The Mito Line (水戸線) is a trunk line run by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It runs from Oyama Station in Oyama city, Tochigi Prefecture, to Tomobe Station in Kasama city, Ibaraki Prefecture.
History
The Mito Railway (水戸鉄道) opened the Oyama to Mito section on 16 January 1889. It was the first railway to reach Mito. Yūki, Shimodate, Iwase, Kasama, Ōtamachi, Uchihara and Mito stations opened with it. On 16 April 1889 Isayama station opened. On 25 May 1889 Isayama was renamed Kawashima, and Ōtamachi was renamed Shishido. On 1 December 1890 Fukuhara station opened. On 1 March 1892 the Mito Railway was bought by Nippon Railway (日本鉄道) and became one of its branches.
On 4 January 1894 Akatsuka station opened. In 1895 the coastal line (now the Jōban Line) was extended from Tsuchiura to Tomobe, and Tomobe station opened on 1 July 1895. On 25 September 1895 Shinji station opened. On 8 May 1898 Inada station opened. On 1 April 1904 Haguro opened as a freight station. On 1 November 1906 Nippon Railway was nationalised under the Railway Nationalisation Act and became a government railway. On 12 October 1909 the national railway line names were set. Oyama to Tomobe became the Mito Line, named after the Mito Railway, and Tomobe to Mito became part of the Jōban Line.
On 20 July 1910 passenger service began at Haguro. On 15 December 1935 diesel railcars began running between Oyama and Shimodate. On 1 December 1937 Higashi-Yūki station opened, and it was closed on 10 August 1941. On 23 August 1950 a shortcut opened between Mamada and Yūki, built within the grounds of Oyama station. It was used mainly by freight trains and by express trains such as the Tsukubane. A dead section was set up east of the shortcut, so test runs of AC/DC cars built by Tokyu Car (東急車輛) were held there. After the November 1986 timetable change the shortcut was effectively unused, and its equipment was removed in 2006. On 1 April 1955 Odabayashi station opened, and Higashi-Yūki service resumed.
On 20 September 1960 through trains to the Tsukuba Line began, running from Tsuchiura through Iwase to Oyama. On 1 October 1962 the quasi-express Tsukubane began running from Ueno to Mooka and Mito via this line. On 1 June 1963 the steam-hauled trains ended, and all trains became diesel. On 19 March 1965 the Tsukuba Line through trains were abolished. In March 1966 the Tsukubane was upgraded to an express. On 1 February 1967 the whole line was electrified, and electric trains began running on 20 March. On 25 February 1970 centralised traffic control (CTC) was introduced across the whole line.
On 15 November 1982 passenger coach trains were ended altogether. On 14 March 1985 the express Tsukubane was abolished. On 1 November 1986 through running to Kiryū on the Ryōmō Line (両毛線) began.
On 1 April 1987 the national railway was split up and privatised, and East Japan Railway Company (JR East) took over the line. Japan Freight Railway became the second-class operator for the whole line. On 13 March 1988 a timetable change ended through trains to the Mooka Line. On 20 June 1988 Tamato and Yamato stations opened. On 15 February 1990 the automatic route control device (PRC) was introduced. From 28 to 30 November 1992 service was suspended between Kasama and Tomobe while level crossings were improved. In 1998 through running with the Ryōmō Line was ended. On 2 December 2000 the Annaka freight service was changed to run via the Musashino Line, and regular freight trains ended. On 8 July 2005 Yamato station began stopping all trains. On 16 January 2009 ATS-P came into use across the whole line. On 14 March 2009 departure melodies were introduced at each station from Odabayashi to Shishido, and the broadcasting equipment was renewed.
On 11 March 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災) damaged the line, and the whole line was suspended. On 7 April 2011 the whole line resumed on a provisional timetable, and on 17 April 2011 it returned to the normal timetable. On 15 March 2014 Odabayashi and Higashi-Yūki, where some trains had passed through, became stops for all trains. On 1 December 2017 button-operated doors all year round were introduced on E531 series trains only. On 13 March 2021 all trains became one-man operation.
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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.