Kakogawa Line

The line began as a private venture. The Banshū Railway was set up to replace the river-boat traffic that had long carried goods along the Kako River and its tributaries, and on 1 April 1913 it opened its first section, from Kakogawa-chō to Kunisuguri (the first station of that name, now Yakujin). Because the company's purpose was to supplant the river trade, many of its stations were sited near freight landings rather than at the centre of existing settlements — a layout convenient for cargo but inconvenient for local passengers, a characteristic the line retains. Later in 1913 the railway was extended on to Nishiwaki, and through the following years further stations were added along the route.

The Banshū Railway's lines were transferred to a successor company, the Bantan Railway (播丹鉄道, distinct from the Bantan Railway 播但鉄道 that was the forerunner of the Bantan Line), on 21 December 1923. On 27 December 1924 the Bantan Railway opened the final section, from Nomura (present-day Nishiwakishi) to Tanikawa, completing the route that is today's Kakogawa Line. The company also operated a cluster of connected branches — the lines that became the Takasago, Miki, Hōjō and Kajiya lines — which for much of their history were worked almost as a single system with the main route.

During the Second World War the line was taken into state hands. On 1 June 1943 the railway operations of the Bantan Railway were nationalised and the route became the Kakogawa Line; on the same day the whole line was re-measured (shortening it by 0.3 km), its halts were upgraded to full stations, and several stations were renamed or closed. The connected branches were nationalised at the same time, and the Bantan Railway, its bus business sold off that October, effectively ceased to exist. Under Japanese National Railways the line was dieselised — all trains were running as diesel railcars by 1958 — and steam haulage ended on 15 March 1972, the line achieving "smokeless" operation.

Freight services on the line ceased on 1 November 1986, and with the privatisation of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987 the Kakogawa Line passed to the newly formed West Japan Railway Company. The post-war decades were difficult ones for the route. The branch lines were progressively abandoned as designated local lines and converted to third-sector railways or bus services, leaving the Kakogawa Line as the only part of the old network still operated by JR; the loss in 1990 of the Kajiya Line — whose Nomura–Nishiwaki section had carried through trains and relatively heavy traffic — together with growing competition from cars and highway buses, sent ridership into a long decline. When the Kajiya Line closed on 1 April 1990, Nomura Station was renamed Nishiwakishi.

The line's fortunes were changed by an earthquake. In the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 17 January 1995, the Kakogawa Line — together with the Bantan Line — served as a vital diversion route while the severed Sanyō Main Line (JR Kobe Line) was out of action, with transfer traffic at Tanikawa swelling many times over. But as a single-track, then-unelectrified line its capacity was limited, and the experience prompted calls to strengthen it as an emergency alternative. Unlike the Bantan Line, whose gradient section north of Terimae has narrow tunnels that make stringing catenary difficult, the Kakogawa Line runs mostly across level ground without tunnels and was comparatively easy to wire throughout. JR West announced the electrification on 16 October 2001, and on 19 December 2004 the entire line was electrified at 1,500 V DC and given over to electric multiple units (103 and 125 series); on the same day a 0.9 km stretch around Kakogawa Station was elevated. The roughly six-billion-yen project was funded partly by JR West and local governments and partly by public donations, and it turned the Kakogawa–Yakujin section in particular into a more suburban-style commuter route feeding the frequent Special Rapid services on the Sanyō Main Line toward Kōbe and Ōsaka.

• 19131 April: the Banshū Railway opens its first section, Kakogawa-chō to Kunisuguri (now Yakujin), about 7.56 km.
• 191310 August: the line is extended from Kunisuguri toward Nomura and Nishiwaki.
• 191322 October: Nomura Station (present-day Nishiwakishi) opens.
• 192321 December: the Banshū Railway's lines are transferred to the Bantan Railway (播丹鉄道).
• 192427 December: the Bantan Railway opens the final Nomura–Tanikawa section (about 17.22 km), completing the present Kakogawa Line.
• 19431 June: the Bantan Railway's rail operations are nationalised and the route becomes the Kakogawa Line; the whole line is re-measured (0.3 km shorter) and halts are upgraded to stations.
• 195810 June: all trains are converted to diesel railcars.
• 197215 March: steam locomotive haulage ends; the line achieves 'smokeless' operation.
• 19861 November: freight services on the line cease.
• 19871 April: on the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the line passes to the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).
• 19901 April: with the closure of the Kajiya Line, Nomura Station is renamed Nishiwakishi.
• 199517 January: in the Great Hanshin Earthquake the line serves as a key diversion route for the severed Sanyō Main Line, with transfer traffic at Tanikawa swelling many times over.
• 200116 October: JR West announces that the Kakogawa Line will be electrified.
• 200419 December: the entire line is electrified at 1,500 V DC and converted to electric multiple unit operation; a 0.9 km section around Kakogawa Station is elevated the same day.