Osaka Higashi Line

The Osaka Higashi Line (おおさか東線, Ōsaka-Higashi-sen) is a railway line in Osaka, Japan, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR-West). Before being named on August 23, 2007, the line was constructed with the tentative name "Osaka Outer Loop Line (大阪外環状線, Ōsaka-soto-kanjōsen)". Conceived in the 1950s during Japan's explosive postwar economic growth, it was planned as a grand "outer loop" of the city, using existing freight lines to link Amagasaki with Shin-Osaka, Suita, Awaji, Hanaten, Kami, Uriwari and Sugimotochō, with a newly-constructed segment into Osaka's (then primarily industrial) Nankō Port Town. However, with JNR's financial situation deteriorating catastrophically (culminating in its privatization) and continuing issues surrounding land acquisition and squatting by local residents on railway property, the plan was cut back to Shin-Osaka and Kami, terminating at Kyūhōji in the south. (The Hanwa Freight Line, which would have carried the southern segment from Kami to Sugimotochō, was officially abandoned by JR Freight in 2009.) The line will connect Shin-Osaka Station in northern Osaka with Kyūhōji Station in Yao, forming an arc around the eastern suburbs of the city, but currently only the southern half of the line, between Hanaten and Kyūhōji, is in operation as a connection between the Tōzai/Katamachi and Yamatoji lines.

Contents

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• Stations
• Passenger
• Former
• Freight
• References

The southern part opened on March 15, 2008. But because of problems with the illegal occupation of a site, the northern part has not started construction yet. The optimistic opening date of the said extension is in fiscal 2018.

The line is constructed and owned by the Osaka Soto-Kanjo Railway Co., Ltd. (大阪外環状鉄道株式会社, Ōsaka Sotokanjō Tetsudō Kabushiki Kaisha) as a Category-3 railway business under the Railway Business Act of Japan. JR-West and JR Freight operate trains as Category-2 railway business.