[Iwate Prefecture] Sanriku Railway continues to run today after overcoming the crisis
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There is a railway that runs along the Pacific coast of Iwate Prefecture.
Its name Rias Line of Sanriku Railway .
The Sanriku Railway, which was the last railway to open along the Sanriku Coast, has been revived even after being damaged by the disaster, and continues to run today carrying the thoughts of local people and tourists.
What is the Sanriku Railway Rias Line?
" Sanriku Railway " is a company established in the third sector system, which is also invested in public institutions such as Iwate Prefecture and Miyako City, as well as private companies such as Iwate Bank.
Known as Sanetsu .
We operate a Rias Line from Saramori Station in Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture to Kamaishi Station in Kamaishi City, Miyako Station in Miyako City, and to Kuji Station in Kuji City
The Rias Line has a total length of 163km, making it the longest line in Japan owned by a third sector railway company.
However, due to historical reasons, the line between Mori Station and Kamaishi Station is officially called the ``South Rias Line,'' the line between Kamaishi Station and Miyako Station is the ``Rias Line,'' and the line between Miyako Station and Kuji Station is the ``North Rias Line.'' It has become.
The Kotatsu Train, which runs during winter holidays and allows you to sit under a kotatsu and enjoy a boxed seafood lunch, is a specialty of Santetsu.
Currently, there are no passenger trains other than Sanriku Railway passing through Mori Station, the starting point, but there is a freight-only railway called Iwate Development Railway.
Please see this article for more information.
Railway lines along the Sanriku coast
The Sanriku Jukan Railway, which would connect areas along the Sanriku coast, had been planned since the end of the 19th century.
Starting with the Miyagi Electric Railway's Sendai Station - Ishinomaki Station section (currently the JR Senseki Line), which opened in 1928, the Hachinohe Line, Ofunato Line (the section running along the Sanriku coast has already been abolished), the Kesennuma Line (the same line), and the Yamada Line line (the section between Kamaishi Station and Miyako Station, which runs along the Sanriku coast, was transferred to Sanriku Railway in 2019).
For more information on the Senseki Line, please see this article.
Miyako Line connecting Miyako Station to Taro Station opened.
This is part of the current Northern Rias Line.
In 1973, the section between Mori Station and Yoshihama Station opened and was named the " Mori Line ," and later became part of the Minami Rias Line.
the Kuji Line , a line from Kuji Station to Fudai Station in Fudai Village, Shimohei District, opened, and later became part of the Kita Rias Line.
In 1977, the Kesennuma Line connecting Maeyachi Station and Kesennuma Station in Miyagi Prefecture was completed, and the Sanriku Jukan Railway was finally nearing completion.
Specifically, only the section from Yoshihama Station to Kamaishi Station (the section between the Mori Line and Yamada Line) and the section from Taro Station to Fudai Station (the section between the Miyako Line and Kuji Line) will remain open. It became.
However, the Sanriku Jukan Railway, which was nearing completion, faced major difficulties due to the worsening management of the National Railways.
Opening of South Rias Line and North Rias Line
Around 1980, the Japanese National Railways (Japan National Railway), which operated the current JR lines, was already saddled with huge debts and needed to improve its management.
Therefore, it was decided that construction would be frozen for lines that were not open
The three lines that had already opened, the Mori Line, Miyako Line, and Kuji Line, were selected as the first designated local transportation lines in 1981, and it was decided that they would be abolished as National Railway lines.
Specified local transportation lines are local lines that were considered suitable for conversion to bus routes in order to improve the management of JNR
. (This is not a measure aimed at
The Sanriku Jukan Railway, which took 90 years to construct from its conception, came to a standstill just before it was completed.
However, freezing construction work and designating the line as a specific local transportation line only means that construction is frozen and abolished as a JNR line.
It was decided that there would be no problem as long as a company separate from JNR was responsible for managing the line.
Therefore, Iwate Prefecture and the municipalities along the line established a third sector company on November 10, 1981.
