Bisai Line

The line was not built by Meitetsu but by an independent company, the Bisai Railway (尾西鉄道), which took its name from the Bisai region of western Owari Province. The company was granted its railway licence on 21 October 1896, and on 3 April 1898 it opened its first section, between Yatomi and Tsushima. This 1898 opening is the foundation date from which Meitetsu's history as a network is usually traced.

From that first segment the Bisai Railway pushed steadily northward. The Tsushima–Morikami section opened on 17 February 1899, followed by Morikami–Hagiwara on 18 July 1899, and on 24 January 1900 the line was extended from Hagiwara to Ichinomiya, linking Tsushima with the growing textile town of Ichinomiya. The route thus came to span the plain between the Kiso River and the Owari heartland, serving an area then dominated by the wool and textile trades.

The railway expanded again in the following decade. On 4 August 1914 a section was opened north of Ichinomiya towards Tamanoi and Kisogawa-bashi, near the Kiso River, and on 1 May 1918 a freight-only branch was opened onward from Kisogawa-bashi to Kiso-Minato, a port on the river. These extensions gave the small company a freight outlet as well as its passenger trunk.

Electrification came in the early 1920s. The Kiso-Minato to Morikami portion was electrified at 600 V DC in 1922, and the wires were extended to Yatomi the following year, with the Yatomi–Tsushima section energised on 28 November 1923 to complete electrification of the line. By this time the Bisai Railway had become part of the wave of consolidation that created modern Meitetsu: on 1 August 1925 the company transferred its operations to Nagoya Railroad, and the route became the Bisai Line. Through later corporate reorganisations the operator's name passed from Nagoya Railroad to Meigi Railway and back to Nagoya Railroad, the form it keeps today.

Under Meitetsu the line's electrical system was modernised: in 1948 the voltage on the Yatomi–Tsushima section was raised from 600 V to 1,500 V DC, and this higher voltage was extended to the rest of the line in 1952, bringing it into line with the wider Meitetsu network. The freight role, meanwhile, declined with the spread of road transport, and the Tamanoi–Kiso-Minato section — the old freight line down to the river port — was closed on 25 November 1959.

As traffic grew in the postwar decades, parts of the busier southern half were given a second track: double-tracking of the Tsushima–Morikami section was carried out between 1967 and 1974, the work beginning with the Saya–Tsushima stretch in December 1967. These improvements reflected the line's settled role as a commuter feeder rather than a long-distance route.

Today the Bisai Line carries local and limited-express services across the Owari plain, threaded through Tsushima and Ichinomiya, and remains a working reminder of the Bisai Railway of 1898 — the seed from which Japan's third-largest private railway network grew.

• 189621 October: the Bisai Railway is granted its railway licence.
• 18983 April: the Bisai Railway opens its first section, Yatomi–Tsushima — the oldest line in the present-day Meitetsu network.
• 189917 February: Tsushima–Morikami opens; 18 July: Morikami–Hagiwara opens.
• 190024 January: the line is extended from Hagiwara to Ichinomiya.
• 19144 August: the line is extended north of Ichinomiya towards Tamanoi and Kisogawa-bashi (the latter since closed).
• 19181 May: a freight-only line is opened from Kisogawa-bashi to Kiso-Minato.
• 192210 July: the Kiso-Minato to Morikami section is electrified at 600 V DC.
• 1923Electrification is extended to Yatomi; the Yatomi–Tsushima section is energised on 28 November, completing electrification of the line.
• 19251 August: the Bisai Railway transfers its operations to Nagoya Railroad (Meitetsu); the route becomes the Bisai Line.
• 1948The voltage on the Yatomi–Tsushima section is raised from 600 V to 1,500 V DC.
• 1952The 1,500 V DC voltage is extended to the rest of the line.
• 195925 November: the Tamanoi–Kiso-Minato section (the old freight line) is closed.
• 196717 December: double-tracking begins with the Saya–Tsushima stretch, part of the 1967–1974 doubling of the Tsushima–Morikami section.