Yagan Railway

An Aizu Kinugawa Line train pulling out of Ryūōkyō Station, 2013

Yagan Railway Co., Ltd. (野岩鉄道株式会社, Yagan Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese third-sector railway company whose major shareholders include the Tochigi and Fukushima prefectural governments. It operates a single railway line, the Aizu Kinugawa Line (会津鬼怒川線, Aizu Kinugawa-sen).

The name of the line comes from the kanji characters of the ancient provinces of Shimotsuke (下野) (now Tochigi Prefecture) and Iwashiro (岩代) (now Fukushima Prefecture).

Aizu Kinugawa Line

Route map of Aizu Kinugawa Line

The Aizu Kinugawa Line (会津鬼怒川線, Aizu Kinugawa-sen) is a 30.7 kilometre railway line from Shin-Fujiwara Station in Nikkō, Tochigi to Aizukōgen-Ozeguchi Station, Minamiaizu, Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture. Its nickname is the Hot Spa. Line (ほっとスパ・ライン, Hotto Supa Rain; lit. Relaxing Spa. Line).

The name of the line comes from the Aizu area at the northern end and the Kinugawa Onsen hot spring resort area at the southern end.

Stations

• Limited Express Revaty Aizu (リバティ会津) is a Limited Express service operated by Tobu Railway. Reserved seats cost 380 yen on the Aizu-Kinugawa Line.
• Aizu Mount Express (Aizuマウントエクスプレス) is operated by Aizu Railway. Passengers can ride on the trains without an additional ticket.
• Ozatoro Tenbo Ressha Yu-Meguri (お座トロ展望列車 湯めぐり号) is operated by Aizu Railway. Reserved seats cost 320 yen.

Station	Japanese	Distance (km)		Revaty Aizu	Aizu Mount Express	Open-car "torokko" Ozatoro Tenbō Ressha	Transfers	Location
		Between stations	Total
↑Through service to/from Tobu Kinugawa Line and Limited Express trains to/from Asakusa↑
Shin-Fujiwara	新藤原	-	0.0	●	●	●	Tōbu Kinugawa Line	Nikkō	Tochigi Prefecture
Ryūōkyō	龍王峡	1.7	1.7	●	●	↓
Kawaji-Onsen	川治温泉	3.1	4.8	●	●	↓
Kawaji-Yumoto	川治湯元	1.2	6.0	●	●	●
Yunishigawa-Onsen	湯西川温泉	4.3	10.3	●	●	●
Nakamiyori-Onsen	中三依温泉	6.5	16.8	●	●	↓
Kamimiyori-Shiobara-Onsenguchi	上三依塩原温泉口	4.2	21.0	●	●	●
Ojika-Kōgen	男鹿高原	4.0	25.0	↕	↕	↓
Aizukōgen-Ozeguchi	会津高原尾瀬口	5.7	30.7	●	●	●	Aizu Railway Aizu Line	Minamiaizu, Fukushima, Minamiaizu District	Fukushima
↓Through service to/from Aizu Railway Aizu Line↓

Rolling stock

• Yagan Railway owns two 2-car sets of Tobu 6050 series EMU for use on Local services
• Tobu Railway operates Tobu 500 series Tobu 500 series "Revaty" EMU on Revaty Aizu services
• Aizu Railway owned DMU trains[ja] operate through services to/from Aizu Line

History

The construction began as a part of the Japan Railway Construction Corporation. It was taken over by Yagan Railway.

• 9 October 1986: Starts operations.
• 12 October 1990: Direct service onto Aizu-Tajima Station on Aizu Railway Aizu Line begins.
• 18 March 2006: The nickname Hot Spa. Line debuts.

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia.

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)