This is
Sanriku Railway Co., Ltd. Sanriku Railway then took over the operation of JNR's Mori Line, Miyako Line, Kuji Line, and the unopened sections.
For this reason, on April 1, 1984, the 36.6km line between Mori Station and Kamaishi Station was opened as the ``Southern Rias Line,'' and the 71.0km line between Miyako Station and Kuji Station was opened as the ``Northern Rias Line.''
This marked the beginning of the Sanriku Railway, and at the same time the completion of the Sanriku Transverse Railway.
At the same time, it was the first case in which a designated local transportation line of the Japanese National Railways was converted to a third-sector railway, and was a precursor to the creation of third-sector railways across the country.
In the Tohoku region, Yuri Kogen Railway and Akita Nairiku Jukan Railway in Akita Prefecture, Abukuma Express that straddles Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures, Aizu Railway in Fukushima Prefecture, and Yamagata Railway in Yamagata Prefecture will take over specific local transportation lines similar to Sanriku Railway. This is a third sector company that was established for the purpose of
Sanriku Railway remained in the black for about 10 years after its opening, but it was reported at the board of directors meeting in May 1994 that it had fallen into the red for the first time.
The reasons for this are thought to be a decline in the number of people commuting to school due to the advancement of a motorized society, a declining birthrate, and the relocation of the prefectural hospital that was near Miyako Station.
As the business environment became more difficult, Sanriku Railway launched ``Santetsu deficit rice crackers'' in 2006.
This is a famous Sanriku Railway confectionery that was born from the idea of ``eating up the deficit and making it into the black.''
Although this rice cracker may seem spicy from its concept and appearance, it has an addictive taste, with green seaweed and sesame seeds accenting the sweet dough.
In 2009, the Railway Business Restructuring Project Implementation Plan was approved, and the land on which the railway runs is transferred to the municipalities along the line, and the municipalities lend it to Sanriku Railway free of charge. It has been decided that management support will be provided to cover the cost of repairs.
Sanriku Railway has been doing its best to somehow maintain the lives of its users, mainly local high school students, but in 2011, further hardships befall them.
Great East Japan Earthquake
The Tohoku Pacific Coast Earthquake (Great East Japan Earthquake) that occurred on March 11, 2011 caused severe damage to both the Sanriku Railway's Minami Rias Line and Kita Rias Line, making train operation impossible on all sections.
However, despite the fact that the very existence of the Sanriku Railway company is in doubt, the first step was to repair the area between Rikuchu Noda Station and Kuji Station on the Kita Rias Line, where the damage was relatively light, just five days after Train operation resumed on March 16th , and the train operated free of charge during March as a disaster recovery support train.
Opinions arose within Santetsu as to why it was necessary to run the trains so soon when there was so much damage, but in the end, Santetsu decided that if they didn't move the trains now, it would be the end of Santetsu . The president's enthusiasm at the time led to the early resumption of operations.
Then, within March, the Kita Rias Line resumed operation in sections other than between Komoto (currently Iwaizumi Komoto) Station and Rikuchu Noda Station.
Sanriku Railway continued to make strenuous efforts to resume operations, including the Minami Rias Line, but was faced with a thick wall of reality: restoration costs estimated at 10.8 billion yen.
However, with the hope that restoration costs would be funded by Iwate Prefecture and the national government, restoration work will proceed.
In NHK's TV drama series ``Ama-chan,'' which aired in the first half of 2013, ``Kitasanriku Railway,'' which was modeled after the Kita Rias Line, appeared and was in the spotlight.
By the way, Sanriku Railway's trains use ``diesel cars'' whose engines run on diesel fuel.
It's not a "train".
There is also a scene in ``Ama-chan'' where a Kitasanriku Railway driver makes such a claim.
