Ita Line

The line began as a branch of what would become the Chikuhō Main Line, built by the Chikuhō Kōgyō Railway (later renamed the Chikuhō Railway) to move coal mined in the region. Its first section, between Nōgata and Kanada, opened on 11 February 1893. The company changed its name to the Chikuhō Railway on 15 August 1894, and on 1 October 1897 it was absorbed into the larger Kyushu Railway.

Under Kyushu Railway ownership the line was pushed east, and on 25 March 1899 the Kanada–Ita section opened, completing the route through to Ita Station — today's Tagawa-Ita Station — where it met the Hōshū Railway, the line now known as the Tagawa Line. From an early date the corridor was densely threaded with short freight spurs running off to collieries along its length, reflecting its role as a coal-hauling artery.

The railway passed into state hands when Kyushu Railway was nationalised under the Railway Nationalization Act on 1 July 1907. With the introduction of the government railway's formal line-naming system, the Nōgata–Ita section was designated the Ita Line on 12 October 1909. Reflecting the heavy coal traffic it carried, the main line was doubled in two stages during 1911: Nōgata–Kanada on 1 September and Kanada–Ita on 28 December.

For decades the Ita Line served the collieries of the Chikuhō field, but as the coalfield declined through the postwar era its many freight spurs were abolished one by one, and passenger ridership fell with them. Ita Station was renamed Tagawa-Ita on 3 November 1982. The line was selected as a third-round Specified Local Line — one of the marginal rural routes JNR sought to divest — and its abolition as such was approved on 3 February 1987. At the privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987 the line passed to JR Kyushu as a Category-1 operator, with Japan Freight Railway (JR Freight) taking the Nōgata–Kanada section as a Category-2 freight operator.

On 1 October 1989 the Ita Line, together with the neighbouring Itoda Line and Tagawa Line, was transferred from JR Kyushu to the newly founded third-sector Heisei Chikuhō Railway, the form in which it operates today. Under the new company the line gained a string of new stations through the 1990s and early 2000s as it shifted toward local commuter service. Freight did not end immediately: JR Freight continued to run cement trains from a Mitsui Mining works near Kanada north toward Mojiko, but that traffic ceased when the shipper withdrew from the cement business, the Nōgata–Kanada freight service ending at the close of March 2004.

Today the Ita Line is a purely local railway. Many of its trains run through beyond Kanada onto the Itoda Line to Tagawa-Gotōji, or onto the Tagawa Line toward Yukuhashi, and the line is operated with one-person crews. On 1 October 2019 station numbering was introduced across the Ita, Itoda and Tagawa lines, the numbers running consecutively from Nōgata.

• 189311 February: the Chikuhō Kōgyō Railway opens the first section, Nōgata–Kanada, to haul Chikuhō coalfield coal.
• 189415 August: the Chikuhō Kōgyō Railway changes its name to the Chikuhō Railway.
• 18971 October: the Chikuhō Railway is merged into the Kyushu Railway.
• 189925 March: the Kanada–Ita section opens, completing the route through to Ita Station (now Tagawa-Ita), where it connects with the Hōshū Railway (now the Tagawa Line).
• 19071 July: Kyushu Railway is nationalised under the Railway Nationalization Act; the line becomes a state railway.
• 190912 October: with the establishment of the government railway line-naming system, the Nōgata–Ita section is designated the Ita Line.
• 1911The main line is double-tracked in two stages: Nōgata–Kanada on 1 September and Kanada–Ita on 28 December.
• 19823 November: Ita Station is renamed Tagawa-Ita Station.
• 19873 February: abolition is approved with the line designated a third-round Specified Local Line; on 1 April, at JNR privatisation, JR Kyushu takes the whole line (Category-1) and JR Freight the Nōgata–Kanada section (Category-2).
• 19891 October: the Ita Line, together with the Itoda Line and Tagawa Line, is transferred from JR Kyushu to the newly founded third-sector Heisei Chikuhō Railway.
• 1990Heisei Chikuhō opens new stations on the line: Ichiba, Hitomi and Kami-Kanada (1 April), Akaji (1 October) and Fujitana (22 December).
• 19921 April: Shimoita Station opens.
• 199913 March: Tagawa Municipal Hospital Station opens.
• 20013 March: Minami-Nōgata-Gotenguchi Station opens and Akaji Station is re-spelled (あかじ → あかぢ).
• 2004Freight service on the Nōgata–Kanada section ends (1 April); JR Freight had run cement trains from a Mitsui Mining works near Kanada toward Mojiko until the shipper left the cement business.
• 20191 October: station numbering is introduced on the Ita, Itoda and Tagawa lines, numbered consecutively from Nōgata.