Hanshin Kōbe Kōsoku Line

The line exists because of an unusual piece of post-war planning. In central Kobe the major private railways each terminated at their own separate stations without connecting to one another, and the city wished to modernise and increase the capacity of the urban transport that its tram network had carried. The Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway was conceived as a connecting railway joining the four electric railways serving the city — Keihanshin Express Electric Railway (now Hankyu), Hanshin, Sanyo and Kobe Electric Railway (now Kobe Dentetsu) — and was established on 2 October 1958 as a third-sector company in which Kobe City and the railways together held the shares. From the outset it adopted a distinctive operating model: rather than owning rolling stock and crews itself, it built and managed only the track, electrical equipment and station facilities, and had the connecting railways run their own trains and staff over its lines.

Authority for the east–west connecting line had been applied for in 1949 and granted in 1952, and the licence for the north–south line was transferred from Kobe Electric Railway in 1965. Construction of the East–West Line began in 1962 and of the North–South Line in 1966. Both lines opened together on 7 April 1968, when the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway began operations; on the East–West Line, Keihanshin Express, Hanshin and Sanyo started through services, while Kobe Dentetsu began running onto the North–South Line. To allow the through-running, Sanyo's surviving street-running section east of Nishidai was abolished, and because Hanshin and Keihanshin Express had still been electrified at 600 V, both railways raised their voltage to 1,500 V in late 1967 in preparation for the opening.

When the Railway Business Act took effect on 1 April 1987, replacing the older Local Railway Act, railway undertakings were divided into Category-1 operators that both own infrastructure and run trains, Category-2 operators that run trains over track they do not own, and Category-3 operators that own infrastructure only. The Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway had hoped to be licensed as a Category-1 operator, but the Ministry of Transport refused on the grounds that it borrowed both its vehicles and its crews. To preserve the existing arrangement, the company instead became a Category-3 operator while the four railways took Category-2 licences and entrusted the management of the track and stations back to it. The common line name the operators registered for their Category-2 services was "Kōbe Kōsoku Line," and the new structure formally began on 1 April 1988.

The line was severely damaged in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995, which put the whole route out of service. Repairs were carried out section by section over the following months: the stretch from Kōsoku-Kōbe to Motomachi reopened on 1 February, Shinkaichi to Kōsoku-Kōbe on 6 February, and Nishidai to Kōsoku-Nagata on 18 June, when the rebuilding of that section in tunnel was completed. Through services were fully restored on 13 August 1995 when the Kōsoku-Nagata to Shinkaichi section reopened, although trains at first passed Daikai without stopping; Daikai itself reopened on 17 January 1996, restoring service at every station.

In February 1998 a new through Limited Express service, the Chokutsū Tokkyū, began running between Hanshin's Umeda terminus and Sanyo-Himeji over the line, knitting the Hanshin and Sanyo networks into a single fast service across Kobe. A larger change came on 1 October 2010, when, as part of a reorganisation following the Hankyu–Hanshin merger, Sanyo gave up its Category-2 licence over the line and Hankyu abandoned its licence on the Shinkaichi–Nishidai section, ending the overlap between Category-2 operators except on the Hankyu–Hanshin shared stretch between Kōsoku-Kōbe and Shinkaichi. From that day the running of trains and the management of the stations on the Hanshin section passed to Hanshin, the public line name changed from "Tōzai Line" to each company's "Kōbe Kōsoku Line," and the station signage on the five Hanshin-managed stations was changed to Hanshin's own design.

Today the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway acts purely as an infrastructure-holding company, collecting fixed track-usage charges from the Category-2 operators much as the Nishi-Osaka Rapid Railway does for the Hanshin Namba Line, while Hanshin, Hankyu and Kobe Dentetsu run the trains. Station numbering was introduced on the Nishidai–Motomachi section in April 2014, with Hanshin stations numbered HS 33 to HS 39 in continuation of the Hanshin Main Line, and from a 2016 timetable revision the service-type displays and automatic announcements were brought into line with Hanshin's standard format. Although it is operated like any other Category-2/Category-3 line, the Kōbe Kōsoku Line keeps a fare system independent of the operators' other lines, a survival of the arrangements first set up in 1968.

• 194912 December: an application is filed for the licence to lay the east–west connecting line that would become the line.
• 195222 January: the licence to lay the east–west connecting line is granted.
• 19582 October: the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway Co., Ltd. is established as a third-sector company funded by Kobe City and the four connecting railways.
• 19625 March: construction of the East–West Line (the Hanshin Kōbe Kōsoku Line) begins.
• 196526 November: the licence for the North–South Line is transferred to the company from Kobe Electric Railway.
• 19687 April: the line opens as the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway East–West Line, Nishidai–Motomachi; through services with Hanshin, Keihanshin Express (now Hankyu) and Sanyo begin.
• 19871 April: the Railway Business Act takes effect; the company continues under transitional provisions while the new operating structure is worked out.
• 19881 April: the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway begins Category-3 operation; Hanshin and the other operators take Category-2 licences for Nishidai–Motomachi, registering the common name "Kōbe Kōsoku Line."
• 199517 January: the Great Hanshin earthquake puts the whole line out of service; it is reopened in stages (Kōsoku-Kōbe–Motomachi 1 Feb, Shinkaichi–Kōsoku-Kōbe 6 Feb, Nishidai–Kōsoku-Nagata 18 Jun) and fully restored on 13 August.
• 199617 January: Daikai Station reopens, restoring service at every station on the line.
• 199815 February: a through Limited Express (Chokutsū Tokkyū) begins between Hanshin Umeda and Sanyo-Himeji over the line.
• 20101 October: Sanyo gives up its Category-2 licence and Hankyu abandons the Shinkaichi–Nishidai section; running and station management on the Hanshin section pass to Hanshin and the line name becomes the "Kōbe Kōsoku Line."
• 2014April: station numbering (HS 33–HS 39, continuing from the Hanshin Main Line) is introduced on the Nishidai–Motomachi section.
• 201619 March: from a timetable revision, the service-type displays and automatic announcements are unified to Hanshin's standard format.