Hanshin Main Line

The nihongo|Main Line|阪神電気鉄道本線|Hanshin Denki Tetsudō Honsen is a railway line of a Japanese private railway company Hanshin Electric Railway, connecting two Japanese cities of Osaka and Kobe, between ja-stalink|Umeda and ja-stalink|Sannomiya stations respectively.

Outline

The Main Line of Hanshin is the southernmost railway of the three to connect Osaka and Kobe, with more stations through the earliest inhabited area. The others are Hankyu Corporation's Kobe Main Line in northernmost, and in the midst the Tōkaidō Main Line of present West Japan Railway Company (JR West).

Although the Tōkaidō Main Line has connected the cities earlier as a part of the national railway network, but had been less significant in the interurban connection of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area. Privatized West Japan Railway Company (JR West) has focused the area as its "Urban Network", and has become competitive with private railways.

For nearly a century, the line or the company had competed with the Hankyū Kobe Main Line with numerous stories, tales and talks, however, in 2006 Hanshin and Hankyū were subsidiarized under a single share holding company, Hankyu Hanshin Holdings.

History

The Main Line started operation on April 12, 1905 by the company. It is one of the oldest interurban railways in Japan, which found a solution to construct a competing line with a governmental line using the Tram Act which first intended to provide supplementary ways of road traffic. Among the followers are Keihan Electric Railway, Minoo Arima Electric Tramway (presnt Hankyu Corporation), Osaka Electric Tramway (present Kintetsu), Keihin Electric Railway (present Keihin Electric Express Railway).

The rivaling Hankyū (then Hanshin Express Railway) Kobe Main Line opened in 1920, and tramways like Hanshin built new tracks to abandon tracks partly laid on road, and introduced express trains.

In 1968 Kobe Rapid Railway opened its Tōzai Line, and Hanshin began through operations to ja-stalink|Sumaura-Kōen of Sanyo Electric Railway via Kobe Rapid (And Sanyo trains to ja-stalink|Ōishi of Hanshin and Rokkō of Hankyū).

Through limited express trains to ja-stalink|Sanyo Himeji were introduced in 2001. Hanshin is building a line extending from Nishi-Osaka Line to ja-stalink|Namba, a major junction in southern Osaka. The company announces through trains from Sannomiya to ja-stalink|Kintetsu Nara in Nara on Kintetsu Nara Line will be operated.

Operation

Some trains run through the Sanyō Railway Main Line to Sanyō Himeji Station in Himeji, Hyōgo beyond Motomachi terminal via Kobe Rapid Railway.

The Hanshin Main Line operates 8 types of trains, one of the most types in Japanese railway. 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.:Abbreviations are tentative for this article.;Nihongo|Local|普通|Futsū (L):Stops all stations, farthest down to Higahi-Suma on weekdays, Shinkaichi on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and Kosoku Kobe in the off-peak hour.;Nihongo|Semi-Express|準急|Junkyū (SE):Only in the rush hour on weekdays. In the morning hours, from Umeda down to Amagasaki, Kōshien, up from Ishiyagawa, Nishinomiya, Kōshien to Umeda, trains from Ishiyagawa, Nishinomiya or Kōshien stop at Amagasaki Center Pool-mae. In the evening hours between Umeda and Kōshien.;Nihongo|Express|急行|Kyūkō (Ex):Between Umeda and Nishinomiya from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and all day on Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays. Farthest down to Sumaura-kōen, stop at Imazu from the evening to the last train on weekdays, and all day on Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays.;Nihongo|Morning Express|区間急行|Kukan Kyūkō (ME):from Kōshien for Umeda in the morning on weekdays.;Nihongo|Rapid Express|快速急行|Kaisoku Kyūkō (RE):only in the evening on weekdays.;Nihongo|Hanshin Limited Express|特急|Tokkyū (HL):Operated down to Sumaura-kōen in the day and late night on weekdays and after day hours on holidays. Stops at Kōshien in the early morning and from the evening until the last train on weekdays, and all day on Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays.;Nihongo|Hanshin-Sanyō Through Limited Express|直通特急|Chokutsū Tokkyū (SL):Between Umeda and Sanyō Himeji, stop at Kōshien in the early morning and from the evening until the last train on weekdays, and all day on Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays, trains for Himeji stop there in the morning rush hour on weekdays.;Nihongo|Morning Limited Express|区間特急|Kukan Tokkyū (ML):from Sannomiya to Umeda in the morning on weekdays.

Stations

The Main Line, having 33 stations, is noted for its "high density" of stations. In comparison, 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.

*S: stop
*^: only in one direction