Keifuku Arashiyama Main Line

The line was the creation of the Arashiyama Electric Tram Railway (嵐山電車軌道), a company established in August 1907 by the Kobe-based Kawasaki financial combine. Its president was Matsukata Gorō, the fifth son of the statesman Matsukata Masayoshi, and one of its directors was Kawasaki Yoshitarō, the adopted son of the industrialist Kawasaki Shōzō, founder of the Kawasaki Shipyard. The company had obtained its tramway licence on 17 December 1906. Alongside the railway it also ran an electricity-supply business, a common combination for the interurban tram promoters of the late Meiji period.

The tramway opened on 25 March 1910, linking a terminus then called Kyoto Station — the present Shijō-Ōmiya — with Arashiyama. The first services were worked by twenty wooden single-truck cars built by the Kawasaki Shipyard. The line gave central Kyoto a direct connection to Arashiyama, long one of the city's most celebrated scenic and temple districts. Its electricity-supply arm, however, soon found itself in direct competition with the larger Kyoto Electric Lamp Company (Kyoto Dentō), and in 1918 the Arashiyama Electric Tram Railway was absorbed into that company, the tramway thereafter being run under a dedicated Arashiyama Railway Division.

Under Kyoto Dentō the line was steadily upgraded. The section from Taishi-mae to Arashiyama was doubled in February 1925, and full double-tracking of the whole route was completed in December 1928. A run of station renamings accompanied the changes, including the rechristening of the Kyoto Station terminus as Shijō-Ōmiya on 16 November 1925. In June 1935 the Kyoto flood put the Kamiya and Tenjin rivers over their banks and closed the entire line, which reopened on 3 July. The decisive change of ownership came on 2 March 1942, when the line was transferred to the newly consolidated Keifuku Electric Railroad, the operator it has retained ever since.

In the post-war decades the line settled into the compact tram operation recognisable today, running mostly as single cars over the full Shijō-Ōmiya–Arashiyama route. Rokūōin Station was added in 1956, while the little-used Mibu Station near the eastern end was closed in 1971. One-man operation was phased in from December 1982 and extended to all-day running by August 1987. A flat fare of ¥200 for adults was introduced on 1 July 2002, together with the Surutto KANSAI stored-fare card; nationwide IC-card interoperability followed on 23 March 2013. The line forms half of the two-route Arashiyama Line network, the other half being the Kitano Line, which branches off at Katabiranotsuji (A8); early-morning services run through from there to the Kitano Line's Kitano-Hakubaichō terminus.

From the 2006 financial year Keifuku pursued a "Randen Brush-Up Project" to sharpen the line's identity. On 19 March 2007 the Arashiyama Main Line and Kitano Line were unified under the "Randen" name, seven stations were renamed after nearby tourist landmarks, and station numbering and line colours were formally adopted across the whole system. The previously isolated tram network gained a connection to the Kyoto Municipal Subway when its Tōzai Line was extended to Uzumasa-Tenjingawa in January 2008; to meet it, Keifuku opened Randen-Tenjingawa Station on 28 March 2008. From May 2011 the company also began carrying Yamato Transport parcels by tram, dedicating one car of a two-car set to the courier's takkyūbin service.

Today the Arashiyama Main Line is firmly established as one of Kyoto's signature tourist rides, threading sightseers through the western suburbs to Arashiyama and to the World Heritage temples and shrines along its course. Daytime trains run every ten minutes, six an hour, swelling to two-car formations at the busiest periods; a timetable revision on 26 August 2023 expanded two-car running to all peak services while thinning rush-hour frequencies. As Kyoto's only remaining streetcar, the modest 7.2-kilometre "Randen" endures both as everyday local transport and as a nostalgic gateway to the Arashiyama district.

• 190617 December: the Arashiyama Electric Tram Railway is granted its tramway licence.
• 1907August: the Arashiyama Electric Tram Railway is established by the Kobe Kawasaki financial combine (president Matsukata Gorō, director Kawasaki Yoshitarō).
• 191025 March: the Arashiyama Electric Tram Railway opens between Kyoto Station (now Shijō-Ōmiya) and Arashiyama, worked by twenty wooden single-truck Kawasaki Shipyard cars.
• 19182 April: the Kyoto Electric Lamp Company (Kyoto Dentō) absorbs the Arashiyama Electric Tram Railway, placing the line under its Arashiyama Railway Division.
• 1925February: the Taishi-mae–Arashiyama section is double-tracked; on 16 November the Kyoto Station terminus is renamed Shijō-Ōmiya.
• 1928December: full double-tracking of the line is completed.
• 193529 June: the Kyoto flood overflows the Kamiya and Tenjin rivers and closes the whole line; service resumes on 3 July.
• 19422 March: the line is transferred to the Keifuku Electric Railroad, its operator ever since.
• 195627 November: Rokūōin Station opens.
• 197111 July: Mibu Station, between Shijō-Ōmiya and Sai, is closed.
• 198220 December: one-man operation is introduced for early-morning and late-night services.
• 198717 August: all-day one-man operation begins.
• 20021 July: a flat fare (adult ¥200, child ¥100) is introduced, together with the Surutto KANSAI card.
• 200719 March: the Arashiyama Main Line and Kitano Line are unified under the "Randen" name; seven stations are renamed and station numbering and line colours are formally introduced system-wide.
• 200828 March: Randen-Tenjingawa Station opens, connecting with the Kyoto Municipal Subway Tōzai Line (extended to Uzumasa-Tenjingawa that January).
• 2011May: Keifuku begins carrying Yamato Transport parcels (takkyūbin) by tram, dedicating one car of a two-car set.
• 201323 March: nationwide IC-card interoperability begins on the Arashiyama and Kitano lines.
• 202326 August: a timetable revision extends two-car operation to all peak services while reducing rush-hour frequencies.