Kabe Line

Like many Japanese suburban lines, the Kabe Line began as a small private venture. On 19 December 1909 the Dai-Nippon Light Railway opened its Hiroshima branch line between Yokogawa and Gion, and on 12 June 1911 the route was extended to Kabe, giving the line the terminus from which it takes its name. The infant railway then changed hands repeatedly: it was transferred to the Kabe Railway on 11 March 1919, merged into Hiroshima Electric on 1 May 1926, and transferred again to the Kōhama Railway on 1 July 1931. The line was electrified during the early Shōwa period.

The railway passed into public ownership on 1 September 1936, when the Yokogawa–Kabe section was bought up and nationalised, becoming the Kabe Line of the Japanese Government Railways. The state then set about extending the line northward as part of a planned cross-mountain route that was to link Hiroshima with Hamada on the San'in coast. The first government extension, from Kabe to Aki-Imuro (11.1 km), opened on 13 October 1936, only weeks after nationalisation, and unlike the original suburban section these new reaches were built without electrification.

Extension continued in stages over the following decades. The Nuno–Kake section (18.5 km) opened on 30 March 1954, and the line finally reached Sandankyō, a scenic gorge, on 27 July 1969, when the Kake–Sandankyō section (14.2 km) opened, placing Sandankyō 60.2 km from Yokogawa. Construction of the remaining link toward Hamada on the San'in Main Line began in 1974 but was abandoned in 1980, and the cross-mountain line was never completed. Meanwhile the electrified inner section was modernised: the overhead voltage was raised to 750 V on 1 October 1948 and then to the JNR standard of 1,500 V on 23 April 1962.

The long non-electrified tail to Sandankyō was always lightly used, and from 4 September 1968 the line appeared on the government's list of "Deficit 83 Lines" — money-losing routes earmarked for possible discontinuation. The line survived that round of cuts, and on 1 April 1987 it passed with the rest of the JNR network to the newly formed JR West at the privatisation of Japanese National Railways; one-man operation was introduced on the Kabe–Sandankyō section. In 1991 all trains south of Kabe began running through to Hiroshima Station, tightening the line's role as a city commuter route.

The rural section nonetheless continued to lose traffic, and on 1 December 2003 the entire non-electrified Kabe–Sandankyō section — 46.2 km, together with the 21 stations between Kōdo and Sandankyō — was closed, leaving the line as the electrified Yokogawa–Kabe commuter service it had originally been. That might have been the end of the story, but it was not. On 4 February 2011 JR West announced that a 1.6 km portion of the abandoned alignment, from Kabe to the former site of Kōdo Station, would be electrified and brought back into service — the first reopening of a closed section by a JR Group company since the privatisation of the JNR.

The revival opened on 4 March 2017, when the rebuilt and newly electrified extension from Kabe to a new terminus at Aki-Kameyama entered service, together with two new stations: Kōdo-Hōmachigawa and Aki-Kameyama. The reopening made the Kabe Line a rare case of a closed JR section being restored to passenger use, and gave the line its present form: a compact, fully electrified suburban route of 15.6 km feeding the northern suburbs of Hiroshima into the city centre.

• 190919 December: the Dai-Nippon Light Railway opens its Hiroshima branch line between Yokogawa and Gion.
• 191112 June: the line is extended to Kabe, fully opening the original private route.
• 191911 March: the line is transferred to the Kabe Railway.
• 19261 May: the line is merged into Hiroshima Electric.
• 19311 July: the line is transferred to the Kōhama Railway.
• 19361 September: the Yokogawa–Kabe section is bought up and nationalised, becoming the Kabe Line of the Japanese Government Railways.
• 193613 October: the state opens the Kabe–Aki-Imuro extension (11.1 km), built without electrification.
• 19481 October: the overhead voltage on the electrified section is raised to 750 V.
• 195430 March: the Nuno–Kake extension (18.5 km) opens.
• 196223 April: the overhead voltage is raised from 750 V to the JNR standard 1,500 V.
• 19684 September: the line is listed among the government's 'Deficit 83 Lines', routes earmarked for possible discontinuation.
• 196927 July: the Kake–Sandankyō extension (14.2 km) opens, placing Sandankyō 60.2 km from Yokogawa.
• 1980Construction of the planned extension toward Hamada on the San'in Main Line, begun in 1974, is abandoned; the cross-mountain line is never completed.
• 19871 April: at the privatisation of Japanese National Railways the line passes to JR West; one-man operation is introduced on the Kabe–Sandankyō section.
• 199116 March: all trains south of Kabe begin running through to Hiroshima Station.
• 20031 December: the non-electrified Kabe–Sandankyō section (46.2 km), together with the 21 stations between Kōdo and Sandankyō, is closed.
• 20114 February: JR West announces that a 1.6 km portion of the abandoned alignment, from Kabe to the former Kōdo Station, will be electrified and reopened — the first such reopening by a JR Group company since the JNR privatisation.
• 20174 March: the rebuilt, newly electrified Kabe–Aki-Kameyama extension (1.6 km) opens with two new stations, Kōdo-Hōmachigawa and Aki-Kameyama — a rare revival of a closed JR section.