Hankyū Itami Line

The line was built by Hankyu's predecessor, the Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu company, and opened in 1920 at the same time as the Kobe Main Line. The Kobe Main Line had originally been planned along a route passing near Itami and Tōkōji (Mondo-Yakujin) — close to the alignment of the present-day Sanyo Shinkansen — but at the wish of Ichizō Kobayashi the route was changed to the shorter Tsukaguchi and Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi alignment between Osaka and Kobe. The Itami Line was therefore laid as a substitute branch to provide Itami with a rail connection.

The branch opened from Tsukaguchi to Itami on 16 July 1920 as a single-track line. Inano Station was added on 10 May 1921, and Shin-Itami Station opened on 1 March 1935. When it first opened the line was worked as a single track and, together with the Kōyō Line that opened later in 1924, used the staff-and-ticket block system; during the Second World War, on 1 February 1943, the whole line was double-tracked to increase capacity — in contrast to the Arashiyama Line, which was singled during the war to release materials.

In the post-war decades the line was steadily upgraded. The catenary voltage was raised from 600 V to 1,500 V on 8 October 1967, and on 9 November 1968 Itami Station was elevated and at the same time moved to its present site. On 10 March 1978 the whole line was reclassified from a tramway under the Tramway Act to a railway under the Local Railway Act, and a timetable revision on 8 February 1982 brought larger, three-door rolling stock into use across the line.

The Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995 dealt the line its most serious blow: Itami Station collapsed and the whole line was put out of service. Service was restored in stages — the Tsukaguchi–Shin-Itami section reopened on 21 January 1995, and on 11 March 1995 a temporary Itami station was set up 400 metres south of the original, reopening the Shin-Itami–temporary-Itami section while the stretch on to the old site stayed closed.

Rebuilding Itami Station took several years. On 21 November 1998 the reconstructed station reopened, allowing single-track operation on the temporary-Itami–Itami section, and on 6 March 1999 double-track running resumed — completing the line's full recovery four years after the earthquake. The line's later changes have been smaller: station numbering was introduced across all stations on 21 December 2013, and one-man (driver-only) operation began with the first train of 23 March 2024.

Today the Itami Line is a self-contained shuttle: trains run only back and forth between Tsukaguchi and Itami, with no through service onto the Kobe Main Line. It is operated by Hankyu Railway with rolling stock based at the Nishinomiya Depot, and remains a short but busy local feeder linking central Itami with the Kobe Main Line and, through it, the Osaka and Kobe directions.

• 192016 July: the Tsukaguchi–Itami line opens as a single-track branch, simultaneously with the Kobe Main Line, built by Hankyu's predecessor Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu.
• 192110 May: Inano Station opens.
• 19351 March: Shin-Itami Station opens.
• 19431 February: the whole line is double-tracked during the Second World War to increase capacity.
• 19678 October: the catenary voltage is raised from 600 V to 1,500 V.
• 19689 November: Itami Station is elevated and at the same time relocated to its present site.
• 197810 March: the whole line is reclassified from a tramway (Tramway Act) to a railway (Local Railway Act).
• 19828 February: a timetable revision brings larger three-door rolling stock into use across the line.
• 199517 January: Itami Station collapses in the Great Hanshin earthquake and the whole line is suspended.
• 199521 January: the Tsukaguchi–Shin-Itami section reopens.
• 199511 March: a temporary Itami station is set up 400 m south of the original; the Shin-Itami–temporary-Itami section reopens while the stretch on to the old site stays closed.
• 199821 November: the rebuilt Itami Station reopens, allowing single-track operation on the temporary-Itami–Itami section.
• 19996 March: double-track running resumes, completing the line's full recovery four years after the earthquake.
• 201321 December: station numbering is introduced at all stations.
• 202423 March: one-man (driver-only) operation begins with the first train of the day.