Kobe Rapid Transit Railway

Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway Company, Limited (神戸高速鉄道株式会社 "Kōbe kōsoku-tetsudō") is a special railway company in central Kobe, Japan.

Lines

Kobe Rapid Railway has three lines.
*Tozai Line (east-west)
*Namboku Line (north-south)
*Hokushin Line

The Tozai Line and the Namboku Line are the original operation of the railway company while the Hokushin Line is a recent addition to its business. As for all lines, the company is the nihongo|Category-3 Operator|第三種鉄道事業者|dai-sanshu-tetsudō-jigyōsha under the 1986 Railway Business Act of Japan.

Tozai Line and Namboku Line

On these lines, the company does not run its own services but provides the necessary infrastructure for four private railway lines (Hankyu Kobe Line (Hankyu), Hanshin Main Line (Hanshin), Shintetsu Arima Line (Shintetsu) and Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line (Sanyo) to be able to run trains through Kobe.

The company operates and administrates the stations of the Tozai Line and the Namboku Line (except for Sannomiya Station operated by Hankyu, Motomachi Station operated by Hanshin, Nishidai Station operated by Sanyo and Minatogawa Station operated by Shintetsu).

Hokushin Line

Formerly the Hokushin Line was owned by the operator, Hokushin Kyuko Electric Railway. When Hokushin Kyuko suffered financial difficulties in 2002, Kobe Rapid Railway purchased the assets of the railway trackage from Hokushin Kyuko. Since then, Kobe Rapid Railway owns the Hokushin Line.

Unlike the Tozai Line and the Namboku Line stations, the stations of the Hokushin Line are operated and administrated by Hokushin Kyuko (Tanigami Station) and Kobe Municipal Subway (Shin-Kobe Station).

ee also

* List of rapid transit systems