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There is a railway that runs along the Pacific coast of Iwate Prefecture. It is called Rias Line of Sanriku Railway . The last railway to open along the Sanriku coast, the Sanriku Railway recovered after suffering damage from the great disaster, and today it continues to run, carrying the thoughts of local people and tourists alike.
What is the Sanriku Railway Rias Line?
Sanriku Railway is a third-sector company established with investments from public institutions such as Iwate Prefecture and Miyako City, as well as private companies such as Iwate Bank. It is commonly known as Santetsu . It operates the Rias Line , which runs from Sakari Station in Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture, to Kuji Station in Kuji City, passing through Kamaishi Station in Kamaishi City and Miyako Station in Miyako City
Sanriku Railway trains
The Rias Line stretches for a total length of 163 km, making it the longest line in Japan owned by a third-sector railway company. However, due to historical reasons, the section between Mori Station and Kamaishi Station is officially called the "South Rias Line," the section between Kamaishi Station and Miyako Station is called the "Rias Line," and the section between Miyako Station and Kuji Station is called the "North Rias Line." The "Kotatsu Train," which operates on winter holidays and allows passengers to savor a seafood bento lunch while sitting in a kotatsu, is a Sanriku Railway specialty.
Currently, there are no passenger trains other than Sanriku Railway that run through Mori Station, the starting point of the line, but there is a freight-only railway called Iwate Development Railway that runs through the station. For more information, please see this article.
The Sanriku Longitudinal Railway, which would connect the Sanriku coastal regions, was conceived around the end of the 19th century. Starting with the Miyagi Electric Railway's Sendai Station to Ishinomaki Station (now the JR Senseki Line), which opened in 1928, other lines were opened, including the Hachinohe Line, Ofunato Line (the section running along the Sanriku coast has already been abolished), Kesennuma Line (same), and Yamada Line (the section running along the Sanriku coast between Kamaishi Station and Miyako Station was transferred to Sanriku Railway in 2019). For more information on the Senseki Line, please see this article.
Furthermore, in 1972, the Miyako Line , opened. This is a section of the current Kita-Rias Line. In 1973, the section between Mori Station and Yoshihama Station opened, named Mori Linethe Kuji Line , running from Kuji Station to Fudai Station in Fudai Village, Shimohei District, opened, and this too would later become 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 Longitudinal Railway was finally nearing completion. Specifically, the only sections left to open were the section from Yoshihama Station to Kamaishi Station (between the Mori Line and Yamada Line) and the section from Taro Station to Fudai Station (between the Miyako Line and Kuji Line). However, even as the Sanriku Longitudinal Railway neared completion, it faced a major challenge: the worsening financial situation of the Japanese National Railways.
Opening of the Minami-Rias Line and Kita-Rias Line
Around 1980, the Japanese National Railways (JNR), which operated the current JR lines, was already in huge debt and in need of management reform. As a result it was decided to freeze construction on lines that had not yet opened
The three lines that had already opened, the Mori Line, Miyako Line, and Kuji Line, were selected as the first designated local lines in 1981, and it was decided that they would be abolished as JNR lines. Designated local lines are local lines that were deemed appropriate for conversion into bus routes or similar in order to improve JNR's management (although it is often misunderstood, this was not a measure aimed at privatizing JNR and turning it into JR). The Sanriku Longitudinal Railway, which had been conceived and taken 90 years to build, came to a halt just before completion.
However, both the freeze on construction and the designation as a designated local transportation line only meant that construction would be frozen and the line would be abolished for the JNR. 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 was Sanriku Railway Co. , Ltd. Sanriku Railway took over the operation of JNR's Mori Line, Miyako Line, Kuji Line, and the unopened sections.
As a result of this, the 36.6 km section between Sakari Station and Kamaishi Station was opened as the Minami-Rias Line, and the 71.0 km section between Miyako Station and Kuji Station was opened as the Kita-Rias Line on April 1, 1984. This marked the start of the Sanriku Railway and the completion of the Sanriku Longitudinal Railway.
Osawa Bridge between Shirai-Kaigan Station and Horiuchi Station on the Rias Line (Kita-Rias Line)
At the same time, it was the first case of a designated local railway line of the Japanese National Railways being converted into a third-sector railway, and it became a pioneer in the birth of third-sector railways all over the country. In the Tohoku region, the Yuri Kogen Railway and Akita Nairiku Jukan Railway in Akita Prefecture, the Abukuma Express spanning Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures, the Aizu Railway in Fukushima Prefecture, and the Yamagata Railway in Yamagata Prefecture are third-sector companies established to take over designated local railway lines like Sanriku Railway.
Sanriku Railway continued to operate in the black for around ten years after opening, but in May 1994, at a board meeting, it was reported that the company had fallen into the red for the first time. The reasons for this include the increasing adoption of cars, a decrease in school commuters due to a declining birthrate, and the relocation of the prefectural hospital near Miyako Station.
As the business environment became increasingly difficult, Sanriku Railway launched "Sanriku Railway Deficit Rice Crackers" in 2006. This is a Sanriku Railway specialty confectionery born from the idea of "eating up the deficit and turning it into a profit." While the concept and appearance of the rice crackers make them seem spicy, they are characterized by their addictive taste, with a sweet dough topped with green laver and sesame seeds as accents.
In 2009, the Railway Business Restructuring Project Implementation Plan was approved, and it was decided that management support would be provided, such as transferring the land on which the railway runs to municipalities along the line, which would then lease it to Sanriku Railway free of charge, and that municipalities along the line and Iwate Prefecture would cover the costs of updating and repairing Sanriku Railway facilities.Sanriku Railway had been doing its utmost to maintain the livelihoods of its users, mainly local high school students, but in 2011 further hardship hit it.
