Hankyū Kōyō Line

The Kōyō Line was not part of Hankyu's original network plans but was born out of the fierce pre-war rivalry between Hankyu and the Hanshin Electric Railway. In 1922 (Taishō 11) Hanshin established a subsidiary, the Settsu Electric Automobile Company, which obtained a licence to build a trolleybus from Kōrōen to the Kurakuen district. As a counter-move, Hanshin's direct predecessor, the Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu (Hankyu), hurriedly applied for a tramway licence that December and opened the Kōyō Line in 1924. Hanshin's trolleybus was never realised, although a Hanshin bus route later did reach Kōyōen.

The first and only segment, between Shukugawa and Kōyōen, opened on 1 October 1924 with no intermediate station. On 8 March 1925 the Koshikiiwa signal station midway along the route was upgraded to a full station, Kurakuenguchi, giving the line its present three stations. In its early years Kōyōen and the neighbouring Kurakuen were resort districts, and the line had a strongly recreational character; as both areas declined in the Shōwa era it came instead to carry large numbers of pupils commuting to schools founded along its course, much like the parallel Hankyū Imazu Line. Before the war it was sometimes written as the "Kōyō Branch Line." Until 1956 the line worked under tablet block — unusual for a private railway in the Kansai region — before being converted to single-line automatic block.

A series of modernisations followed in the post-war decades. On 8 October 1967 the overhead voltage was raised from 600 V to 1,500 V DC, bringing the branch into line with the rest of the Hankyu network. On 10 March 1978 the whole line was reclassified from a tramway under the Tramway Act to a railway under the Local Railway Act. On 29 March 1982 it switched to large three-car, three-door trains; the older 800 and 920 series, which had made their last stand on the Kōyō Line, were withdrawn, after which Hankyu's entire fleet consisted of 19-metre large cars.

The line was knocked out by the Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995, which left it out of service for about six weeks; Shukugawa–Kōyōen running was restored on 1 March 1995. One-man operation began on 1 October 1998, in common with the Imazu Line's southern Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi–Imazu section and the Itami Line. Because the line is single-track and both terminal stations have only a single platform face, no more than two trains can be on it at once, so the timetable can be intensified only by shortening the interval, not by lengthening trains.

A significant change came with the timetable revision of 28 October 2006, when Shukugawa became a stop for Kobe Line limited expresses. The Kōyō Line timetable was rebuilt to connect with those expresses and its daytime interval was cut from fifteen to ten minutes, adding eighteen round trips on weekdays and fifteen on holidays; the fastest daytime journey from Kōyōen to Ōsaka-Umeda fell from 27–31 minutes to 22 minutes as the change at Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi was no longer needed. On 20 September 2008 a three-car local derailed near Kōyōen with no injuries, suspending service into the following morning. Station numbering was introduced across the line on 21 December 2013. A plan to put the Kurakuenguchi–Kōyōen section underground to remove level crossings was studied but shelved in 2009 in the face of local opposition; today the line is worked by Hankyu 6000 series three-car sets and crosses at Kurakuenguchi.

• 1922Hanshin Electric Railway sets up the Settsu Electric Automobile Company and obtains a trolleybus licence from Kōrōen to Kurakuen; Hankyu's predecessor, the Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu, applies in December for a tramway licence in response.
• 19241 October: the Kōyō Line opens between Shukugawa and Kōyōen, with no intermediate station.
• 19258 March: the Koshikiiwa signal station is upgraded to Kurakuenguchi Station, giving the line three stations.
• 1956The line, which had used tablet block (unusual for a Kansai private railway), is converted to single-line automatic block.
• 19678 October: the overhead voltage is raised from 600 V to 1,500 V DC.
• 197810 March: the whole line is reclassified from a tramway (Tramway Act) to a railway (Local Railway Act).
• 198229 March: the line switches to large three-car, three-door trains; the 800 and 920 series, in their last assignment here, are withdrawn.
• 199517 January: the Great Hanshin earthquake puts the line out of service; Shukugawa–Kōyōen running is restored on 1 March, after about six weeks.
• 19981 October: one-man operation begins.
• 200628 October: with Shukugawa becoming a Kobe Line limited-express stop, the daytime interval is cut from 15 to 10 minutes and services are increased.
• 200820 September: a three-car local derails near Kōyōen with no injuries, suspending service into the next morning.
• 201321 December: station numbering is introduced across the line.