The Nikkō Line (日光線) is a local line run by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It runs from Utsunomiya Station in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, to Nikkō Station in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture. It is single track throughout.
History
Before the line opened, a trip from Tokyo to Nikkō took 4 hours by train to Utsunomiya, and then 5 hours by rickshaw. The Nikkō Railway Company (日光鉄道会社) planned a railway to Nikkō, and the Japan Railway (日本鉄道) took over the plan and built it. Several routes were studied before the route through Togami and Kanuma was chosen. The Utsunomiya to Imaichi section opened in June 1890, with Togami, Kanuma, Fumihasami and Imaichi stations. The Imaichi to Nikkō section opened on 1 August 1890, which completed the line. In 1893 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary visited Nikkō by the Japan Railway line from Ueno, and later wrote an account of the trip.
On 13 September 1902 Tsuruta station opened, and Togami station closed. On 1 November 1906 the Japan Railway was bought by the state and became a government railway, under the Railway Nationalisation Act (鉄道国有法). On 12 October 1909 the government's line naming made the Utsunomiya to Nikkō route the Nikkō Line.
In 1929 the Tobu Nikkō Line opened with a shorter route from Tokyo to Nikkō, and a fierce rivalry for tourists began. On 1 November 1929 Shimotsuke-Ōsawa station opened. In 1930 a shortcut from Sasame to Tsuruda was planned to save time, but it was dropped after protests led by the Utsunomiya Chamber of Commerce. On 1 April 1944 second-class cars were abolished on trains on the line under the emergency measures outline (決戦非常措置要綱). On 11 July 1950 heavy rain washed away 80 m of track bed between Tsuruta and Kanuma. A down train was stopped suddenly as it reached the site and escaped harm. In 1956 the National Railways began running the semi-express Nikkō from Ueno to Nikkō. The trip time fell to about 2 hours. On 22 September 1959 the whole line was electrified, and 157 series trains with limited-express-level fittings, called Nikkō type, were brought in to bring the trip from Tokyo to Nikkō to under 2 hours.
In 1960 Tobu introduced its 1720 series Deluxe Romance Car to compete. On 1 September 1963 ATS-S was installed on the whole line, and on 3 March 1970 centralised traffic control (CTC) was introduced. In 1969 the express Nikkō was changed from 157 series to 165 series trains. Tobu remained ahead for sightseeing traffic. On 15 November 1982 a timetable change linked to the opening of a Shinkansen line abolished the express Nikkō, so no regular express trains ran on the line. The line's trains then focused on local travel between Utsunomiya and Kanuma, Imaichi and Nikkō, and the 115 and 165 series were replaced with all-longitudinal-seat 107 series. On 1 February 1984 freight service on the whole line ended. On 1 April 1987 JR East took over the line when the national railways were split up and privatised. JR Freight became the second-class operator from Utsunomiya to Tsuruta, a distance of 4.8 km. On 1 June 1988 107 series trains began service.
Along the line at Utsunomiya Yōnan, between Utsunomiya and Tsuruta, is a plant of Fuji Heavy Industries (now SUBARU), which built railway cars. Its railway vehicles were sent out from Tsuruta station, until the company left the railway vehicle business and rail vehicle shipping ended in 2002. On 1 April 2003 JR Freight's second-class operation on the 4.8 km Utsunomiya to Tsuruta section ended. On 15 March 2008 the whole line became part of the Tokyo suburban area, and Suica was introduced. In March 2009, as part of events for the 120th anniversary of the line, the 107 series was repainted in a Western-style retro livery, and some station signs were renewed. In 2012 the second Nikkō station building marked 100 years. In October 2012 a special Shōnan Nikkō train ran from Odawara to Nikkō to mark it. On 15 March 2013 the 107 series ended service, and the 205 series 600 sub-series began on 16 March 2013.
On 1 April 2018 a sightseeing train called Iroha began service. On 12 March 2022 all trains became one-man operation using E131 series trains. A temporary rapid train with stops at Kanuma and Imaichi was set up to meet tourist demand in place of Iroha. Japanese Wikipedia gives a planned change for 1 July 2026: as the branch office system changes to business headquarters, the whole line will move from the Ōmiya branch office to the Tochigi 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.