The Yokosuka Line connects Tokyo Station with Kurihama in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. Officially, the name Yokosuka Line is assigned to the 23.9 km segment between Ōfuna and Kurihama stations, but the entire route is commonly referred to as the Yokosuka Line by JR East for passenger service.
The Yokosuka Line runs underground between Tokyo and Shinagawa (parallel to the Tōkaidō Main Line, the Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tōhoku Line) then branches to the west along the Tōkaidō Shinkansen into the city of Kawasaki. (This alignment, technically known as the Hinkaku Line(Japanese: 品鶴線, Japanese pronunciation: [Hinkaku-sen]), was originally built for freight usage; see below.) It rejoins the Tōkaidō Main Line corridor near Tsurumi Station and follows the Tōkaidō Main Line to Ōfuna, where it branches off to the southeast along the original Yokosuka Line toward the Miura Peninsula.
Services
Yokosuka Line local trains make all stops. Most trains have 11 cars, with two of those being Green (first class) cars. Other trains between Tokyo and Zushi are made up of 15 cars—an 11-car set joined to a 4-car set. (Due to shorter platform length at stations south of Zushi, only 11-car trains are operated to Kurihama.) Some day-time trains operate between Zushi and Kurihama and these trains are made up of 4-car set without Green Cars.
Shōnan-Shinjuku Line trains enter or exit the Yokosuka Line at Nishi-Ōi. Utsunomiya–Yokosuka Line through services make all stops on the Yokosuka Line between Nishi-Ōi and Zushi, while Takasaki–Tōkaidō Line through services operate Rapid service within the Yokosuka Line, between Nishi-Ōi and Ōfuna, skipping Nishi-Ōi, Shin-Kawasaki, Hodogaya and Higashi-Totsuka.
For information on the Narita Express and other limited express services, see their respective articles.
The Yokosuka Line has through service onto the Sōbu Line to Chiba and beyond. Some trains travel as far as:
The section between Yokosuka and Kurihama is single-tracked; trains can only pass one another at Kinugasa and Kurihama stations.
Local trains stop at all stations, from Tokyo to Kurihama. Meanwhile, Shōnan–Shinjuku Line (Utsunomiya–Yokosuka Line) stop at all stations between Nishi-Ōi and Zushi.
Shōnan–Shinjuku Line (Takasaki–Tōkaidō Line) operate Rapid service on the Yokosuka Line.
Legends:
● : Trains stop
| : Trains pass
▲ : Shōnan–Shinjuku Line (Takasaki–Tōkaidō Line) trains use Tōkaidō Line platforms
The Yokosuka Line was constructed in response to the request to the Cabinet by the Navy and the Army, dated June 22, 1886, citing the lack of ground transportation to Yokosuka, one of the most important military bases in the country. On April 22, 1887 the Cabinet ordered the Government Railways to build the line with the budget diverted from the fund for the Tōkaidō Line construction. After the survey from July to December 1887, the construction of the railway between Ōfuna and Yokosuka started in January 1888 and completed in June 1889 spending 408,480 yen in total. The operation of the line started on June 16, 1889.[3]
16 June 1889: Line opens between Ōfuna and Yokosuka with intermediate stations at Kamakura and Zushi
1 April 1895: Line becomes part of the Tōkaidō Line
1 May 1904: Taura Station opens
12 October 1909: Line renamed the Yokosuka Line
12 August 1914: Line doubled-tracked between Zushi and Numama Signal Box (newly built between Zushi and Taura)
13 September 1916: Line doubled-tracked between Ōfuna and Kamakura
March 1917: Line doubled-tracked between Kamakura and Zushi
20 October 1920: Line doubled-tracked between Numama Signal Box and Taura
25 December 1924: Line doubled-tracked between Taura and Yokosuka
23 December 1925: Entire line electrified; electric locomotives begin operation between Tokyo and Yokosuka
20 May 1927: Kita-Kamakura Station (temporary) opens
15 March 1930: Service with electric multiple units (EMU) begins
1 October 1930: Kita-Kamakura Station becomes a permanent station
1 April 1944: Line was extended to Kurihama; Kinugasa Station opens
April–August 1945: Sagami-Kanaya Station (temporary) is operated to serve a military base between Yokosuka and Kinugasa
1 April 1952: Higashi-Zushi Station opens
16 June 1968: Luggage on a Yokosuka Line train exploded near Ōfuna Station, killing one and injuring 14. The culprit, a man in his 20s, testified that he had not meant to kill anyone, but to frighten his ex-fiancée, who had left him for an acquaintance; however, he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.
