Ohmi Railway Taga Line

The line originated not with the Ohmi Railway itself but with a separate promoter group. On 12 September 1912 a railway licence was granted to the Taga Light Railway (Taga Keiben Tetsudō), formed by Miura Izumi and seven other founders, for a line from Takamiya village to the Taga area of Inukami District, to be built to a narrow 2-foot-6-inch gauge. The Ohmi Railway took over this licence without charge and built the line itself. The Takamiya–Taga section opened on 8 March 1914, with stations at Takamiya, Tsuchida and Taga (the latter being the present-day Taga-Taisha-mae). Opening a railway to Taga Taisha is said to have improved the Ohmi Railway's business.

The line was electrified across its whole length on 12 March 1925, initially at 600 V. (The English-language Wikipedia article additionally states that this voltage was raised to 1,500 V in 1928 in step with a voltage increase on the Main Line; the Japanese-language article records only the 1925 electrification at 600 V and does not give a date for the change to 1,500 V, so that later step is noted here but not treated as an independently dated milestone.) The line is electrified at 1,500 V DC today.

The line's three original stations did not all survive. Tsuchida Station, located between Takamiya and Taga, was suspended in October 1943 amid the privations of the wartime period and was formally abolished in October 1953. Its site lay 1.9 kilometres from Takamiya and 0.6 kilometres short of Taga, and after its removal the line settled into the two-intermediate-stop pattern that, with one later addition, it retains today.

For several decades the Taga Line carried significant freight alongside its passengers. From 10 November 1960 it handled limestone, moving the mineral between cement works in the area — the Tōa Cement (later Sumitomo Cement, now Sumitomo Osaka Cement) plant at Taga and the Nozawa Cement works at Hikone. On 1 June 1974 a siding to the Kirin Brewery's Shiga factory was connected to the line, and Takamiya Station maintained a goods yard to handle the transfers. This traffic was wound down in the 1980s: Kirin's freight was discontinued on 1 October 1984, and the inter-plant limestone haulage ended on 27 March 1986.

As freight faded, the line was modernised for passenger operation. Driver-only (one-man) operation began on 1 May 1976. On 1 April 1998 the terminus, Taga Station, was renamed Taga-Taisha-mae ("in front of Taga Taisha"), underlining the shrine's role as the line's reason for being. A new intermediate station, Screen Station — named for the nearby works of Dainippon Screen — opened between Takamiya and Taga-Taisha-mae on 15 March 2008, restoring the line to three stations.

In the 21st century the line has been folded into the Ohmi Railway's branding and into a new operating structure. From 16 March 2013 the Taga Line, together with the Maibara–Takamiya section of the Main Line, was given the nickname "Hikone·Taga-Taisha Line," coloured red. Then, on 1 April 2024, the Ohmi Railway network shifted to a publicly-owned, privately-operated vertical-separation model: a new body, the Ohmi Railway Line Management Organization — established by Shiga Prefecture and the local municipalities along the route — took ownership of the railway infrastructure, while the Ohmi Railway continued to run the trains.

• 191212 September: a railway licence is granted to the Taga Light Railway (founded by Miura Izumi and seven others) for a Takamiya–Taga line at 2 ft 6 in gauge; the Ohmi Railway later takes the licence over without charge.
• 19148 March: the Takamiya–Taga section opens, with stations at Takamiya, Tsuchida and Taga (now Taga-Taisha-mae).
• 192512 March: the line is electrified throughout, initially at 600 V.
• 1943October: services to Tsuchida Station, between Takamiya and Taga, are suspended.
• 1953October: Tsuchida Station is abolished.
• 196010 November: limestone transport begins, carrying the mineral between cement works in the area (Tōa/Sumitomo Cement at Taga and Nozawa Cement at Hikone).
• 19741 June: a siding to the Kirin Brewery Shiga factory is connected to the Taga Line.
• 19761 May (11 May per EN Wikipedia): driver-only (one-man) operation commences.
• 19841 October: Kirin Brewery freight service is discontinued.
• 198627 March: the inter-plant limestone haulage ends.
• 19981 April: Taga Station is renamed Taga-Taisha-mae Station.
• 200815 March: Screen Station opens between Takamiya and Taga-Taisha-mae, restoring the line to three stations.
• 201316 March: the Taga Line, with the Maibara–Takamiya section of the Main Line, is given the nickname "Hikone·Taga-Taisha Line" (line colour red).
• 20241 April: the Ohmi Railway network shifts to a publicly-owned, privately-operated vertical-separation model; the Ohmi Railway Line Management Organization takes ownership of the infrastructure while the Ohmi Railway keeps running the trains.