Hokuriku Main Line

The line began as a state-built railway pushing inland from the port of Tsuruga. On 10 March 1882 the first section opened between Nagahama and Yanagase, together with a branch from the tunnel mouth down to Tsuruga Port (then Kanegasaki) Station. Crossing the Yanagase ridge required a long bore, and only when the Yanagase Tunnel was completed on 16 April 1884 was the Nagahama–Tsuruga route opened throughout. The southern end was joined to the national network when the Maibara–Nagahama section opened on 1 July 1889.

From Tsuruga the railway was then carried steadily north up the coast. The Tsuruga–Fukui section opened on 15 July 1896, at which point the route was named the "Hokuriku Line." It reached Komatsu in 1897, Kanazawa on 1 April 1898, Takaoka on 1 November 1898 and Toyama on 20 March 1899. The advance up the Niigata coast followed in stages — Toyama to Uozu in 1908, on to Tomari in 1910, and through Itoigawa — until the final link was placed and the whole Maibara–Naoetsu line was completed on 1 April 1913. On 12 October 1909 the government's line-naming ordinance had formally renamed the route the Hokuriku Main Line.

The mid-twentieth century brought an ambitious campaign of tunnelling and realignment that replaced the line's hardest mountain sections with modern alignments. In 1957 a new line was built between Kinomoto, Ōmi-Shiotsu and Tsuruga, and the steeply graded original alignment over the Yanagase Pass was split off as the separate Yanagase Line, which was then closed. The greatest single work was the 13,870-metre Hokuriku Tunnel between Tsuruga and Imajō, opened on 10 June 1962, which let the railway abandon the tortuous original route via Sugitsu. Further deviations through long tunnels followed on the Niigata side, and with the rerouting of the Uramoto–Tanihama–Naoetsu section in 1969 the line was finally double-tracked and electrified throughout.

Electrification proceeded in tandem with these works, and the Hokuriku Main Line became a showcase for through running across different electrical systems. The northern reaches were electrified at 20 kV AC, beginning around the new Kinomoto–Tsuruga line in 1957 and extending up the coast, while the section nearest Maibara was electrified at 1,500 V DC. To bridge the two systems, dual-voltage trains ran across the AC/DC boundary, which over the years was shifted southward — the Tamura–Nagahama stretch was converted from AC to DC on 14 September 1991, and the Nagahama–Tsuruga stretch on 24 September 2006, extending direct DC commuter services from the Kansai region as far as Tsuruga. When Japanese National Railways was divided and privatised on 1 April 1987, the entire Maibara–Naoetsu line passed to JR West.

The opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen then dismantled the conventional trunk line in two great stages. When the Shinkansen was extended from Nagano to Kanazawa on 14 March 2015, the parallel conventional line from Kanazawa to Naoetsu — some 177.2 kilometres — was separated from JR West and divided among three third-sector operators: the IR Ishikawa Railway took the Kanazawa–Kurikara section, the Ainokaze Toyama Railway the Kurikara–Ichiburi section through Toyama Prefecture, and the Echigo Tokimeki Railway the Ichiburi–Naoetsu section in Niigata. With the further extension of the Shinkansen from Kanazawa to Tsuruga on 16 March 2024, the remaining Tsuruga–Kanazawa section — about 130.7 kilometres — was likewise separated, passing to Hapi-Line Fukui between Tsuruga and Daishōji and to the IR Ishikawa Railway between Daishōji and Kanazawa.

These transfers reduced the Hokuriku Main Line to the single Maibara–Tsuruga section it occupies today. What remains is a busy but modest 45.9-kilometre line where the Kansai-region 1,500 V DC network meets Tsuruga, the southern terminus of the through Shinkansen, carrying local services and JR Freight trains and serving as the connecting link between the Tōkaidō corridor at Maibara and the high-speed line into the Hokuriku region.

• 188210 March: the first section opens between Nagahama and Yanagase, with a branch from the tunnel mouth to Tsuruga Port (then Kanegasaki) Station, as a state-built railway.
• 188416 April: the Yanagase Tunnel is completed, opening the Nagahama–Tsuruga Port route throughout.
• 18891 July: the Maibara–Nagahama section opens, joining the line to the national network.
• 189615 July: the Tsuruga–Fukui section opens; the route is named the 'Hokuriku Line'.
• 18981 April: the line is extended to Kanazawa; on 1 November it reaches Takaoka (Komatsu had been reached in 1897).
• 189920 March: the Takaoka–Toyama section opens, carrying the railway into Toyama.
• 190912 October: under the government's line-naming ordinance, the route is renamed the Hokuriku Main Line.
• 19131 April: the final section is completed, opening the whole Maibara–Naoetsu line (353.8 km) throughout.
• 19571 October: a new line opens between Kinomoto, Ōmi-Shiotsu and Tsuruga with 20 kV AC electrification; the steep original alignment over the Yanagase Pass is split off as the Yanagase Line and then closed.
• 196210 June: the 13,870 m Hokuriku Tunnel opens, rerouting Tsuruga–Imajō and replacing the original route via Sugitsu; on 28 December the Maibara–Tamura section is electrified at 1,500 V DC.
• 196929 September: the Uramoto–Tanihama–Naoetsu section is rerouted; the whole line is now double-tracked and electrified.
• 19871 April: Japanese National Railways is divided and privatised; JR West succeeds to the entire Maibara–Naoetsu line.
• 199114 September: the Tamura–Nagahama section is converted from 20 kV AC to 1,500 V DC.
• 200624 September: the Nagahama–Tsuruga section is converted to 1,500 V DC, extending direct DC services from the Kansai region to Tsuruga.
• 201514 March: with the Hokuriku Shinkansen extended Nagano–Kanazawa, the Kanazawa–Naoetsu section (177.2 km) is separated from JR West — Kanazawa–Kurikara to IR Ishikawa Railway, Kurikara–Ichiburi to Ainokaze Toyama Railway, Ichiburi–Naoetsu to Echigo Tokimeki Railway.
• 202416 March: with the Hokuriku Shinkansen extended Kanazawa–Tsuruga, the Tsuruga–Kanazawa section (130.7 km) is separated — Tsuruga–Daishōji to Hapi-Line Fukui and Daishōji–Kanazawa to IR Ishikawa Railway — leaving JR West only the 45.9 km Maibara–Tsuruga remnant.