Kashihara Line

The line was not built by the state but by the Osaka Electric Tramway (大阪電気軌道, commonly abbreviated Daiki), one of the private companies that became the ancestor of today's Kintetsu. It was the company's next major route after the present-day Nara Line, and it opened under the name Unebi Line (畝傍線, Unebi-sen). The Osaka Electric Tramway received its licence for the line, between Fushimi village near Saidaiji and Shirakashi village near the Kashihara Shrine, on 19 November 1918. As a condition of that licence the company was required to take over the Tenri Light Railway (the present Kintetsu Tenri Line) and the Daiwa Railway (the present Kintetsu Tawaramoto Line); it absorbed the former in 1921, while the latter joined the group only much later.

Construction proceeded southward from the Nara end. The first section, from Saidaiji Station (present-day Yamato-Saidaiji) to Kōriyama Station (present-day Kintetsu Kōriyama), opened as double track on 1 April 1921. The line was extended from Kōriyama to Hirahata on 1 April 1922, and the final section from Hirahata to Kashiharajingū-mae — a first-generation station on a site different from today's — opened on 21 March 1923, completing the through route between Saidaiji and the shrine. Double-tracking of the whole line was finished on 2 March 1924. From its opening the line ran through services with the Nara Line, the Osaka Electric Tramway's first route.

At first the line also served as part of a route from Osaka toward the Kashihara area, but in 1925 the opening of the Yagi Line — the shorter link that, via the later Sakurai Line, became today's Osaka Line — took over that role between Uehonmachi and Yagi. The line's character was reshaped again in 1928, when the Nara Electric Railway (acquired by Kintetsu in 1963 to become the Kintetsu Kyoto Line) opened: the Unebi Line now also formed a connecting route from Kyoto toward Kashihara, Yoshino and Ise. The Nara Electric Railway had run through services onto the Nara and Unebi lines from the time it opened.

In 1939, to make room for an expansion of the sacred precinct of the Kashihara Shrine, the section between Yagi-nishiguchi and Kashiharajingū Station (today's Kashiharajingū-mae) was moved eastward to its present alignment; the old Yagi-nishiguchi–Kashiharajingū-mae line was abandoned and a new line opened on 28 July 1939. At the same time the route was renamed from the Unebi Line to its present name, the Kashihara Line. The corporate identity then changed with the wider consolidation of Kansai's private railways: stations were given a "Kankyū" (Kansai Express Railway) prefix on 15 March 1941, and a "Kinki Nippon" prefix on 1 June 1944, reflecting the 1944 creation of the Kinki Nippon Railway — Kintetsu — from which the line takes its operator to this day. The Yamato-Saidaiji–Yagi-nishiguchi section, originally built under the Tramway Act, was converted to a railway under the Local Railway Act on 1 October 1942.

In the post-war decades the line was steadily modernised. A new connecting line between Shin-no-guchi and Yamato-Yagi, allowing trains to run directly from the Kashihara Line onto the Osaka Line toward Ise, was completed on 20 December 1967, ending an awkward arrangement under which the Kyoto–Ise "Kyō-I" limited express, introduced in 1966, had to reverse direction twice at Yamato-Yagi. The overhead voltage was raised from 600 V to 1,500 V on 21 September 1969. Because the line's loading gauge remained narrower than that of Kintetsu's other standard-gauge lines even after the voltage increase, it long constrained which rolling stock could be used; an enlargement of the structure gauge was completed in September 1973, removing that restriction.

Today the Kashihara Line is operated as a single corridor with the Kyoto Line, and station numbering for the through route is counted from Kyoto Station. Most express and limited-express services run through between the two lines, and some express trains work between Kyoto and Tenri over the Kashihara and Tenri lines, with Hirahata acting as the junction for the Tenri Line. At its southern end Kashiharajingū-mae connects with both the Minami-Osaka Line and the Yoshino Line, and at Yamato-Yagi the line meets the Osaka Line. Limited expresses such as the Ise-Shima Liner and, more recently, the Shimakaze sightseeing train have run over the line on Kyoto–Ise services, and it has repeatedly carried Imperial special trains to and from Kashiharajingū-mae for visits to the shrine.

• 191819 November: the Osaka Electric Tramway is granted a licence for the line, between Fushimi village near Saidaiji and Shirakashi village near the Kashihara Shrine.
• 19211 April: the Osaka Electric Tramway opens the first section, Saidaiji (now Yamato-Saidaiji) to Kōriyama (now Kintetsu Kōriyama), as double track under the name Unebi Line.
• 19221 April: the line is extended from Kōriyama to Hirahata.
• 192321 March: the Hirahata to Kashiharajingū-mae section (a first-generation station, on a different site from today's) opens, completing the Saidaiji–shrine route.
• 19242 March: double-tracking of the whole line is completed.
• 1928The Nara Electric Railway (later, from 1963, the Kintetsu Kyoto Line) opens, giving the Unebi Line a role as a Kyoto–Kashihara–Ise connecting route.
• 193928 July: the Yagi-nishiguchi–Kashiharajingū-mae section is relocated eastward for the shrine's precinct expansion; a new line opens and the Unebi Line is renamed the Kashihara Line.
• 194115 March: stations are given the "Kankyū" (Kansai Express Railway) prefix — e.g. Daiki Yagi becomes Yamato-Yagi — reflecting the Osaka Electric Tramway's consolidation into Kansai Express Railway.
• 19421 October: the Yamato-Saidaiji–Yagi-nishiguchi section is converted from a tramway under the Tramway Act to a railway under the Local Railway Act.
• 19441 June: stations are given the "Kinki Nippon" prefix, reflecting the formation of the Kinki Nippon Railway (Kintetsu) that year.
• 196720 December: a connecting line between Shin-no-guchi and Yamato-Yagi is completed, letting trains run directly onto the Osaka Line toward Ise-Nakagawa.
• 196810 October: automatic train stop (ATS) enters service on the line.
• 196921 September: the overhead voltage is raised from 600 V to 1,500 V DC.
• 19701 March: Kinki Nippon Kōriyama is renamed Kintetsu Kōriyama, and Kashiharajingū Station becomes Kashiharajingū-mae.
• 1973September: enlargement of the line's structure (loading) gauge is completed, removing the restriction on rolling stock that the narrow clearances had imposed.
• 19791 July: Family Park-mae Station opens (initially as a seasonal temporary station).