Wakasa Line

The line was built as part of a longer route authorised under the revised Railway Construction Act (table item No. 88), which envisaged a railway from Kōge in Tottori Prefecture through Wakasa to the vicinity of Yōka in Hyōgo Prefecture, joining the San'in Main Line. The section beyond Wakasa toward Yōka was never begun. When it opened in 1930 the line was used heavily to carry cedar logs felled in the surrounding hills; during the Second World War the military, fearing bombing of the Amarube Bridge, even planned to extend it toward Yōka as a bypass for the San'in Main Line, but the plan evaporated after the war.

Construction proceeded in two stages. On 20 January 1930 the Wakasa Line opened between Kōge and Hayabusa, a distance recorded at the time as 2.8 miles (about 4.5 km); that April the operating distances were converted from miles to kilometres. On 1 December 1930 the remaining Hayabusa–Wakasa section, some 14.7 km, opened and completed the line through to Wakasa. Two intermediate stations were added in the steam era and after: Abe Station opened on 5 February 1932, and gasoline-electric railcar services between Tottori and Wakasa began on 15 March 1935.

For decades the line was worked by JNR with a mix of steam, diesel and passenger-and-freight mixed trains. Steam haulage ended in March 1970, and on 1 October 1974 freight operations over the whole line were discontinued. By the 1970s the decline of local forestry and the steady expansion of competing bus services had pushed the line deep into deficit. On 1 July 1982 the last DE10-hauled passenger coaches were withdrawn and all services became diesel railcars.

Under the JNR reconstruction law the Wakasa Line was designated, on 18 September 1981, as one of the first group of Specified Local Lines marked for abolition. A decision to convert it to a third-sector railway followed on 7 October 1986. When JNR was broken up and privatised on 1 April 1987, the line briefly passed to the West Japan Railway Company (JR West); but JR West then closed the line, and from 14 October 1987 operations were taken over by the newly formed Wakasa Railway.

As a third-sector operator Wakasa Railway opened two new stations — Yazu-Kōkō-mae on 1 October 1996 and Tokumaru on 23 March 2002 — and worked steadily to develop the line as a tourist attraction. The Kōge–Yazu-Kōkō-mae fare was for years the cheapest railway fare in Japan, at sixty yen until it rose to one hundred yen on 1 April 2007. In 2008 a sweep of the line's old structures — station buildings, platforms, bridges and a turntable — was registered en bloc as National Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, the first such collective registration of an entire railway's facilities in Japan.

On 1 April 2009 the line moved to a vertical-separation (jōge-bunri) arrangement: the railway infrastructure was transferred to the towns of Yazu and Wakasa, which became Category 3 railway operators owning the track, while Wakasa Railway continued running the trains as a Category 2 operator. The company has since leaned heavily on heritage tourism — preserving steam locomotive C12 167 at Wakasa, running it under compressed air and, in an April 2015 "social experiment," hauling it over the main line behind a DD16 diesel — and in 2018 introduced the Eiji Mitooka-designed sightseeing train "Shōwa." On 14 March 2020 a passing loop was installed at Hattō Station, allowing five extra round-trips and ending the through-running of JR West railcars onto the line.

• 193020 January: the Wakasa Line opens between Kōge and Hayabusa, a distance then recorded as 2.8 miles (about 4.5 km).
• 19301 December: the Hayabusa–Wakasa section (about 14.7 km) opens, completing the line through to Wakasa.
• 19325 February: Abe Station opens.
• 193515 March: diesel (gasoline) railcar services begin between Tottori and Wakasa.
• 1970March: steam locomotive operation on the line ends.
• 19741 October: freight operations over the whole line are discontinued.
• 198118 September: the line is designated one of the first group of Specified Local Lines marked for abolition.
• 19821 July: the last DE10-hauled passenger coaches are withdrawn and all services become diesel railcars.
• 19867 October: a decision is taken to convert the line to a third-sector railway.
• 19871 April: at the privatisation of JNR the line passes to JR West; on 14 October JR's Wakasa Line is abolished and operations are taken over by the new Wakasa Railway.
• 19961 October: Yazu-Kōkō-mae Station opens.
• 200223 March: Tokumaru Station opens.
• 200823 July: 23 of the line's structures — station buildings, platforms, bridges and a turntable — are registered en bloc as National Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.
• 20091 April: the line moves to vertical separation — the towns of Wakasa and Yazu become Category 3 operators owning the infrastructure, with Wakasa Railway as the Category 2 operator running the trains.
• 20184 March: the Eiji Mitooka-designed sightseeing train 'Shōwa' enters service.
• 202014 March: a passing loop is installed at Hattō Station, allowing five extra round-trips; through-running of JR West railcars onto the line ends.