Tobu Kinugawa Line


The Tobu Kinugawa Line is a 16.2 km long Japanese railway line from Shimo-Imaichi Station to Shin-Fujiwara Station in Nikkō, Tochigi. It is owned and operated by the private railway operator Tobu Railway.
At Shimo-Imaichi Station it connects with the Tobu Nikko Line. At Shin-Fujiwara Station it connects with the Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line. Some trains goes beyond the Aizu Kinugawa Line terminus at Aizu-Kōgen Oze-guchi Station onto the Aizu Railway Aizu Line.
The line runs surcharged, reserved-seat limited express services from and to Asakusa and Shinjuku in Tokyo.
The whole line is electrified at 1,500 V DC, but it is single tracked except for a 0.8 km double-tracked section at Kinugawa-Onsen Station.

Stations

All stations are located within Nikkō, Tochigi.

History

From 17 March 2012, station numbering was introduced on all Tobu lines, with Tobu Kinugawa Line stations adopting the prefix "TN" in orange.
A new station, called Tobu World Square Station, opened between and on 22 July 2017 to serve the nearby Tobu World Square theme park. From this date, Tobu World Square Station was numbered "TN-55", and the station numbers for to were adjusted on 21 April 2017, ahead of the opening.

Future developments

Steam-hauled services

Tobu has leased former JNR Class C11 steam locomotive C11 207 from JR Hokkaido for use on the 12.4 km section of the Kinugawa Line between and stations from 10 August 2017. Turntables will also be installed at and to turn the locomotive in service. A two-stall engine shed is also being constructed for the steam loco at Shimo-Imaichi.