The Sagami Line (相模線) is a main line run by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) (東日本旅客鉄道). It runs from Chigasaki Station in Chigasaki, Kanagawa, to Hashimoto Station in Midori ward, Sagamihara, Kanagawa.
History
The Sagami Railway (相模鉄道) was planned as a light railway in 1915. Its plan ran from Chigasaki through Samukawa to Aihara. On 26 June 1916 the promoters received a licence to build a light railway from Chigasaki to Aihara. The company was registered on 4 January 1918, and its first president was Okazaki Kyūjirō. The main purpose was to carry gravel from the Sagami River and to link the Tōkaidō Line (東海道線) with the Chūō Line (中央線) across central Kanagawa. On 22 July 1919 the company received permission to dig and sell gravel. Gravel was first dug by hand and carried by a narrow track to Chigasaki station. The first section, from Chigasaki to Kawasamukawa, opened on 28 September 1921.
A gravel branch from Samukawa to Shinomiya opened on 10 May 1922. The Great Kantō earthquake of 1 September 1923 stopped the line for about one month. On 28 March 1924 the company changed from a light railway to a railway under the Local Railway Act. On 1 April 1926 the line reached Kurami from Samukawa. On 15 July 1926 it reached Atsugi. On 29 April 1931 the Atsugi to Hashimoto section, 18.7 km long, opened, and the whole line was complete.
From the first half of fiscal 1931 the company made losses. In May 1932 it received a Railway Ministry subsidy for the Harahara to Hashimoto section. On 2 November 1935 the company began running Japan's first electric-drive diesel railcar, a streamlined KiHa 1000 series car built with Kisha Seizō (汽車製造会社), between Chigasaki and Hashimoto. On 15 January 1936 through trains to Hachioji began on the Yokohama Line (横浜線) of the Japanese National Railways. On 30 June 1941 Gotō Keita, president of the Tokyo Yokohama Electric Railway (東京横浜電鉄), also became president of the company, and the line came under Tokyu control. In April 1942 the Navy bought a Showa Sangyō factory, and military freight began on the line. On 1 April 1943 the line merged with the Jinchū Railway (神中鉄道) and took the name Sagami Line (相模線).
On 21 January 1944 the company agreed to sell the Chigasaki to Hashimoto and Samukawa to Shinomiya sections to the state. On 1 June 1944 the line was nationalised as a wartime purchase and placed under the railway bureau of the Ministry of Transport. On 1 June 1949 the Japanese National Railways (国鉄) was formed, and the line was run by it. On 1 October 1954 passenger service between Samukawa and Nishi-Samukawa ended, and there had been no passenger trains on that branch since about 1946. On 5 June 1958 passenger trains on the line became diesel only. On 15 November 1960 passenger service between Samukawa and Nishi-Samukawa resumed. In 1964 gravel mining was banned in the Sagami River. On 25 March 1966 steam locomotives were no longer used in service.
In December 1970 a national advisory report placed the line in the main-line group, although it was a loss-making, non-electrified line. In the 1980s the towns along the line became commuter towns. On 21 March 1987 Ebina station opened. On 1 April 1987 the national railway was split up, and the line passed to East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Japan Freight Railway took over the freight services. Electrification work began on 6 March 1989. On 16 March 1991 the whole line was electrified, and the 205 series 500 electric cars entered service.
On 1 October 1996 control of the line passed from the Tokyo head office to the Yokohama branch of JR East. On 5 and 6 May 1998 two old-type electric cars ran on the line under their own power for an event, the only time this was done. On 28 September 1998 the last regular freight train ran between Chigasaki and Atsugi. A freight licence was kept for special transports to Sagami Railway. On 27 February 2011 a special train marked 20 years since electrification ran from Ebina to Atami and Yokohama. On 14 March 2011 the whole line was closed for the day because of rolling power cuts after the earthquake of 11 March. The line had no substation of its own and relied on Tokyo Electric Power for its supply, so full restoration took about two weeks. Parts of the line reopened on 20 March and 28 March 2011.
During the COVID-19 emergency, doors on the line opened and closed automatically from 8 April 2020. From 21 December 2020 door buttons were restored at three stations for first and last trains. On 18 November 2021 the E131 series 500 cars entered service, and on 1 December 2021 door buttons were restored at all stations. On 25 February 2022 the 205 series 500 cars left service. On 12 March 2022 all trains became E131 one-man operation, and through running to the Yokohama Line ended. On 1 July 2026 the line was divided between two new business headquarters: the Shonan-Izu headquarters for Chigasaki to Iriya, and the Yokohama headquarters for Sōbudaishita to Hashimoto.
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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.