Arima Line

The line had its origins in a railway licence granted on 18 June 1923 to a company called the Arima Electric Railway, for a route from Kobe to the town of Arima. On 1 June 1924 the venture was renamed the Kobe Arima Electric Railway, and the operating company itself, the Kobe Arima Electric Railway Company, was formally established on 27 March 1926. Its purpose was to drive a line from the city up to Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest and most celebrated hot-spring towns, tucked into the mountains behind Kobe.

Building such a railway meant confronting the steep flank of the Rokkō range that walls off Arima from the coastal city, and the route was engineered to cope with severe mountain gradients — a defining characteristic that the company's rolling stock has been designed around ever since. The whole line opened on 28 November 1928, running from Minatogawa to a terminus then called Dentetsu-Arima, the present-day Arima Onsen Station. Barely three weeks later, on 18 December 1928, the company opened its companion route, the Sanda Line, from Karato (today's Arimaguchi) onward to Sanda, extending the network beyond the mountains.

In its early decades the line acquired and lost intermediate stations as the suburbs developed. A station called Shin-yu Yaba, between Hiyodorigoe and Suzurandai, was abolished on 15 February 1939, and the Arimaguchi–Arima Onsen stub gained a Shin-Arima station that was later suspended in 1965 and finally abolished on 28 February 2013. Suzurandai, near the line's mid-point, grew into the network's principal junction and remains the point where the Ao Line branches away.

The Second World War and its aftermath reshaped the parent company rather than the line itself. On 9 January 1947 the Kobe Arima Electric Railway absorbed the Miki Electric Railway and was renamed the Shin'yū-Miki Electric Railway, and on 30 April 1949 it took the name Kobe Electric Railway. The firm later adopted the styling now in everyday use, under which it is universally known as Shintetsu; it is today part of the Hankyu Hanshin holding group.

The line was progressively upgraded to handle growing commuter traffic between Kobe and its expanding northern suburbs. The mountain section was double-tracked in stages in the mid-1960s: the Suzurandai–Tanigami segment was duplicated on 26 January 1965, and the Tanigami–Arimaguchi segment on 1 March 1966, easing the bottleneck on the climb out of the city.

The most severe disruption in the line's history came with the Great Hanshin earthquake. On 17 January 1995 the quake put the entire line out of service. Restoration proceeded in stages over the following months: the Suzurandai–Arimaguchi section reopened on 19 January, Suzurandai–Shintetsu-Nagata on 7 February, and the Arimaguchi–Arima Onsen section on 31 March; through running was finally restored when the Shintetsu-Nagata–Minatogawa section reopened on 22 June 1995, bringing the whole line back into operation.

Today the Arima Line is a busy commuter artery linking central Kobe with Kita-ku and the Arima Onsen resort. At its city end almost all trains continue through onto the Shintetsu Kobe Kosoku Line to and from Shinkaichi, while at Arimaguchi nearly all services run through to or from Sanda on the Sanda Line; direct trains to Arima Onsen itself are limited mainly to peak hours, with a shuttle connecting Arimaguchi and Arima Onsen at other times. With the Sanda Line and the branching Ao Line, the route remains the backbone of the Kobe Electric Railway.

• 192318 June: a railway licence is granted to the Arima Electric Railway for a line from Kobe to the town of Arima.
• 19241 June: the venture is renamed the Kobe Arima Electric Railway.
• 192627 March: the Kobe Arima Electric Railway Company is formally established.
• 192828 November: the entire Arima Line opens from Minatogawa to Dentetsu-Arima (present-day Arima Onsen), 22.5 km, 1,067 mm gauge, electrified at 1,500 V DC.
• 192818 December: the companion Sanda Line opens from Karato (present-day Arimaguchi) to Sanda, extending the network beyond the mountains.
• 193915 February: Shin-yu Yaba station, between Hiyodorigoe and Suzurandai, is abolished.
• 19479 January: the Kobe Arima Electric Railway absorbs the Miki Electric Railway and is renamed the Shin'yū-Miki Electric Railway.
• 194930 April: the company is renamed the Kobe Electric Railway.
• 196526 January: the Suzurandai–Tanigami section is double-tracked.
• 19661 March: the Tanigami–Arimaguchi section is double-tracked, easing the bottleneck on the climb out of the city.
• 199517 January: the Great Hanshin earthquake puts the entire line out of service.
• 199519 January – 22 June: the line reopens in stages — Suzurandai–Arimaguchi (19 Jan), Suzurandai–Shintetsu-Nagata (7 Feb), Arimaguchi–Arima Onsen (31 Mar) — with through running fully restored when Shintetsu-Nagata–Minatogawa reopens on 22 June.
• 201328 February: Shin-Arima station (between Arimaguchi and Arima Onsen, suspended in 1965) is abolished.