Bikō line
| Bikō line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 21.2 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1067 mm ( cape track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 300 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Bikō Line ( Japanese 美幸 線 , Bikō-sen ) was a railway line in the north of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō . It was only in operation from 1964 to 1985, but plans go back to the 1920s and envisaged a much longer route.
description
The Bikō line was a 21.2 km long branch line in the Kamikawa sub-prefecture , which branched off the Sōya main line at Bifuka station . It led in an easterly direction through the sparsely populated mountain valley along the Niupu-gawa river to Niuppu station. The line was cape gauge , single track and not electrified. A total of four train stations and on-demand stops were served.
The line was closed in 1985. Since 1998, the non-profit association Torokko Ōkoku Bifuka ( ト ロ ッ コ 王国 美 hält ) has maintained a five-kilometer section near the Niupu terminus and offers railroad trolley trips (every Saturday from mid-April to mid-October).
history
The annex to the Railway Construction Act passed by Parliament in 1922 contained the project of a conventional railway line between Bifuka and Kitami-Esashi on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk , but the relevant Ministry of Railways considered the implementation of other lines as more urgent. A decade later, a local cooperative built the horse-drawn Bifuka miniature railway. It had a track width of 762 mm, led from Bifuka to Niupu and was mainly used for timber transport. In 1942 the state forest authority took over the business; two years later it used a steam and a diesel locomotive. In 1956, the forest authority stopped freight traffic and in 1957 transferred the railway to the city of Bifuka. On March 4, 1963, the Bifuka small railway was shut down.
The reason for the closure was the start of construction on the Bikō line in April 1957, the route of which was partly identical to that of the small railway or ran parallel to it. The surveying work for this was interrupted in 1935 and resumed in February 1956 as a result of a petition. On October 5, 1964, the Japanese State Railways took the Bifuka – Niupu line into operation. In 1965, the Ministry of Transport granted permission to extend the route in a northerly direction by another 57.6 km to Kitami-Esashi. For this purpose, the route of the Utanobori-Kleinbahn was to be used in part (in operation from 1929 to 1970). Although a committee of experts recommended as early as 1967 that the Bikō line should be shut down due to insufficient profitability, the construction work progressed slowly. In 1973 the 1353 m long Amanogawa Tunnel was cut through.
In 1977 the entire length of the line should have been opened. The substructure was largely complete, sleepers and rails were stacked along the route and only had to be laid. However, this did not happen due to the greatly increased mountain of debt of the state railway. In fact, the existing part of the Bikō line was one of the most unprofitable routes in Japan: In the 1974 fiscal year, there were 3859 yen operating costs for every 100 yen in income. On February 1, 1984, the state railway stopped the sparse freight traffic, and on September 17, 1985 it closed the line. A Meishi Bus company took over passenger transport .
The Amanogawa tunnel was widened and opened to road traffic in 1995.
List of train stations
| Surname | km | Connecting lines | location | place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bifuka ( 美 深 ) | 0.0 | Sōya main line | Coord. | Bifuka |
| Higashi-Bifuka ( 東 美 深 ) | 4.3 | Coord. | ||
| Penke ( 辺 渓 ) | 6.3 | Coord. | ||
| Niupu ( 仁宇 布 ) | 21.2 | Coord. |
Individual evidence
- ↑ ト ロ ッ コ 王国 . Tourism Bifuka, 2017, accessed November 29, 2017 (Japanese).
- ↑ Keisuke Imao: 日本 鉄 道 旅行 地 図 帳 (Japan Rail Travel Atlas ) . tape 1 Hokkaidō. Shinchosha, Tokyo 2008, ISBN 978-4-10-790019-7 .
- ↑ 喜 び に わ く 開通 式 . Hokkaidō Shimbun, October 5, 1964.
- ↑ a b 国 鉄 美幸 線 . 廃 線 鉄 道 寮 , 2017, accessed November 29, 2017 (Japanese, history of the Bikō line with photo galleries).
- ↑ 最終 列車 赤字 線 の 象 徴 美幸 線 フ ィ ナ ー レ . Hokkaidō Shimbun, September 17, 1985.
- ↑ 美幸 線 代替 バ ス が 発 車 . Hokkaidō Shimbun, September 17, 1985.
Map with all coordinates: