The Yōrō Line (養老線) is a railway line of a Japanese private railway operator Yōrō Railway (養老鉄道). The line traverses the northeastern side of the Yōrō Mountains and connects Kuwana Station in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture and Ibi Station in Ibigawa, Gifu Prefecture. The northern portion of the Ōgaki section is locally and unofficially called the Ibi Line (揖斐線), as Ōgaki is a reversing station. Kintetsu Railway, one of largest private railway companies in Japan, owns the tracks and rolling stocks of the line whereon Yōrō Railway (a Class II railway), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kintetsu, operated trains until 2018.

Descriptions

History

Initially steam powered, the line was constructed as a Class 1 railway by Yōrō Railway and opened in 1913 between Yōrō, Ōgaki, and Ikeno. In 1919, the present line was completed with extensions from Yōrō to Kuwana and Ikeno to Ibi. In 1922, Yōrō Railway merged with Ibi River Electric (揖斐川電気) and the following year the line was electrified (1500 V DC). In 1928, its railway was transferred to Yōrō Electric Railway (養老電気鉄道). Since then, the operator has changed several times, namely to Ise Electric Railway (伊勢電気鉄道) in 1929, to Yōrō Dentetsu (養老電鉄) in 1936, to Sangu Kyūkō Railway (参宮急行電鉄) in 1940, to Kansai Kyūkō Railway (関西急行鉄道) in 1941, finally to Kintetsu, then known as Kinki Nippon railway (近畿日本鉄道), in 1944. Following typhoon damage in 1959, the Kintetsu Nagoya Line was regauged to, the Kintetsu standard which enables through trains to Osaka. However, the Yōrō Line remained at partly due to through freight trains to the Japanese National Railways (JNR) lines at Ōgaki and Kuwana, as the line provided a shortcut between these stations. With accumulating deficit, Kintetsu Corporation decided to split off the operation of the Yōrō Line in 2007. Local governments along the line made an agreement of financial aid to the Yōrō Railway until 2010.

Stations

All stations are unattended with the exceptions of Ōgaki, Nishi-Ōgaki, Ibi, Yōrō, Komano, Tado, and Kuwana.

Connections

At Kuwana At Ōgaki