Kururi Line

The line began not as a national project but as one of the Chiba Prefectural Railways, a network the prefecture laid across its territory to make up for poor road conditions. A railway construction licence was granted on 18 July 1911, and on 28 December 1912 the prefecturally built Kururi Line opened between Kisarazu and Kururi. At the outset it was a light railway built to the narrow 762 mm gauge, a cheap standard well suited to a lightly trafficked rural feeder.

In its early years the line saw the ordinary adjustments of a young local railway: the station of Nakagawa was renamed Yokota on 1 July 1915, and Tawarada Station opened on 10 July 1921. The prefectural era ended on 1 September 1923, when the line was nationalised and became the (national) Kururi Line, passing from the Chiba prefectural government into the hands of the state railways.

Under national ownership the line was rebuilt to the national standard. On 20 August 1930 its gauge was converted from 762 mm to 1,067 mm, bringing it into line with the rest of the Japanese network and allowing through-running of standard rolling stock. The route was then pushed deeper into the interior: on 25 March 1936 the 9.6-kilometre extension from Kururi to Kazusa-Kameyama opened, completing the line to its present length and terminus.

The Kururi Line passed through the era of Japanese National Railways largely as a quiet rural branch, and with the break-up and privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987 it was inherited by the newly formed JR East. As a non-electrified line it has always been worked by diesel railcars; on 1 December 2012 JR East introduced new KiHa E130-100 series diesel multiple units, replacing the ageing KiHa 30, 37 and 38 cars that had served the line. Trains run as one-man (wanman) operations with no conductor on board, and although the line lies within the designated Tokyo suburban fare zone, Suica and other IC cards cannot be used on it.

In recent decades ridership has fallen steeply, especially on the lightly populated inland section. Japanese Wikipedia records that the average number of passengers carried (transport density) has been roughly halving every four years since the 2013 financial year — from 216 passengers per day in FY2013 to 103 in FY2017 and 55 in FY2021 — and that usage has fallen by about 90 percent compared with FY1987. The contrast between the two halves of the line is stark: in FY2021 the whole line carried about 782 passengers per day, but the busy Kisarazu–Kururi section accounted for roughly 1,091 of that while the Kururi–Kazusa-Kameyama section carried only about 55; by FY2023 the figures were about 771 for the whole line, 1,072 for Kisarazu–Kururi and 64 for Kururi–Kazusa-Kameyama. For the Kururi–Kazusa-Kameyama section in FY2019, operating revenue of about 2 million yen covered only 0.6 percent of operating costs of about 344 million yen.

Given those figures, JR East and the local authorities have concluded that the inland end of the line cannot continue in its present form and that a shift to a new transport system centred on buses is needed. The abolition of the roughly 10-kilometre Kururi–Kazusa-Kameyama section and its conversion to a bus service is planned for 1 April 2027, which would leave rail service running only between Kisarazu and Kururi.

• 191118 July: a railway construction licence for the line is granted.
• 191228 December: the Chiba Prefectural Railway opens the Kisarazu–Kururi section as a 762 mm-gauge light railway.
• 19151 July: Nakagawa Station is renamed Yokota Station.
• 192110 July: Tawarada Station opens.
• 19231 September: the line is nationalised and becomes the (national) Kururi Line.
• 193020 August: the gauge is converted from 762 mm to 1,067 mm.
• 193625 March: the 9.6 km extension from Kururi to Kazusa-Kameyama opens, completing the line.
• 19871 April: with the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the line is inherited by JR East.
• 20121 December: KiHa E130-100 series DMUs enter service, replacing the ageing KiHa 30/37/38 cars.
• 20271 April (planned): the Kururi–Kazusa-Kameyama section (about 10 km) is scheduled to be abolished and converted to a bus service.