Fujikoshi Line

The section that is now the Fujikoshi Line was originally built by the Toyama Keiben Railway (Toyama Light Railway), the predecessor of the later Toyama Railway. The company was granted a railway licence on 6 March 1913 for a line from the government Toyama station toward Ōsawano-mura in Kaminikawa District, and on 6 December 1914 it opened the 17.6-kilometre route from Toyama Station (today Dentetsu-Toyama) to Sasazu — the line that would later become the Sasazu Line. On 24 October 1915 the firm changed its name to the Toyama Railway.

Business deteriorated after the national Takayama Main Line opened along a parallel corridor, and on 20 April 1933 the Toyama Railway was dissolved after receiving government compensation. The southern part of its route, from Horikawa-shin Station (the present Minami-Toyama) to Sasazu, was abandoned. The remaining Toyama–Horikawa-shin section, which ran along the eastern edge of central Toyama and did good business carrying freight from lineside factories and connecting with the Toyama prefectural railway (today the Kamidaki Line), was transferred to the newly established Funan Railway.

The line then passed through a series of wartime mergers. In 1937 the Funan Railway came under the Toyama Electric Railway, a company set up to consolidate transport in the eastern part of the prefecture, and on 1 December 1941 the Funan Railway formally handed its line over to the Toyama Electric Railway, where it became the Funan Line. On 1 January 1943 the great wartime consolidation of Toyama transport, carried out under the Land Transport Business Coordination Act, created the Toyama Chihō Railway, which absorbed these lines together with the former prefectural railway.

Electrification and the modern station pattern took shape in the years around the war. Horikawa-shin Station was renamed Minami-Toyama on 11 June 1943, and the Inarimachi–Minami-Toyama section was electrified at 1,500 V DC on 20 June 1943. On 1 June 1946 the Dentetsu-Toyama–Inarimachi section was also electrified, and through running toward Awasuno began. Ōizumi Station opened on 26 September 1952, and on 12 April 1958 Yamuro Station was renamed Fujikoshi after the lineside manufacturer.

The Fujikoshi Line acquired its present identity on 1 April 1969, when a route-naming change split off the Inarimachi–Minami-Toyama section and designated it the Fujikoshi Line. Centralised traffic control was introduced on 10 December 1977, and on 1 April 1996 one-man operation began on the Fujikoshi Line together with the Kamidaki Line. On 16 March 2019 a new station, Sakaemachi, opened between Inarimachi and Fujikoshi, and station numbering was introduced across all of the line's stations.

Today every train on the line is an all-stations local service, and trains run through from Dentetsu-Toyama Station on the Main Line; the Fujikoshi Line and the Kamidaki Line are operated as a single route marketed as the “Fujikoshi-Kamidaki Line.” Services run roughly every 30 minutes during the morning and evening peaks and about hourly at other times, with a running time of about 12 minutes from Dentetsu-Toyama to Minami-Toyama and 36 to 39 minutes through to Iwakuraji at the far end of the Kamidaki Line.

• 19136 March: the Toyama Keiben Railway (Toyama Light Railway) is granted a railway licence for a line from Toyama station toward Ōsawano-mura in Kaminikawa District.
• 19146 December: the Toyama Keiben Railway opens the 17.6 km Toyama (now Dentetsu-Toyama)–Sasazu line, the route that later becomes the Sasazu Line.
• 191524 October: the Toyama Keiben Railway is renamed the Toyama Railway.
• 193320 April: the Toyama Railway is dissolved; Horikawa-shin (now Minami-Toyama)–Sasazu is abandoned and Toyama–Horikawa-shin is transferred to the newly formed Funan Railway.
• 19411 December: the Funan Railway transfers its line to the Toyama Electric Railway, where it becomes the Funan Line.
• 19431 January: the wartime consolidation of Toyama transport under the Land Transport Business Coordination Act creates the Toyama Chihō Railway; on 11 June Horikawa-shin Station is renamed Minami-Toyama, and on 20 June the Inarimachi–Minami-Toyama section is electrified at 1,500 V DC.
• 19461 June: the Dentetsu-Toyama–Inarimachi section is electrified and through running toward Awasuno begins.
• 195226 September: Ōizumi Station opens.
• 195812 April: Yamuro Station is renamed Fujikoshi after the lineside manufacturer.
• 19691 April: a route-naming change splits off the Inarimachi–Minami-Toyama section and designates it the Fujikoshi Line.
• 197710 December: centralised traffic control (CTC) is introduced on the line.
• 19961 April: one-man operation is introduced on the Fujikoshi Line together with the Kamidaki Line.
• 201916 March: Sakaemachi Station opens between Inarimachi and Fujikoshi, and station numbering is introduced across all stations.