Honmachi Line

Iyo Railway, founded in 1887, built up two kinds of network around Matsuyama over the following decades: suburban "interurban" lines radiating from Matsuyama-shi Station, and a group of street tramways around Matsuyama Castle known collectively as the Matsuyama City Lines (松山市内線). The Honmachi Line is the newest of these tram routes — its section north of Honmachi 3-chōme did not open until 1962 — and its own recorded history is short, so the wider story of Matsuyama's trams and of the rival company whose corridor it inherited forms its essential background.

The line traces its roots to the Matsuyama Electric Tramway (松山電気軌道), a competitor that opened a route through this part of the city in September 1911 — Nishi-Horibata to Fudanotsuji on 1 September and Fudanotsuji to Honmachi on 19 September. That original alignment, between today's Honmachi 3-chōme (then Fudanotsuji) and Honmachi 4-chōme (then Honmachi), ran along an alley on the eastern side of the present route rather than down the main road. The Matsuyama Electric Tramway was absorbed by Iyo Railway on 1 April 1921, after which its tracks became part of Iyotetsu's Jōnan Line.

The Honmachi Line as a named line is a post-war creation. The Nishi-Horibata–Honmachi–Kayamachi–Komachi portion of the Jōnan Line was authorised for suspension on 19 August 1946, and on 1 July 1948 the Nishi-Horibata–Honmachi 3-chōme (now Honmachi 4-chōme) section reopened as the Honmachi Line. Wikidata and the Japanese article both treat 1 July 1948 as the line's opening date, with the 1911 corridor recorded as its predecessor. Subsequently, as Honmachi-dōri was widened, the tram tracks were relocated to the centre of the road.

The line reached its present extent in the early 1960s. On 1 February 1962 the section from Honmachi 3-chōme (now Honmachi 4-chōme) to Honmachi 7-chōme (now Honmachi 6-chōme) opened, making this stretch the most recently built tramway in Iyotetsu's system and giving the line the five stops it has today. The route has run essentially unchanged in extent ever since.

In the twenty-first century the Honmachi Line has become known less for expansion than for steadily thinning service. A timetable revision on 1 November 2005 stretched the midday headway from one tram every 20 minutes to one every 30 minutes — described in the Japanese sources as the longest operating interval of any tram in Japan — and a further revision on 1 March 2018 lengthened it to 40 minutes all day. Also on 1 March 2018, the Jōnan Line junction and the Honmachi Line's platform at Nishi-Horibata were separated out as a distinct stop, Honmachi 1-chōme, and the line's Route 6 service had its terminus changed from Dōgo Onsen to Matsuyama-shi Station. Because the line is single-tracked with no passing facilities, only one tram can occupy it at a time, and to provide step-free access that single working is usually a low-floor Moha 2100-series car; on 13 March 2025 a Moha 5000-series car worked the line for the first time.

From 11 April 2020 the line was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic: weekend and holiday services were suspended for the time being, a cut confirmed in the timetable revision of 23 July 2020. Service was then pared back further to weekday-only operation of 14 round trips on 1 March 2021, and to just 7 round trips on 1 November 2023, with the last tram leaving Honmachi 6-chōme in the 1 p.m. hour. In March 2024 the Matsuyama city trams adopted the ICOCA IC card. A long-standing proposal to extend the line northward along Route 196 toward the Yamagoe and Kamogawa districts — densely populated areas without rail service — to connect them directly to Matsuyama-shi Station has never been realised, and Iyotetsu has told Ehime Prefecture that it has no current plan for such a northern extension.

• 1911September: the Matsuyama Electric Tramway, the line's predecessor, opens through this part of the city — Nishi-Horibata–Fudanotsuji on 1 September and Fudanotsuji–Honmachi on 19 September.
• 19211 April: Iyo Railway absorbs the Matsuyama Electric Tramway, and the inherited tracks become part of Iyotetsu's Jōnan Line.
• 1923The Matsuyama Electric Tramway corridor is regauged from 1,435 mm to 1,067 mm (network context; reported by EN Wikipedia and consistent with the wider unification of Iyotetsu's city gauge).
• 194619 August: the Jōnan Line's Nishi-Horibata–Honmachi–Kayamachi–Komachi section is authorised for suspension.
• 19481 July: the Nishi-Horibata–Honmachi 3-chōme (now Honmachi 4-chōme) section reopens as the Honmachi Line. This is the opening date of the line as it exists today.
• 19621 February: the Honmachi 3-chōme (now Honmachi 4-chōme)–Honmachi 7-chōme (now Honmachi 6-chōme) section opens, completing the line and making this the newest tramway in Iyotetsu's system.
• 20051 November: a timetable revision stretches the midday headway from 20 to 30 minutes — described as the longest operating interval of any tram in Japan.
• 20181 March: the headway is lengthened to 40 minutes all day; the Jōnan Line junction and Honmachi Line platform at Nishi-Horibata are split off as Honmachi 1-chōme stop; and the Route 6 terminus is changed from Dōgo Onsen to Matsuyama-shi Station.
• 202011 April: weekend and holiday services are suspended for the time being owing to COVID-19; the cut is confirmed in the 23 July timetable revision.
• 20211 March: service is cut to weekday-only operation of 14 round trips per day.
• 20231 November: service is cut further to just 7 weekday round trips, with the last tram leaving Honmachi 6-chōme in the 1 p.m. hour.
• 2024March: the ICOCA IC card is introduced on the Matsuyama city trams (network context).
• 202513 March: a Moha 5000-series car works the Honmachi Line for the first time.