The Ome Line (青梅線) is a main line of East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It runs from Tachikawa Station in Tachikawa city, Tokyo, to Okutama Station in Okutama town, Nishitama District.
History
The line began as the Ome Railway (青梅鉄道). It was first built mainly to carry limestone. On 21 June 1892 the company received a railway licence for a route from Tachikawa village to Ome town. The Tachikawa to Ome section opened on 19 November 1894. It had a narrow 762 mm gauge, with stations at Haijima, Fussa, Hamura, Kozaku and Ome. A freight branch to Hinatawada opened on 28 December 1895, and passenger trains began running there on 10 March 1898. On 18 February 1908 the whole line was changed to the standard 1067 mm gauge. The Tachikawa to Futakoo section was electrified at 1200 V DC on 25 April 1923. The company was renamed Ome Electric Railway on 3 May 1929. On 1 September 1929 the line was extended from Futakoo to Mitake, and it was electrified from the start.
In 1931 the Nanbu Railway opened a freight branch from Tachikawa to Nishi-Tachikawa. The Itsukaichi Railway had first planned this link, but the Nanbu Railway completed it. It let freight run without going through the national railways. On 1 April 1944 the government bought and nationalised the Ome Electric Railway and the unfinished Okutama Electric Railway line during the war. The line became the Ome Line. On 1 July 1944 the line was extended from Mitake to Hikawa, now Okutama Station, and the full line opened.
After the war, through trains began to run from Ome to Tokyo in the morning, in the up direction only, from 27 June 1949. From 1 October 1950 an evening train ran from Tokyo to Ome. Nakagami and Haijima were double-tracked in 1946. On 19 February 1952 four freight wagons parked at Kozaku Station rolled downhill to Fussa and crashed into wagons standing on a siding. The wagons were badly damaged. The Showamae station was renamed Akishima on 1 October 1959. Double-track work followed between Haijima and Fussa in 1961, between Fussa and Kozaku in December 1961, and between Kozaku and Higashi-Ome in May 1962. On 1 October 1967 the Higashi-Kawai signal station opened. In 1971 the line got centralised train control (CTC) and automatic route control (ARC) across the whole line. Eight stations became unstaffed, and the Ome electric car depot was closed and merged into the Toyoda depot.
On 25 November 1976 the 103 series began service on the line. On 15 November 1982 the 201 series began through trains to the Chuo Line, and EF64 electric locomotives began freight work. In March 1983 the ED16 electric locomotives ended their regular freight work, and EF64 and EF15 locomotives took over. Freight trains began using EF64 1000 series locomotives on 2 April 1984. On 1 April 1987 the national railways were split up. JR East took over the passenger line, and JR Freight became the second-class operator for the whole line. On 24 August 1988 a trolley train called Bōken-ō ran between Hachioji and Okutama. On 1 December 1988 the Ome Express began running from Tokyo to Ome.
On 16 March 1991 the Ohayo Liner Ome and Home Liner Ome began running between Shinjuku and Ome. In October 1995 the first limited express train, Holiday Express Okutama-Kamakura, ran on the line. On 16 March 1996, when the Hachiko Line was electrified, 209 series and 103 series trains began running through to Tachikawa. This ended in November 1999. On 1 April 1998 the JR East Hachioji branch took over management of the whole line from the Tokyo office. The limestone freight trains made their last run on 13 August 1998. On 25 March 1999 JR Freight's second-class operation between Haijima and Okutama ended. On 1 December 2001 the Ohayo Liner and Home Liner were renamed Ome Liner, and 201 series trains replaced the 103 series on that service. The 103 series ended its service on 13 April 2002. On 1 July 2002 Ome Liner was replaced by E257 series trains.
On 26 December 2006 E233 series trains began running on Chuo Line through services between Tachikawa and Ome. On 18 March 2007 E233 series trains came to the whole line. On 19 February 2008 the 201 series trains on the line were all replaced by E233 series. From 9 March 2008 ATS-P train protection was used between Ome and Okutama. On 14 October 2010 the 201 series service ended. On 23 July 2011 semi-automatic door operation was introduced at all stations to save power and improve air conditioning. On 14 February 2017 the Tokyo area traffic management system (ATOS) was introduced. On 14 September 2018 the Ome to Okutama section was given the nickname Tokyo Adventure Line. On 16 March 2019 the Ome Liner was ended, and the limited express Oume was introduced.
On 9 April 2020 all stations switched to automatic door operation for the first time in 12 years, to improve ventilation during measures against the new coronavirus. On 12 March 2022 the through running with the Hachiko Line ended as the Hachiko and Kawagoe lines moved to one-person operation. On 15 October 2022 track work at Ome Station, for a Green car platform, stopped service between Kawabe and Hinatawada for the whole day, with buses taking passengers instead. On 28 January 2023 wrapped trains began running on the Tokyo Adventure Line, and one-person operation began between Ome and Okutama on 18 March 2023. On 13 October 2024 12-car trains, including two double-decker Green cars, began running between Tachikawa and Ome. On 15 March 2025 Green car service began, and the Oume limited express was ended. On 1 July 2026 the Tachikawa to Nishi-Tachikawa section moved to the Tachikawa business headquarters, and the Higashi-Nakagami to Okutama section moved to the Hachioji 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.