Kōen-Toshi Line

The line's origins lie in a large planned community. From 1969 the prefecture and Kobe began developing the Hokushin and Hokusetsu new-town project — today the Kobe Sanda Kokusai Kōen Toshi — straddling Kita Ward in Kobe and the city of Sanda. The Sanda-side district, the Hokusetsu Sanda New Town, was originally planned for 35,000 dwellings and a population of 128,000 (later revised down to 88,000). Because the development area had no rail access, its promoter, the Japan Housing Corporation, proposed solving the problem by relocating the Japanese National Railways' Fukuchiyama Line so that it would run through the new town.

That idea provoked fierce local resistance. A 1970 basic plan and a 1971 design report both envisaged the JNR line being diverted into the new town — the 1971 report set out five possible routes — but Sanda residents feared the relocation would hollow out their existing town centre. A protest rally was held at the Sanda civic hall in November 1971, opposition petitions followed, and after the dispute was reported in the press in February 1973 the campaign spread city-wide, with the mayor himself petitioning the prefectural governor against the scheme.

The deadlock was broken by a change of operator. On 14 January 1977 the Hyōgo authorities formally told JNR that the national railway would not be run through the new town, and on 16 November 1978 it was decided instead that a new urban high-speed railway built by the Kobe Electric Railway would serve the district. A planning committee first studied a 12-kilometre route branching from Niro on the Sanda Line, but with the Kita-Kobe development still uncertain it settled on a 5.5-kilometre line branching at Yokoyama. In 1982, at Sanda's request, a plan took shape to double-track the Sanda–Yokoyama section of the Sanda Line and run the new line's trains through to Sanda Station.

Kobe Electric Railway applied for a railway-business licence in 1987 under the working name "Hokusetsu Line," and the 5.5-kilometre line was authorised on 28 May 1987 — the very first licence granted under the Railway Business Act, which had taken effect on 1 April 1987 alongside the breakup of JNR into the JR Group. A city-planning decision followed in October 1987, construction approval for the first phase (Yokoyama to the future Flower Town, 2.3 km) was obtained on 18 November 1987, and ground was broken on 23 December 1987. In 1988 the route was renamed from the "Hokusetsu Line" to the "Kōen-Toshi Line" ("Park City Line"), and its planned stations were given their present names.

The first phase opened on 28 October 1991, after about four years' work and roughly ¥17.9 billion in construction cost, linking Yokoyama with Flower Town. The opening ended a long-standing grievance: rail service finally reached the Hokusetsu Sanda New Town a decade after residents had begun moving in. The section introduced one-man (driver-only) operation for the first time on the Kobe Electric Railway, for which fifteen specially equipped cars of the 1500, 1600 and 2000 series were built, and the inaugural day was marked by celebratory ceremonies at Flower Town Station.

Work on the second phase, north from Flower Town to Woody Town Chūō, followed as occupancy of the Woody Town district progressed. A safety ceremony was held at the site of the future terminus on 29 October 1993, the line's maximum speed was raised to 80 km/h on 26 November 1995, and the second-phase works were completed on 22 March 1996. The extension — built to a higher standard than the first phase, with continuous welded rail and noise- and vibration-reducing measures — opened on 28 March 1996, bringing the line to its full 5.5-kilometre length; the intermediate station, planned as Akashiadai, was renamed Minami Woody Town just before opening, and the Sanda–Woody Town Chūō journey took twelve minutes.

Today all services are one-man local trains running through to and from Sanda, typically four trains an hour outside late-night periods. Ridership at most stations and at Sanda has tended to rise over the line's life, with Woody Town Chūō roughly doubling its passenger numbers since opening. A 1989 national transport-policy report had recommended extending the line beyond Woody Town Chūō to the Culture Town district, but that extension was not carried forward in the 2004 Kinki-region transport report, and the line remains as built.

• 197714 January: the Hyōgo authorities formally notify JNR that the national railway will not be run through the new town.
• 197816 November: it is decided that a new urban high-speed railway built by the Kobe Electric Railway will serve the new town.
• 198728 May: the railway-business licence for the 5.5 km line is granted — the first licence issued under the Railway Business Act, which took effect on 1 April 1987 with the formation of the JR Group.
• 198728 October: the line is formally designated as an urban high-speed railway by a city-planning decision. (The article's prose gives this date as 23 October; the chronology table gives 28 October.)
• 198718 November: construction approval is obtained for the first phase, Yokoyama to the future Flower Town (2.3 km).
• 198723 December: ground is broken on the first-phase works (Yokoyama–Flower Town).
• 1988The route is renamed from the 'Hokusetsu Line' to the 'Kōen-Toshi Line', and its planned stations are given their present names.
• 199128 October: the first phase, Yokoyama–Flower Town, opens after about four years' work and roughly ¥17.9 billion; through one-man operation to Sanda begins, the first one-man operation on the Kobe Electric Railway.
• 199329 October: ground is broken on the second-phase works (Flower Town–Woody Town Chūō) with a safety ceremony at the site of the future terminus.
• 199526 November: the line's maximum speed is raised to 80 km/h.
• 199622 March: the second-phase works are completed.
• 199628 March: the Flower Town–Woody Town Chūō extension opens, bringing the line to its full 5.5 km; the intermediate station, planned as Akashiadai, opens as Minami Woody Town, and the Sanda–Woody Town Chūō run takes 12 minutes.
• 20141 April: station numbering (prefix KB) is introduced across the Kobe Electric Railway network, including this line.