Annoya Line

The corridor the Annoya Line occupies was first reached by rail well before the line itself existed, as part of the older Kureha Line. The Toyama tram network had opened on 1 September 1913, built by the Toyama Electric Tramway, whose main line and branch line entered service that day; the company had held its inaugural general meeting on 30 May 1913. The route through the Annoya district came a few years later: on 22 November 1916 the Kureha Line opened from Yūbinkyoku-mae through Shōkonsha-ura and Annoya-chō to Kurehakōen, threading the area that the Annoya Line would one day serve. The stop then called Annoya-chō was renamed simply Annoya at some point before 1943.

Ownership of the whole tramway changed twice in its early decades. Hampered by weak finances, the Toyama Electric Tramway was handed to the city of Toyama on 1 July 1920, becoming a municipal tramway — the origin of the nickname "shiden" (city tram) that survives to this day. Then, on 1 January 1943, under wartime transport-coordination measures, the system passed to Toyama Chihō Railway, which has operated it ever since. The Second World War fell heavily on the network's western reaches: parts of the Kureha Line around the army hospital were suspended in May 1944 and January 1945 and not restored, and on 2 August 1945 the great Toyama air raid forced the suspension of the entire tram system.

The Annoya Line as a named line was created in the post-war rebuilding, by reorganising the surviving Kureha Line trackage. On 5 August 1952 — the same day the Sōgawa stop was renamed Marunouchi, the name it still bears — the Annoya Line opened between Marunouchi and Annoya, while the Kureha Line's Hatagomachi–Gokoku-jinja-mae–Annoya section was abolished. In effect the central, surviving portion of the old Kureha route through Annoya was recast as the new Annoya Line, with the Kureha Line name retained only for the western continuation. The western Kureha segment between Shin-Toyama-Eki-mae and Daigaku-mae reopened on 20 March 1954.

The line shared in the network's mid-century rhythms and its later contraction. Through the system's 1960s heyday the Toyama trams ran across a network of roughly eleven kilometres, with several operating patterns including a city-centre loop that had begun on 30 December 1949. The Annoya corridor was affected by natural events too: on 2 July 1969 heavy rain caused a partial collapse of the Toyama Great Bridge (Toyama Ōhashi), suspending the Kureha Line between Annoya and Shin-Toyama-Eki-mae until the bridge was repaired and the section reopened on 25 June 1970. The wider network shrank in the early 1970s — part of the Eastern Line closed in September 1972, and on 31 March 1973 the Branch Line's Nishichō–Hatagomachi–Marunouchi section was abolished, ending the original central loop.

The Annoya Line's most recent physical change came with the rebuilding of the Toyama Great Bridge. On 24 March 2012, in connection with the bridge's replacement, the adjacent Kureha Line section between Annoya and Shin-Toyama was double-tracked, the Annoya and Shin-Toyama stops were each relocated, and the Hiyodorijima signal post was abolished. These works tidied the western end of the Annoya–Kureha corridor immediately beyond the Annoya Line's own terminus.

The Annoya Line should be read as one piece of a broader modern remaking of tram travel in Toyama. When the Hokuriku Shinkansen reached an elevated Toyama Station on 14 March 2015, the Toyama Station North–South Connecting Line and the Toyama Station tram stop opened, and the former Toyama-Eki-mae stop was renamed Dentetsu-Toyama-Eki/Esta-mae. Station numbering across the tramway was introduced on 9 February 2019, giving the Annoya Line its C18–C20 numbers, and on 21 March 2020 through running between the city trams and the Toyamakō Line began across Toyama Station, the same day the Daigaku-mae terminus beyond Annoya was renamed Toyama-Daigaku-mae. Within that larger system the Annoya Line remains a compact central link binding Marunouchi to the Kureha Line and the university district beyond.

• 19131 September: the Toyama tram network opens, built by the Toyama Electric Tramway (inaugural general meeting 30 May 1913); the Main Line and Branch Line enter service.
• 191622 November: the Kureha Line opens from Yūbinkyoku-mae via Shōkonsha-ura and Annoya-chō to Kurehakōen, first reaching the Annoya district by rail.
• 19201 July: hampered by weak finances, the Toyama Electric Tramway is transferred to the city of Toyama, becoming a municipal tramway.
• 1943Before 1943 the Annoya-chō stop is renamed Annoya; on 1 January the whole tramway is transferred to Toyama Chihō Railway, its operator ever since.
• 19452 August: the great Toyama air raid forces the suspension of the entire tram network (western Kureha Line sections had already been suspended in 1944–1945 and were not restored).
• 19525 August: the Annoya Line (Marunouchi–Annoya) opens and the Kureha Line's Hatagomachi–Gokoku-jinja-mae–Annoya section is abolished; the same day Sōgawa is renamed Marunouchi.
• 195420 March: the western Kureha Line section between Shin-Toyama-Eki-mae and Daigaku-mae reopens.
• 19692 July: heavy rain partially collapses the Toyama Great Bridge; the Kureha Line's Annoya–Shin-Toyama-Eki-mae section is suspended.
• 197025 June: the Toyama Great Bridge is repaired and the Kureha Line's Annoya–Shin-Toyama-Eki-mae section reopens.
• 197331 March: the Branch Line's Nishichō–Hatagomachi–Marunouchi section is abolished, ending the original central loop.
• 201224 March: with the rebuilding of the Toyama Great Bridge, the adjacent Kureha Line's Annoya–Shin-Toyama section is double-tracked, the Annoya and Shin-Toyama stops are relocated, and the Hiyodorijima signal post is abolished.
• 201514 March: with the Hokuriku Shinkansen reaching an elevated Toyama Station, the Toyama Station North–South Connecting Line and Toyama Station tram stop open; Toyama-Eki-mae is renamed Dentetsu-Toyama-Eki/Esta-mae.
• 20199 February: station numbering is introduced across the tramway; the Annoya Line's stops are numbered C18 (Marunouchi), C19 (Suwagawara) and C20 (Annoya).
• 202021 March: through running between the city trams and the Toyamakō Line begins across Toyama Station; the Daigaku-mae stop beyond Annoya is renamed Toyama-Daigaku-mae.