" is JR-West's name for its commuter rail lines in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. These lines together comprise 610 km of track, have 245 stations and account for about 43% of JR-West's passenger revenues. Urban Network stations are equipped to handle ICOCA fare cards. Train control on these lines

171-645: The Hanshin Namba Line was extended to Namba , a major junction in southern Osaka. The company announced through trains from Kobe-Sannomiya to Kintetsu Nara in Nara on Kintetsu Nara Line would be operated. Some trains run through the Sanyō Railway Main Line to Sanyō Himeji Station in Himeji , Hyōgo beyond Motomachi terminal via Kobe Rapid Railway . The Main Line operates eight types of trains, one of

190-860: The Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) as part of a bureaucratic reform package in October 2003. JRTT offered all of its shares in JR-West to the public in an international IPO in 2004, ending the era of government ownership of JR-West. JR-West is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange , Osaka Securities Exchange and Fukuoka Stock Exchange . Seishin-Yamate Line The Seishin-Yamate Line ( 西神山手線 , Seishin-Yamate-sen ) , also known by its nickname of "Midori no U-Line" ( Japanese : みどりのUライン , lit.   'The green "U" line'),

209-537: The Sanyō Shinkansen , from the separate Shinkansen Holding Corporation. JR-West purchased the line in October 1991 at a cost of 974.1 billion JPY (about US$ 7.2 billion) in long-term debt. JNRSC sold 68.3% of JR-West in an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 1996. After JNRSC was dissolved in October 1998, its shares of JR-West were transferred to the government-owned Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation (JRCC), which merged into

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228-479: The Surotto Kansai smart card in October 1999; it would start accepting PiTaPa in October 2006. Women-only cars began to be used on the subway line from 16 December 2002. Currently, one car heading in the direction of Seishin-chūō (car number 4) is reserved for women only; the restriction applies throughout the entire day. All trains are based at Tanigami and Myōdani Depots. A fleet of new trains (known as

247-708: The Kobe Kosoku Line), is noted for its "high density" of stations. In comparison, Kobe-Sannomiya Station is the 16th station on the Hankyū Kobe Main Line from Umeda Station and Motomachi Station is the 15th station on the JR Kobe Line from Osaka Station. For connections and distances, see the route diagram.   H   JR Tōzai Line (JR-H45: Shin-Fukushima Station ) [REDACTED] Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line (S11: Noda-Hanshin Station ) ※Note: Except

266-462: The Kobe and Kyoto lines operate at up to 130 km/h). Those in italics are announcement names. A number of other lines account for more than half of JR-West's track mileage. These lines mainly handle business and leisure travel between smaller cities and rural areas in western Japan. They account for about 20% of the company's passenger revenues. JR-West subsidiaries include the following. JR-West

285-966: The Rapid Express, all other through trains on the Namba Line terminate at Amagasaki, but not further west on the Hanshin Main Line [REDACTED] Kobe New Transit Port Island Line (P01) [REDACTED] Kobe Municipal Subway Seishin-Yamate Line (S03) [REDACTED] Kobe Municipal Subway Kaigan Line (K01: Sannomiya-Hanadokeimae Station ) [REDACTED] JR Kobe Line (JR-A61: Sannomiya Station ) [REDACTED] Kobe Municipal Subway Kaigan Line (K04: Harborland Station ) Hanshin Limited Express for Sumaura-koen Direct Limited Express for Sanyo-Himeji West Japan Railway Company The West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as JR West ( JR西日本 , Jeiāru Nishi-Nihon ) ,

304-623: The Yamate Line) opened on 17 February 1982. The line was extended to Shin-Kobe on 18 June 1985; a western extension to Gakuen-toshi (from Myodani) opened that same day. On 18 March 1987, the final segment of the subway line opened between Gakuen-toshi and Seishin-chūō. The Hokushin Kyuko Electric Railway opened on 2 April 1988, providing service between Tanigami and Shin-Kobe. An infill station ( Seishin-minami ) opened in between Seishin-chūō and Ikawadani stations on 20 March 1993, expanding

323-702: The line to a total of 16 stations. On 17 January 1995, the subway line was shut down due to damage caused by the Great Hanshin earthquake ; the line resumed operation with limited service between Seishin-chūō and Itayado the following day, along with the entirety of the Hokushin Kyuko line. Limited service was resumed across the entire line on 16 February, and full service was restored in March 1995 after repairs were completed, albeit with speed restrictions remaining in place until 21 July of that year. The subway began to accept

342-526: The most types among Japanese railways. This is in some part to equalize the load of each train especially in the morning for Osaka (Umeda station) with short length of EMU length and with few (only double) tracks. For the extension of the Hanshin Namba Line, from Nishikujo to Osaka Namba, on March 20, 2009, the diagrams of the Hanshin Railway were revised. The Main Line, having 39 stations (including

361-518: Was incorporated as a business corporation ( kabushiki kaisha ) on April 1, 1987, as part of the breakup of the state-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). Initially, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the JNR Settlement Corporation (JNRSC), a special company created to hold the assets of the former JNR while they were shuffled among the new JR companies. For the first four years of its existence, JR-West leased its highest-revenue line,

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