Great East Japan Earthquake
The Tohoku Pacific Ocean Earthquake (Great East Japan Earthquake) that occurred on March 11, 2011, caused extensive damage to both the Sanriku Railway Minami-Rias Line and Kita-Rias Line, halting train service on all sections. Despite the situation putting the very existence of the Sanriku Railway in jeopardy, train service resumed on March 16, just five days after the disaster, on the Kita-Rias Line between Rikuchu-Noda Station and Kuji Station, which had sustained relatively little damage. Trains operated free of charge throughout March as disaster relief trains. While some within Sanriku Railway questioned why trains needed to be running so quickly given the extensive damage, the enthusiasm of the then-president, who said, "If we don't get trains running now, Sanriku Railway will be finished ," ultimately led to the early resumption of service. Within March, service on the Kita-Rias Line resumed on all sections except between Omoto (now Iwaizumi-Omoto) Station and Rikuchu-Noda Station.
Sanriku Railway has been making strenuous efforts to resume operations, including on the Minami-Rias Line, but the reality of the estimated restoration costs of 10.8 billion yen stood in its way. However, with the restoration costs now expected to be covered by Iwate Prefecture and the national government, restoration work is set to move forward. The NHK drama series "Amachan," which aired in the first half of 2013, featured the "Kita-Sanriku Railway," which was modeled on the Kita-Rias Line, and attracted some attention.
Horiuchi Station on the Sanriku Railway, which appears as Sodegahama Station in "Amachan"
By the way, Sanriku Railway trains use diesel railcars, which run on diesel fuel. They are not electric trains. There is a scene in "Amachan" where a driver of the Kitasanriku Railway makes this point.
The fact that the trains are diesel railcars is an important feature in emergencies like the Great East Japan Earthquake. Unlike trains, which easily suffer power outages if they don't receive an external power supply, diesel railcars carry their own fuel, so they won't suffer power outages unless they run out of diesel. Because electrical equipment and heating can be used inside the cars, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the inside of a diesel railcar parked at Miyako Station was used as a headquarters.
On April 3, 2013, service resumed on the Minami-Rias Line between Mori Station and Yoshihama Station. The following year, on April 5, 2014, train service resumed on the Minami-Rias Line, and on April 6, on the entire Kita-Rias Line, marking the first time trains have run on the entire Sanriku Railway line in three years since the disaster. The efforts of those involved in the restoration work, with the motto of completing the work in time for the high school entrance ceremonies three years after the disaster, have borne fruit.
JR Yamada Line will be transferred to Sanriku Railway Rias Line
The Sanriku Railway line resumed operation three years after the disaster, but in contrast to this, some JR East lines were abolished. The rails of the Sanriku Railway, a long-cherished dream of the people of the Sanriku region, were actually cut off on March 11, 2011, and technically on April 1, 2020.
Specifically, while lines such as the Senseki Line and Hachinohe Line have gradually resumed operation, most of the Kesennuma Line between Yanaizu Station and Kesennuma Station, and the coastal section of the Ofunato Line between Kesennuma Station and Mori Station, have been discontinued. These routes were temporarily restored using a BRT system, where buses run on dedicated roads (mainly where the railroad tracks have been removed and replaced with roads), and this system will later be fully restored. In 2020, railway operations on these lines were officially discontinued (naturally, no trains had run on them since the 2011 earthquake). The BRT system has the advantages of being much cheaper to maintain and operate than rail, being less affected by road congestion because it runs on dedicated roads, and allowing for more flexible route planning. It is certainly true that in some ways it has become more convenient than rail.
JR initially proposed a tentative plan to restore the 55.4km coastal section of the Yamada Line between Kamaishi Station and Miyako Station using BRT, but this was rejected by local governments along the line due to the limited benefits of the BRT system. Discussions over the restoration of the Yamada Line dragged on until the beginning of 2015, but it was ultimately decided that JR East would restore the Yamada Line and then transfer it to Sanriku Railway, allowing train service to resume. Restoration work began in 2015, and four years later, on March 23, 2019, train service began on the Sanriku Railway Rias Line. This marked the first time commercial trains had run on this section in eight years since the earthquake. For more information on the JR Yamada Line, please see this article.
What was the difference between the fate of the Ofunato Line and Kesennuma Line, which were converted to BRT and discontinued, and the former Yamada Line, which continued as a railway despite changing operating companies? There are several factors, but one of them is that the former Yamada Line had a local third-sector company, Sanriku Railway, that could take over the line . Along 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 was willing to take over these lines even if it meant operating at a certain level of deficit.
Conversely, what would have happened if the Sanriku Railway had never been established? In other words, what would have happened if the JNR Mori Line, Miyako Line, and Kuji Line had continued to exist as JNR and JR lines, and the unopened sections had continued to open? I think it's entirely possible that these lines, as well as the Yamada Line, would have been abandoned following the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake Setting aside the debate over whether the initiative to abandon local lines, known as designated local transportation lines, was good or bad, one could also say that by being abandoned at the end of the JNR era, the railways along Iwate Prefecture's Sanriku coast ultimately became "local railways" and were protected.
summary
Sanriku Railway opened by taking over a line that had been separated from the Japanese National Railways at the end of its existence, and recovered from the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, taking over the damaged JR Yamada Line, which is still in operation today. I hope that this article has helped to understand how miraculous it is that a railway still exists along the Sanriku coast of Iwate Prefecture.
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