Seishin Line

The Seishin Line was conceived as the trunk artery serving Suma New Town, a large planned residential district then being developed in the hills of western Kobe. It was the first municipal subway built in the city, and unlike the deep-bored downtown sections it runs partly in the open: the stretches around Myōdani and Myōhōji stations are at the surface, with Myōhōji in a half-underground cutting. From the outset the project was planned as part of a longer corridor that would eventually reach the Shin-Kobe Shinkansen station to the east and the Seishin district to the west.

Authorisation came in the early 1970s. On 15 October 1971 the Ministry of Transport granted the Kobe Municipal Transportation Bureau a railway-business licence for a subway line linking the Myōdani district with Shin-Kobe, and construction of the first segment, between Shin-Nagata and Myōdani, began on 25 November 1972. The line's 1000-series rolling stock was completed at Kawasaki Heavy Industries on 23 February 1976 in readiness for the opening.

The Shin-Nagata–Myōdani section opened on 13 March 1977, becoming the first municipal subway line in Kobe and giving the new western suburbs their first urban rail link; the 1000-series entered revenue service the same day. The opening established the southern, surface-running core of what would grow into a much longer route, and work to extend the line in both directions began almost immediately, with construction of the Shin-Nagata–Ōkurayama section toward the city centre starting on 17 December 1977.

Through the 1980s the Seishin Line became the middle link of a steadily lengthening subway. The Yamate Line was built eastward from Shin-Nagata: the Ōkurayama–Shin-Nagata segment opened on 17 June 1983, and on 18 June 1985 the Shin-Kobe–Ōkurayama segment was completed, joining the line to the Shinkansen interchange at Shin-Kobe. That same day the Seishin Extension Line opened its first stage west of Myōdani to Gakuentoshi, and on 18 March 1987 the extension was completed through to Seishin-Chūō, so that the original Seishin Line now sat in the centre of a continuous Shin-Kobe–Seishin-Chūō route. Reciprocal through services with the Hokushin Express Electric Railway's Hokushin Line began at Shin-Kobe on 2 April 1988, extending journeys north toward Tani-gami.

The line was caught up in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995, which damaged the subway and forced a shutdown. Recovery was staged: the Itayado–Seishin-Chūō portion, covering the Seishin Line, resumed limited running from the following day, 18 January, while the worst-hit central tunnels took far longer. Service across the whole route was restored on 16 February 1995 — among the earliest railways in the city to reopen, achieved by carrying out repairs overnight after a shortened operating day — with the three most heavily damaged stations, Sannomiya, Kamisawa and Shin-Nagata, reopening over the following weeks and normal operation returning on 21 July.

Today the Seishin Line is operated as an integral part of the Seishin-Yamate Line and is rarely referred to on its own; from 1 March 2000 the Kobe Municipal Subway adopted "Seishin-Yamate Line" as the unified guidance name for the combined route. Successive generations of rolling stock have worked the line, from the original 1000-series through the 6000-series introduced from 16 February 2019, and on 5 January 2026 driver-only (one-man) operation began across the route. As the founding section of Kobe's subway, the Seishin Line's surface alignment through the western hills remains a distinctive trace of the network's origins.

• 197115 October: the Ministry of Transport grants the Kobe Municipal Transportation Bureau a railway-business licence for the Shin-Kobe–Myōdani subway line.
• 197225 November: construction of the first segment, Shin-Nagata–Myōdani, begins.
• 197623 February: the line's 1000-series rolling stock is completed at Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
• 197713 March: the Shin-Nagata–Myōdani section (the Seishin Line) opens as Kobe's first municipal subway; the 1000-series enters service.
• 197717 December: construction of the Shin-Nagata–Ōkurayama section, toward the city centre, begins.
• 198317 June: the Ōkurayama–Shin-Nagata section (Yamate Line) opens, connecting the Seishin Line toward central Kobe.
• 198518 June: the Shin-Kobe–Ōkurayama section opens, reaching the Shinkansen interchange at Shin-Kobe; the same day the Seishin Extension Line's first stage, Myōdani–Gakuentoshi, opens.
• 198718 March: the Gakuentoshi–Seishin-Chūō section opens, completing the through route from Shin-Kobe to Seishin-Chūō around the original Seishin Line.
• 19882 April: the Hokushin Express Electric Railway Hokushin Line opens and reciprocal through services begin at Shin-Kobe.
• 199517 January: the line is damaged in the Great Hanshin earthquake (Southern Hyōgo Prefecture earthquake) and is shut down.
• 199518 January: limited service over the Itayado–Seishin-Chūō section, covering the Seishin Line, resumes from 15:33.
• 199516 February: service is restored across the whole route — among the first railways in Kobe to reopen; normal operation returns on 21 July.
• 20001 March: the combined route's guidance name is changed to "Seishin-Yamate Line".
• 201916 February: the 6000-series enters service on the route.
• 20265 January: one-man (driver-only) operation begins across the route.