Nagareyama Line

The impetus for the line came from the way the national railway bypassed the town. In 1896 the Nippon Railway Tsuchiura Line (later the Jōban Line) opened between Tabata and Tsuchiura, and people from Nagareyama had to walk for about two hours to reach Matsudo Station to use it; the opening of Mabashi Station in 1898 and Kita-Koganei Station in 1911 shortened the walk but did not remove it, and a movement to bring a railway to Nagareyama itself gathered momentum. A group of local merchants led by Heihachi Akimoto submitted a railway construction-licence application on 17 September 1912, and the light-railway licence was granted to the founders on 1 July 1913.

The Nagareyama Light Railway Company (流山軽便鉄道) was incorporated on 7 November 1913 with capital of ¥70,000. Land acquisition and construction followed, and the line opened on 14 March 1916 between Mabashi and Nagareyama — 5.7 km laid to the narrow 762 mm light-railway gauge, with four stations: Mabashi, Ōyaguchi, Hiregasaki and Nagareyama. Because so many of the company's shareholders and staff were Nagareyama residents who had bought shares as a kind of communal contribution, the railway became known locally as the "townspeople's railway." In November 1922 the company was renamed the Nagareyama Railway (流山鉄道).

To allow freight wagons to run through from the national network, the line was regauged from 762 mm to the standard Japanese 1,067 mm gauge in December 1924, and through freight working with the Jōban Line began. Freight grew in importance: a branch line to the Mansei mirin (sweet-rice-wine) works was completed from Nagareyama in 1929, and the town, with an army provisions depot built nearby, took on a role as a military railway. During the Pacific War the town was an air-raid target, and on 17 July 1945 a moving train was strafed by a US carrier aircraft, seriously wounding the engine driver and leaving the train pierced in some forty places.

After the war, coal and petrol shortages made running trains difficult, so the company turned to electric power. Electrification of the whole line was completed in December 1949, buying 1,500 V DC current from Japanese National Railways (JNR) — the line famously ran for decades as the only electrified private railway in Japan without a substation of its own. A series of name changes followed as the company and its owners changed hands: to Nagareyama Electric Railway (流山電気鉄道) in 1951, to Nagareyama Dentetsu (流山電鉄) in 1967, and to Sōbu Nagareyama Electric Railway (総武流山電鉄) in 1971. Through these years the line was steadily upgraded — Kogane-Jōshi Station opened in 1953, Kōya Station in 1961, and a passing loop at Kogane-Jōshi entered use in 1967.

Ridership climbed as the once-rural lineside filled with commuter housing, but the line's freight business faded with the spread of road haulage and the opening of the parallel JNR Musashino Line in 1973, and freight service was abolished in 1977. The signalling was modernised from tablet block to single-track automatic block in 1982, the maximum speed was raised from 45 to 55 km/h in 1986, and in 1990 the company's own Nishihirai substation began supplying the line's 1,500 V DC power. On 1 August 2008 the company renamed itself Ryūtetsu and the line's formal name was changed from the Sōbu Nagareyama Line to the Nagareyama Line, the short name long used at stations.

The opening of the Tsukuba Express in August 2005 dealt the line a heavy blow, drawing away passengers and sending ridership down sharply. Ryūtetsu responded by economising: full driver-only (one-man) operation began in 2010, and from 2011 the last three-car set was retired so that every train ran as a two-car, one-man formation. A level-crossing collision between Kogane-Jōshi and Kōya derailed a train in July 2014, killing the two people in the car involved. In 2024 the company raised its fares — its first increase in 34 and a half years apart from consumption-tax adjustments — as it continued to operate its single 5.7 km line as Nagareyama's link to the wider rail network.

• 189625 December: the Nippon Railway Tsuchiura Line (later the Jōban Line) opens between Tabata and Tsuchiura, bypassing Nagareyama's town centre.
• 191217 September: a railway construction-licence application is submitted by local merchants led by Heihachi Akimoto.
• 19131 July: the light-railway licence is granted to the founders. 7 November: the Nagareyama Light Railway Company is incorporated with capital of ¥70,000.
• 191614 March: the line opens between Mabashi and Nagareyama, 5.7 km at 762 mm light-railway gauge, with four stations (Mabashi, Ōyaguchi, Hiregasaki, Nagareyama).
• 192215 November: the company is renamed the Nagareyama Railway.
• 192425 December: the line is regauged from 762 mm to 1,067 mm, and through freight working with the Jōban Line begins.
• 19293 March: the Manjō branch line to the Mansei mirin works is completed from Nagareyama Station.
• 194517 July: a moving train is strafed by a US carrier aircraft, seriously injuring the engine driver; the train is hit in about forty places.
• 194926 December: the whole line is electrified, buying 1,500 V DC power from JNR; the line runs for decades as the only electrified private railway in Japan without its own substation.
• 195128 November: the company is renamed the Nagareyama Electric Railway (Nagareyama Denki Tetsudō).
• 195324 December: Kogane-Jōshi Station opens and Ōyaguchi Station closes.
• 19613 February: Kōya Station opens.
• 196720 June: the company is renamed Nagareyama Dentetsu; a passing loop at Kogane-Jōshi Station enters use on 1 July, worked under tablet block.
• 197120 January: the company is renamed the Sōbu Nagareyama Electric Railway.
• 19731 April: the JNR Musashino Line opens between Fuchūhonmachi and Shin-Matsudo, affecting the line's ridership.
• 19771 April: freight service is abolished.
• 19821 December: signalling is changed from tablet block to single-track automatic block.
• 198617 February: the maximum speed is raised from 45 km/h to 55 km/h.
• 1990February: the company's own Nishihirai substation begins operating, supplying the line's 1,500 V DC power.
• 200524 August: the Tsukuba Express opens in full; ridership on the Nagareyama Line subsequently falls sharply.
• 20081 August: the company is renamed Ryūtetsu and the line's formal name is changed from the Sōbu Nagareyama Line to the Nagareyama Line.
• 201023 January: full driver-only (one-man) operation begins.
• 201115 May: the last three-car set is retired, leaving every train a two-car one-man formation.
• 201411 July: a level-crossing collision between Kogane-Jōshi and Kōya derails a train; the two people in the car involved are killed.
• 20241 April: fares are revised — the first increase in 34 and a half years apart from consumption-tax adjustments.