Chita New Line

Plans to push a railway into the scenic but thinly populated southern peninsula long predated the line itself. Before the war, the Aichi Electric Railway (a Meitetsu predecessor) obtained a licence in August 1912 for an “Utsumi Line” from Tokoname to Utsumi; local investors chartered the Chita Light Railway in May 1913; and the Railway Ministry surveyed an extension of its Taketoyo Line toward Morozaki. None came to fruition: southern Chita lacked the population density and industry to justify construction, and the Shōwa Depression and the deteriorating course of the Pacific War buried the proposals.

After the war the northern peninsula industrialised around the ports of Nagoya and Kinuura while the south kept its natural coastline, and in 1958 part of the area was designated within the Mikawa Bay Quasi-National Park. Meitetsu, which had been developing the south since the late 1950s and ferrying visitors there by bus from Kōwa, resolved to try a rail extension once more. Of three possible branch routes — from Tokoname, from Kōwa, or branching off the Kōwa Line midway — the mid-line “Noma route” was chosen because it promised more development of the peninsula’s centre, and on the western side a hillside alignment was preferred over a coastal one to allow housing estates.

The branch point itself shifted during planning. A licence filed in September 1966 and approved in 1967 envisaged branching at a new Taketoyo signal box between Chita-Taketoyo and Fuki, but land acquisition there proved difficult, and in December 1968 the junction was moved to Fuki Station instead. Construction approval for the first work section, Fuki to Bessoike, came in October 1969, and ground was broken at Fuki on 20 January 1970. Approval to build the remainder, from Bessoike on to Utsumi, followed in June 1971.

Construction was dogged by difficult ground. While boring the Fukaya Tunnel the work hit a flood that could not be drained, forcing a switch to cut-and-cover excavation and extra land purchases; the tunnel was finished in April 1973, about six months behind schedule. The first segment, Fuki to Kami Noma, finally opened on 30 June 1974, inaugurated with a reserved-seat express called “Young Beach.” The line then crept south one station at a time — reaching Chita Okuda on 6 July 1975 and Noma on 4 April 1976 — the piecemeal pace blamed in part on the oil crisis.

Carrying the line to Utsumi proved the hardest stretch. Local residents objected to a station on the shore, so Meitetsu relented and moved it inland to its present site, adding an Utsumi Tunnel; the relocation and revised terminal alignment were approved in May 1979. In June 1978, excavation for Utsumi Station unearthed the Mazukari shell midden, regarded as the oldest in the Tōkai region, and the archaeological dig further delayed the work. The Noma–Utsumi section finally opened on 5 June 1980, completing the line a full decade after the groundbreaking.

By completion the outlook for southern Chita had changed utterly. Most of the line’s catchment had been designated an urbanisation-control zone, making housing development all but impossible — only small estates such as Mihama-ryokuen were built — and a provisional Onoura Station, meant to open with Utsumi, was abandoned unbuilt. With ridership falling far short of forecasts, Meitetsu had set up a South Chita development office in 1977 and turned to tourism, opening South Chita Beach Land in April 1980 and Uchiumi Forest Park in October 1982, and introducing the 8800 “Panorama DX” sightseeing express in 1984. After Nihon Fukushi University relocated nearby in 1983, student commuting became the line’s mainstay.

Later years brought infrastructure and service changes. Centralised traffic control was extended over the line in 1986 and 1988, the Bessoike Signal Box was established in March 1986, and Mihama-ryokuen Station opened as an infill stop on 24 April 1987. The line accepted Tranpass farecards from 2007 and the manaca IC card from 2011, and on 18 March 2023 it converted to one-person operation, at which point the passing loops at Kami Noma and Noma were taken out of use. Today the Chita New Line is the only railway serving Minamichita, carrying local trains that connect at Fuki with Kōwa Line services toward Nagoya, with through limited expresses retained mainly in the mornings and evenings.

• 19665 September: Meitetsu files a local-railway licence application with the Ministry of Transport for a Taketoyo-signal-box–Utsumi line.
• 196714 December: the construction licence is approved.
• 1969October: with the junction moved to Fuki (from a planned Taketoyo signal box) in December 1968, construction of the first work section, Fuki–Bessoike, is approved.
• 197020 January: ground is broken at Fuki for the first section (Fuki–Bessoike, 3.1 km).
• 1971June: construction of the remaining Bessoike–Utsumi section is approved; work on the second section (Bessoike–Kami Noma, 2.9 km) begins in August.
• 1973April: the Fukaya Tunnel, delayed about six months by a flooding accident, is completed.
• 197430 June: the first section, Fuki–Kami Noma, opens; the reserved-seat express 'Young Beach' begins.
• 19756 July: the line is extended from Kami Noma to Chita Okuda.
• 19764 April: the line is extended from Chita Okuda to Noma. On 8 September, torrential rain from Typhoon No. 17 suspends the line; service is restored on the 10th.
• 1978June: the Mazukari shell midden, regarded as the oldest in the Tōkai region, is discovered during construction of Utsumi Station, delaying the extension.
• 197911 May: relocation of Utsumi Station and the revised terminal-section alignment are approved.
• 19805 June: the Noma–Utsumi section opens, completing the whole line; 'Young Beach' is replaced by the regularly scheduled 'Utsumi' service.
• 198618 March: the Bessoike Signal Box is established (CTC having reached Fuki–Bessoike on 17 March).
• 198724 April: Mihama-ryokuen Station opens as an infill stop.
• 201111 February: the manaca IC card is introduced at all stations (Tranpass having been introduced in 2007).
• 202318 March: one-person operation begins; the passing tracks at Kami Noma and Noma are taken out of use.