The is a public transport company in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is abbreviated as or . The company was founded in 1909. The company operates railway and bus lines.
Railway lines Kikuchi Line (菊池線) Kami-Kumamoto — Kita-Kumamoto — Miyoshi: Fujisaki Line (藤崎線) Kita-Kumamoto — Fujisakigū-mae: A short section of the Fujisaki Line shares its track with public road.
Routes and services Train services operate on two routes:
Kami-Kumamoto — Kita-Kumamoto (a portion of the Kikuchi Line) Miyoshi — Kita-Kumamoto — Fujisakigū-mae (the remaining portion of the Kikuchi Line combined with the Fujisaki Line)
Services from the 3 termini (Kami-Kumamoto, Miyoshi and Fujisakigū-mae) meet at Kita-Kumamoto at the same times allowing seamless transfer between services.
From 3 February 2025, Kumamoto Electric Railway implemented service reductions due to chronic driver shortages. Kami-Kumamoto – Kita-Kumamoto services will operate every 40 minutes (previously every 30 minutes), and Miyoshi – Kita-Kumamoto – Fujisakigū-mae services will operate every 20 minutes during morning & evening peak hours (previously every 15 minutes) and every 40 minutes at other times (previously every 30 minutes).
At Kami-Kumamoto, passengers can transfer to JR Kyushu Kagoshima Line trains and Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau tram (streetcar) Route B.
Rolling stock All trains are 2-car sets acquired second-hand from other operators.
Current 1000 series EMUs (former Shizuoka Railway 1000 series), since March 2022 03 series EMUs (former Tokyo Metro 03 series), 3 x 2-car sets, since April 2019 01 series EMUs (former Tokyo Metro 01 series), 2 x 2-car sets, since March 2015 6000 series EMUs (former Toei 6000 series), 5 x 2-car sets, since 1995
Former
200 series EMU (former Nankai Electric Railway 22000 series) 5000 series EMUs (former Tokyu 5000 series)
History The forerunner of the company, , was established in on 15 August 1909, and opened the gauge steam-hauled line from (close to the present-day Kami-Kumamoto Station) to (present-day Fujisakigū-mae Station) on 1 October 1911. On 27 August 1913, the line between Ikeda and (later named Kikuchi) was opened.
From 31 August 1923, the line was converted to gauge and electrified at 600 V DC.
The current section of the Kikuchi Line between Kita-Kumamoto and Kami-Kumamoto opened on 1 October 1950, resulting in two lines between those stations, the original via Fujisakigū-mae and the new line. In June 1953 the original line from Kami-Kumamoto to Fujisakigū-mae closed. The 13.5 km Miyoshi to Kikuchi section closed on 16 February 1986 due to falling patronage.
See also List of railway companies in Japan
References This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia.
External links