The fact that the vehicle is a diesel vehicle is an important characteristic in the event of an emergency such as the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Unlike trains, which easily experience power outages unless electricity is supplied from an external source, diesel cars carry fuel on board, so there will be no power outages unless the diesel fuel runs out.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake, the inside of a diesel train parked at Miyako Station was used as the headquarters because electrical equipment and heating could be used inside the train.
On April 3, 2013, service resumed on the Minami Rias Line between Mori Station and Yoshihama Station.
The next day, on April 5, 2014, train operations resumed on all lines of the Minami Rias Line and on April 6, 2014, marking the first time in three years since the earthquake that trains were running on all Sanriku Railway lines. It was.
The efforts of those involved in the restoration work bore fruit, with the goal of completing the restoration work in time for the high school's entrance ceremony three years after the earthquake.
JR Yamada Line transitions to Sanriku Railway Rias Line
Among the Sanriku Jukan Railway lines, the Sanriku Railway line resumed operation three years after the earthquake, but in contrast, some lines of JR East were abolished.
The rail line of the Sanriku Jukan Railway, which was the long-cherished desire of the people of the Sanriku region, has already been discontinued on March 11, 2011, and formally on April 1, 2020.
Specifically, lines such as the Senseki Line and Hachinohe Line have resumed operation one after another, but most of the Kesennuma Line between Yanaizu Station and Kesennuma Station, and Kesennuma Station, the coastal section of the Ofunato Line. The line between Mori Station and Mori Station has been discontinued.
These lines were temporarily restored using a method called ``BRT,'' in which buses run on dedicated roads (mainly tracks that were removed to create roads), which later became permanent restoration.
In 2020, railway operations on these lines will be officially discontinued (naturally, no trains have been running since the 2011 earthquake).
The BRT system has much lower maintenance and operation costs than railways, and because it uses dedicated roads, it is less affected by road congestion and has the advantage of being able to set routes flexibly.
It is a clear fact that there are some places where it has become more convenient than the railway.
Initially, JR proposed a temporary restoration plan using BRT for the 55.4km stretch between Kamaishi Station and Miyako Station on the coastal Yamada Line, but this was rejected by local governments along the line due to the lack of merit of the BRT system. It was done.
Discussions regarding the restoration of the Yamada Line lasted for a long time until the beginning of 2015, but in the end, that JR East would restore the Yamada Line and then transfer the line to Sanriku Railway, and train operation would resume. I did.
Restoration work began in 2015, and four years later, on March 23, 2019, train service began as the Sanriku Railway Rias Line.
This marks the first time in eight years since the earthquake that a commercial train will run on this section.
Please see this article for information on the JR Yamada Line.
What was the difference between the fate of the Ofunato Line and Kesennuma Line, which were converted to BRT and abolished, and the old Yamada Line, which continued as a railway despite changing operating companies?
I think
one of them is that the old Yamada Line had a local third sector called Sanriku Railway On the Sanriku coast of Miyagi Prefecture, where the discontinued sections of the Ofunato Line and Kesennuma Line mainly ran, there was no company like Sanriku Railway that would take on these lines, even if they were prepared to run a certain amount of deficits. It is.
On the other hand, if Sanriku Railway had not been born, in other words, if JNR's Mori Line, Miyako Line, and Kuji Line had continued as JNR/JR lines, and the unopened sections had remained open. What would have happened?
I think there was a good chance that
these lines and the Yamada Line would have been discontinued as a result of the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake Leaving aside the debate over whether the initiative to eliminate local lines, called designated local transportation lines, is good or bad, the railroads along the Sanriku coast of Iwate Prefecture eventually became ``local railroads'' due to their abandonment at the end of the Japanese National Railways era. You can also look at it as if you were protected.
summary
The Sanriku Railway took over lines that had been separated from the National Railways in the final years of Japan's National Railways and started operations, and it also recovered from the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, taking over the damaged JR Yamada Line and still running today.
I hope this helped you understand how miraculous it is that there is still a railway on the Sanriku coast of Iwate Prefecture.
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