West Japan Railway Company

- 20px *Gakkentoshi Line* ::Officially Katamachi Line - 20px Hanwa Line - 20px Kansai Airport Line - 20px *JR Kobe Line* ::Officially Tōkaidō Main Line, San'yō Main Line - 20px Kosei Line - 20px *JR Kyoto Line* ::Officially Tōkaidō Main Line - 20px Nara Line - 20px Osaka Loop Line - 20px Osaka Higashi Line - 20px *Sagano Line* ::Officially San'in Main Line - 20px *Man-yo Mahoroba Line* ::Officially Sakurai Line - 20px *JR Takarazuka Line* ::Officially Fukuchiyama Line - 20px JR Tōzai Line - 20px *Yamatoji Line* ::Officially Kansai Main Line - 20px Wakayama Line - 20px *JR Yumesaki Line* ::Officially Sakurajima Line ### Intercity and regional lines A number of other lines account for more than half of JR-West's track mileage. These lines mainly handle business and leisure travel between smaller cities and rural areas in western Japan. They account for about 20% of the company's passenger revenues. #### Intercity lines - 20px Fukuchiyama Line ::Includes *JR Takarazuka Line*. - 20px Hakubi Line - 20px Hokuriku Main Line ::Includes *Biwako Line*. - 20px *Seto-Ōhashi Line*, Chayamachi — Kojima ::Officially *Seto-Ōhashi Line* - 20px Kansai Main Line, Kameyama — JR Namba ::Includes *Yamatoji Line*. - 20px Kisei Main Line, Shingū — Wakayamashi ::Includes *Kinokuni Line*. - 20px 20px 20px San'in Main Line ::Includes *Sagano Line*. - 20px 20px 20px 20px 20px 20px San'yō Main Line, Kobe — Shimonoseki, Hyōgo — Wadamisaki. ::Includes *JR Kobe Line*. - Takayama Main Line, Inotani — Toyama - 20px Tōkaidō Main Line, Maibara — Kobe ::Includes *Biwako Line*, *JR Kyoto Line*, and *JR Kobe Line*. #### Regional lines - - Etsumi-Hoku Line ::Nicknamed *Kuzuryū Line* - - Gantoku Line - - Himi Line - - Jōhana Line - - - Momotarō Line ::Officially Kibi Line - - - ::Includes *Setouchi Sazanami Line* - - - - Nanao Line - Obama Line - Ōito Line, Minami-Otari — Itoigawa - Onoda Line - - - Ube Line - Uno-Port Line ::Officially Uno Line - File:JRW Tsuyama express train.jpg|A diesel train on a Tsuyama Line express service ## Named train services Limited express services operated by JR West include: - *Haruka*, *Kuroshio* - *Thunderbird*, *Shirasagi* - *Noto Kagaribi* - *Kounotori*, *Hamakaze* - *Rakuraku Harima* - *Rakuraku Yamato*, *Mahoroba* - *Kinosaki*, *Hashidate*, *Maizuru* - *Yakumo* - *Super Hakuto*, *Super Inaba* - *Super Matsukaze*, *Super Oki* - *Sunrise Seto*, *Sunrise Izumo* - *Rakuraku Biwako* Limited express trains operated by other JR Group companies which also serve stations in the JR West area include the *Hida, Nanki, Shiokaze*, and *Nampu.* ## Other businesses JR-West subsidiaries include the following. - West Japan Railway Hotel Development Company - Owns Hotel Granvia Kyoto, Hotel Granvia Osaka, Hotel Granvia Wakayama, Hotel Granvia Okayama, Hotel Granvia Hiroshima, Nara Hotel, Sannomiya Terminal Hotel and Hotel Hopinn Aming - West Japan Railway Isetan - A joint venture with Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd; operates the Isetan department store in Kyoto Station - West JR Bus Company - Intercity bus operator - Chūgoku JR Bus Company - Intercity bus operator - Japan Railway West Trading Co. - Nippon Travel Agency Co., Ltd. - Sagano Scenic Railway - JR-West Miyajima Ferry Company - operator of JR Miyajima Ferry service to the island of Miyajima ## History JR-West was incorporated as a business corporation (kabushiki kaisha) on April 1, 1987, as part of the breakup of the state-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). Initially, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the JNR Settlement Corporation (JNRSC), a special company created to hold the assets of the former JNR while they were shuffled among the new JR companies. For the first four years of its existence, JR-West leased its highest-revenue line, the Sanyō Shinkansen, from the separate Shinkansen Holding Corporation. JR-West purchased the line in October 1991 at a cost of 974.1 billion JPY (about US$7.2 billion) in long-term debt. JNRSC sold 68.3% of JR-West in an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 1996. After JNRSC was dissolved in October 1998, its shares of JR-West were transferred to the government-owned Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation (JRCC), which merged into the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) as part of a bureaucratic reform package in October 2003. JRTT offered all of its shares in JR-West to the public in an international IPO in 2004, ending the era of government ownership of JR-West. JR-West is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange, Osaka Securities Exchange and Fukuoka Stock Exchange. ## Accidents and incidents - Shigaraki train disaster: A collision between a JR West and a Shigaraki Kōgen Railway train in Shigaraki (now Koka), Shiga Prefecture on 14 May 1991, killed 42 people. - Amagasaki derailment: A train derailment in Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture on 25 April 2005, killed 107 people. ## References ## References 1. West Japan Railway Company. (September 2023). ["JR West 2013 Annual Business Report (Japanese)"](http://www5.tse.or.jp/disc/90210/140120130531055809.pdf). 2. West Japan Railway Company. ["JR West 2013 Earnings Summary (Japanese)"](http://www.nikkei.com/markets/ir/irftp/data/tdnr2/tdnetg3/20130430/816od2/140120130419020534.pdf). 3. West Japan Railway Company. (April 27, 2012). ["Supplemental Data Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2011"](https://www.westjr.co.jp/english/ir/library/supplemental-data/pdf/supple20120427.pdf). 4. West Japan Railway Company. ["Company Profile 2007-2008 ebook"](https://www.westjr.co.jp/english/company/). 5. West Japan Railway Company. ["2011 Annual Report"](https://www.westjr.co.jp/english/ir/library/annual-report/2011/pdf/jr_west_annual_report_2011.pdf). 6. ["Train Status Information - Limited Express Trains"](https://global.trafficinfo.westjr.co.jp/en/express). ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Japan_Railway_Company) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Japan_Railway_Company?action=history). ::