Jōsō Line | |
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A Kanto Railway KiHa 2300 series DMU
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Overview | |
Native name | 常総線 |
Locale | Ibaraki Prefecture |
Termini |
Toride Shimodate |
Operation | |
Opened | 1 November 1913 |
Owner | Kanto Railway |
Technical | |
Line length | 51.1 km |
Track gauge | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) |
Minimum radius | 290 m |
Electrification | None |
Operating speed | 90 km/h (55.92mph) |
The Jōsō Line (常総線 Jōsō-sen?) is a railway line in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, operated by the operated by the private railway operator Kanto Railway. It is a non-electrified line which connects Toride to Shimodate.
The Jōsō Line connects with the Tsukuba Express line, which opened in 2005, at Moriya Station, the only interchange other than at its two termini.
In fiscal 1999, the Jōsō Line carried an annual total of 14.16 million passengers (38,000 per day), making it the busiest non-electrified private line in Japan.
A KiHa 310 series DMU in February 2017
A KiHa 350 series DMU in November 2007
KiHa 5010 series DMU car 5012 in March 2017
The Jōsō Railway opened the line on 1 November 1913. In 1945, the company merged with the Tsukuba Railway to form the Jōsō Tsukuba Railway, which merged with the Kanto Railway in 1965.
Originally all single-track, 17.5 kilometres (11 mi) of the line was doubled between Toride and Mitsukaidō by 15 November 1984.