The Kawagoe Line (川越線) is a trunk line run by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It runs from Ōmiya Station in Ōmiya ward, Saitama city, through Kawagoe Station to Komagawa Station in Hidaka city, Saitama Prefecture.
History
The Kawagoe Line was not in the government's plan when the revised Railway Construction Act (改正鉄道敷設法) came into force in 1922. In 1934 a line from Ōmiya through Kawagoe to near Hannō was added to the plan. It was meant to link the Tōhoku Main Line and the Hachikō Line, as a bypass of the Chūō Main Line. Japanese Wikipedia says the line was needed as a military crisis measure, to link the Tōkaidō and Tōhoku lines without going through Tokyo. Construction began in the same year. The Kawagoe Line opened all at once. On 22 July 1940 the whole section from Ōmiya to Komagawa (30.6 km) opened, with stations at Nisshin, Sashiōgi, Minami-Koya, Kawagoe, Nishi-Kawagoe, Matoba, Kasahata and Musashi-Takahagi. The Seibu Ōmiya tram line (西武大宮線), running between Ōmiya and Kawagoe since 1906, lost most of its passengers. It stopped in December 1940 and was abandoned in 1941.
From the 1965–1974 period, population along the line grew sharply, and so did the number of passengers. The line was still single track and not electrified. It ran one or two trains an hour, and three at rush hour. Around 1980 crowding like that on commuter lines was pointed out. On 17 May 1980 four cities and towns along the line (Ōmiya, Kawagoe, Hidaka and Hannō) set up a council to promote double tracks and electrification. On 30 September 1985 the whole line was electrified, and the section from Ōmiya to Nisshin became double track. Through running with the Saikyō Line (埼京線) began from Ōmiya to Kawagoe. The Saikyō Line's depot was built near Minami-Koya station on the Kawagoe Line, so the Kawagoe Line became a suburban commuter line, and more passengers used it. On 1 April 1987 East Japan Railway Company (JR East) took over the line when the national railway was split up, and freight service ended on the whole line. On 1 December 1989 the ATS-SN safety system was introduced between Kawagoe and Komagawa.
On 16 March 1996 through running began between Kawagoe and Komagawa, with the Hachiko Line (八高線) continuing from Komagawa to Hachiōji. On 1 December 2002 through running began via the Saikyō Line with the Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit (東京臨海高速鉄道) Rinkai Line. On 6 August 2005 the Tokyo area transport management system (ATOS) was introduced from Ōmiya to Musashi-Takahagi. On 2 October 2005 a commemorative train marked 20 years of electrification, and the 103 series ended regular service on the line. On 14 March 2009 Nishi-Ōmiya station opened. Daytime train passing on the single-track section moved from Sashiōgi and Kawagoe to Nishi-Ōmiya and Minami-Koya, and platforms 5 and 6 at Kawagoe were no longer used in the daytime.
On 14 March 2015 the daytime service between Kawagoe and Komagawa was cut from three trains an hour to two, along with the Itsukaichi and Ōme lines. Japanese Wikipedia says this was the first service cut on a Tokyo-area suburban line in the national railway years, apart from the wartime and postwar chaos. The 2019 timetable change introduced through trains to the Sōtetsu Line (相鉄線), but cut some morning and evening trains between Ōmiya and Kawagoe. On 12 October 2019 the East Japan typhoon of Reiwa 1 (令和元年東日本台風) damaged the Iruma River bridge between Nishi-Kawagoe and Matoba, and the ground around a pier was scoured. On 30 November 2019 early-morning Sōtetsu through trains began.
As Japanese Wikipedia describes it, most of the line is still single track, and daytime service is three round trips an hour. On 22 July 2020 the line marked its 80th anniversary with a commemorative head mark on trains, special announcements by conductors and decorated station signs. On 12 March 2022 one-man operation began between Kawagoe and Komagawa, and on part of the section from Minami-Koya to Kawagoe. On 2 March 2023 at 21:50 an up train and a down train entered the same single-track section between Sashiōgi and Minami-Koya and came within about 600 m of each other. Eleven trains were cancelled, and service resumed at 1 a.m. on 3 March 2023. On 1 July 2026 the line was reorganised from the branch system to business headquarters. The Ōmiya section came under Ōmiya business headquarters, and the Hachiōji section under Hachiōji business headquarters.
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Written by an AI from the line's history on Japanese Wikipedia, nothing else, and checked by a program for dates and numbers that are not in those facts. It can still be wrong. Adapted from Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0; this text is shared under the same licence.