Ube line
The Ube Line ( 宇 部 線 Ube-sen ) is a railway line operated by JR West in Kapspur , which takes its name from the terminus, the city of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture in the far west of the Japanese island of Honshū .
route
The route leads in an arc from the south coast in Shin-Yamaguchi (known until 2003: Ogōri 小 郡 駅 ) over 33.2 km to Ube. There will be a total of 18 stops in 2020. The modern track bed is designed for top speeds of 85 km / h.
The first section opened for almost six kilometers between Ube and Ube-Shinkawa. The owner was the company Ube Keiben ( 宇 部 興 産 ), which was called from 1921 Ubetestsdō KK ( 宇 部 鉄 道 kk ). The extension to Tokonami was completed in 1923, and two years later to Ogōri. Ogōri station ( 小 郡 駅 ) has been called Shin-Yamaguchi since the municipal reform in 2003. It was originally built by a private company and was nationalized to the JNR in 1906 .
The Ube line follows the coastline in a semicircle. Electrification with 1500 V direct current took place in 1926–1929. The Kotoshiba stop ( 琴 芝 駅 ) opened in 1929.
A three kilometer long electrified branch line has been operated by the "Ube Elektrischen" ( 宇 部 電 気 鉄 道 ) since 1929 . This was a subsidiary of the Okinoyama coal mine ( 沖 ノ 山 炭 鉱 ), the predecessor of the modern “Ube Industries” ( 宇 部 興 産 ).
The two companies merged in 1941 to "Ube-Bahn AG" ( 宇 部 鉄 道 Ubetestsdō KK ), which was capitalized with 2.95 million yen. It was nationalized on April 1, 1943. At the same time, four stations were abandoned: Suo-Esaki, Iwakura, Shirato and Chōsei coal mine. Today's Ube-Bahn was called the "Ube-Ost-Linie" from 1943–1948.
From 1943 to 1961 the station was called Ube-Shinkawa Ube and the current station was called Ube Nishi-Ube. The route between Fujino and Inō ( 居 能 駅 ) was changed at this time. Many breakpoints have been renamed over the years.
JR West has been the operating company since JNR was partially privatized in 1987. The driving operation was completely converted to one-man operation in 1990–1992. It stops at all stops, there have been no passing express trains since the 1970s. During the day, a train runs every hour until around 10 p.m.
The number of passengers dropped by almost 60 percent between 1987 and 2016. In 2019, plans were therefore started to examine plans to replace the Ube and Onoda lines together with an express bus line.
- Freight trains
For the wedding around 1970, between 22 and 25 pairs of trains ran daily on the branch line heading north to the mine ( 美 祢 駅 ) and Ubeko freight stations, mainly loaded with coal. That number dropped to six to eight by 1988. Ten years later this operation was completely stopped. The Inō ↔ Ubeko freight line was finally closed in 2006. The remaining freight traffic was mainly used to deliver limestone to a glass factory in Shigeyasu ( 重 安 駅 ) until the plant was closed in 2009 . In 2014, JR West officially completely ceased all freight operations.
Vehicle fleet
Multiple units of the series Kiha 40 were first used in 1980. They replaced the Kumoha 41 ( ク モ ハ 41 ) … 42, and … 51 and Kuha 55 series wagons that had been in use since the 1950s .
For normal passenger operations, electric multiple units of series 105 (since 1981) and Kumoha 123 (with toilets since 2013–2015) are used in one-man operation.
connections
In Ube there is a connection to the San'in Main Line and in Ube-Shinkawa ( 宇 部 新 川 駅 Ube-sen ) to the Onoda Line ( 小野 田 線 ; 1943-8 called Ube-West Line).
In Shin-Yamaguchi you can reach the local Yamaguchi Line . There is also a stop on the San'yō main line to Kobe and the Shinkansen to Shin-Ōsaka or Kagoshima .
A six-kilometer-long narrow-gauge railway (762 mm) opened in 1916 to Funaki ( 船 木 護 ). The track was widened to 1067 mm in 1922 and four years later extended by twelve kilometers to Kibe. The last 8 km were shut down in 1944, the rest of this branch line in 1961.
The passenger service to Ubeko was discontinued in 1952, the branch line was completely shut down in 1961.
literature
- 吉野 敦 裕; 海岸線 に 沿 っ て 山口 県 (9) 宇 部 線; 鉄 道 ジ ャ ー ナ ル, Vol. 43, No. 516, pp. 128–31
- 宇 部 線; 角 川 日本 地名 大 辞典 2018
- 岩 成 政和; 揺 れ る 本州 最 西端 3 路線: 宇 部 線 ・ 小野 田 線 ・ 美 祢 線 の 近況; 鉄 道 ジ ャ ー ナ ル, Vol. 53 (2019), No. 632, 6, pp. 64–75
