Aboshi Line

A railway linking Shikama and Aboshi had been proposed long before the present line was built. In 1927 the Haiden Railway applied to construct such a route, but the application was rejected by the Minister of Railways, who did not recognise its necessity given the existing transport situation. The idea of reaching the Aboshi area by rail therefore lay dormant for another decade.

The line is closely bound up with the very name of its operator. The title "Sanyo Electric Railway" first appeared in 1928, during the company's Ujigawa Electric era, as an alternative name used when applying for a licence to build a railway between Shikama and Okayama. That application was rejected because the Railway Ministry already planned a competing Une–Akō–Saidaiji route, which opened after the war as the Akō Line. Even so, the ambition of pushing west toward Aioi, Akō and ultimately the Okayama area persisted, and the Aboshi Line was for a time conceived as the first step of that larger scheme.

Because the Shikama–Akō stretch did not compete with the ministry's planned line, extension toward the west continued to be studied, and in 1936 a fresh licence application was made for a line from Dentetsu-Shikama to Aioi (Naba). Of this, the Dentetsu-Shikama–Aboshi portion was singled out: the decision to build a Nippon Steel works and the rapid siting of factories in the area made the line not only desirable but urgent, and a licence for it was granted in 1937, while the remaining Aboshi–Aioi portion was rejected. The licence, issued on 25 May 1937, was recorded for a gas-powered railway between Dentetsu-Shikama and Aboshi.

Construction of the Dentetsu-Shikama–Aboshi line proceeded in stages from October 1940, just before the outbreak of war with the United States, through to July 1941. The first section, from Dentetsu-Shikama to Yumesakigawa, opened on 15 October 1940. It was extended to the provisional Nittetsu-mae station on 23 December 1940; on 27 April 1941 the line reached Dentetsu-Temma and the provisional station was relocated and renamed Hirohata; and on 6 July 1941 the final section from Dentetsu-Temma to Dentetsu-Aboshi opened, completing the through line. Because the planned right-of-way fell within a land-readjustment district, negotiations with Hyōgo Prefecture over its alignment and construction took time, and the line was built as single track on land secured for a double track — which is why every station on the line can still be used for trains to pass, and a double-track formation is reserved along almost its whole length.

Plans to push beyond Aboshi resurfaced only after the war. In 1952 a licence was granted for a 25.2-kilometre line from Aboshi in Himeji to Kamikariya in Akō, even though the Japanese National Railways' Akō Line between Aioi and Banshū-Akō had already opened the previous year; the granting of a parallel licence reflected the severe post-war shortage of fuel, which made bus operation difficult. A surviving plan held at a Himeji community centre shows a route branching just short of Sanyo-Aboshi and running north-west along the Ibo River toward Tatsuno and Aioi. Technical difficulties such as bridging the Ibo River, the large sums of capital required, and the subsequent rapid recovery of fuel supplies all sapped the rationale for the extension, and the project was soon suspended; with the lapse of the Aboshi–Aioi licence in the autumn of 1971, the plan to extend west of Aboshi disappeared for good.

On 7 April 1991 the through trains that had run from the line onto the Main Line toward Sanyo-Himeji were discontinued, and three stations were renamed at the same time: Dentetsu-Shikama became Shikama, Dentetsu-Temma became Sanyo-Temma, and Dentetsu-Aboshi became Sanyo-Aboshi. The line was severely affected by the Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995, which left the whole route out of service, but it reopened the very next day, on 18 January 1995. One-man operation began on 16 June 1995, of the urban type in which fares are not collected on board, so the trains carry no fare boxes or fare displays.

In more recent years the line has continued to modernise. Station numbering was introduced across Sanyo Electric Railway on 1 April 2014, with the Aboshi Line's stations numbered in the SY series. New 6000 series three-car electric multiple units entered service on the line on 17 May 2016, and on 28 February 2019 the 3200-series cars that had long been the line's mainstay were withdrawn, after which at least one daytime working came to be operated by the 6000 series. Today the Aboshi Line runs only between Shikama and Sanyo-Aboshi as a self-contained shuttle, all of its trains stopping at every station, with services every twelve minutes in the weekday peaks and every fifteen minutes at other times.

• 1927The Haiden Railway applies to build a railway linking Shikama and Aboshi, but the Minister of Railways rejects the application as unnecessary given the existing transport situation.
• 193725 May: a railway licence is granted for the Dentetsu-Shikama–Aboshi line (recorded as gas-powered), the urgency reinforced by the decision to build a Nippon Steel works; the proposed Aboshi–Aioi extension is rejected.
• 194015 October: the first section, Dentetsu-Shikama to Yumesakigawa, opens.
• 194023 December: the line is extended from Yumesakigawa to the provisional Nittetsu-mae station.
• 194127 April: the line reaches Dentetsu-Temma; the provisional station is relocated and renamed Hirohata.
• 19416 July: the final section, Dentetsu-Temma to Dentetsu-Aboshi, opens, completing the through line.
• 1952A licence is granted for a 25.2 km westward extension from Aboshi (Himeji) to Kamikariya (Akō), reflecting the post-war fuel shortage; the line is never built.
• 1971Autumn: with the lapse of the Aboshi–Aioi licence, the long-standing plan to extend the line west of Aboshi disappears.
• 19917 April: through trains to Sanyo-Himeji on the Main Line are discontinued; Dentetsu-Shikama, Dentetsu-Temma and Dentetsu-Aboshi are renamed Shikama, Sanyo-Temma and Sanyo-Aboshi.
• 199517 January: the Great Hanshin earthquake puts the whole line out of service; it reopens the next day, 18 January.
• 199516 June: one-man operation begins (urban type, with no on-board fare collection).
• 20141 April: station numbering is introduced across Sanyo Electric Railway, with Aboshi Line stations numbered in the SY series.
• 201617 May: new 6000 series three-car EMUs enter service on the line.
• 201928 February: the 3200-series cars, long the line's mainstay, are withdrawn; at least one daytime working is thereafter operated by the 6000 series.