1 October 1974: Freight service abolished between Yokosuka and Kurihama
1 October 1976: New double-tracked underground line between Tokyo and Shinagawa opens; Sōbu Line (Rapid) trains terminate at Shinagawa
1 October 1980: Separated Tōkaidō Line tracks between Tokyo and Ōfuna opened for Yokosuka Line service; Shin-Kawasaki, Higashi-Totsuka stations open; Hodogaya Station served only by Yokosuka Line trains
1 February 1984: Freight service abolished between Yokosuka and Zushi
2 April 1986: Nishi-Ōi station opens
2 May 1998: Through service to Zushi from the Yokohama and Negishi lines are operated on weekends and holidays
1 December 2001: Shōnan-Shinjuku Line begins operation
16 October 2004: Major revision of Shōnan-Shinjuku Line services; Shinjuku-terminating trains abolished
1 May 2006: JR Freight ceases operations between Taura and Zushi
15 March 2008: Weekend/holiday through service to Zushi from the Yokohama and Negishi lines is abolished; new Yokosuka Line platform installed at Shinagawa Station
13 March 2010: Yokosuka Line service at Musashi-Kosugi Station commences
13 March 2015: Ohayō Liner Zushi and Home Liner Zushi are discontinued.
20 August 2016: Station numbering was introduce with stations being assigned station numbers between JO01 and JO19.[4][5] Numbers increase towards in the northbound direction towards Tokyo.
17 March 2018: Airport Narita services are discontinued.
Hinkaku Line
The Hinkaku Line (品鶴線, Hinkaku-sen) was originally built to divert freight traffic from the busy Tōkaidō Main Line, providing an alternate route between Tokyo and Tsurumi. After a 1967 explosion, freight trains were banned from portions of the central Tokyo rail network, providing the impetus for the construction of the orbital Musashino Line. The new Musashino Line was connected to the Hinkaku Line roughly 6 km north of Tsurumi Station near Musashi-Kosugi, siphoning off nearly all freight traffic after its opening in 1975. This left a substantial chunk of the double-tracked, mostly grade-separated Hinkaku Line disused.
In order to put the line back into passenger service, a new 6 km track was installed between Tsurumi Station and the Musashino Line, where it was connected to the now-disused portion of the Hinkaku Line. Two new stations were constructed: one (Shin-Kawasaki) adjacent to the existing Kashimada Station on the Nambu Line in 1980 and another at Nishi-Ōi in 1986. Musashi-Kosugi Station, the third station in this section opened in 2010 and provides a transfer to the Nambu Line as well as the TōkyūTōyoko and Meguro lines.
^"横須賀・総武快速線 E235 系営業運転開始について"(PDF). East Japan Railway Company (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
^Ministry of Railways (1921). 日本鉄道史 上巻 [History of Japanese Railways, Volume 1]. p. 501.
^"⾸都圏エリアへ 「駅ナンバリング」を導⼊します" [Introduce “station numbering” to the Tokyo metropolitan area] (PDF). jreast.co.jp (in Japanese). 6 April 2016. Archived from the original(PDF) on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
^Kusamachi, Yoshikazu (7 April 2016). "JA・JK・JT・AKB…JR東日本、首都圏で駅ナンバリングなど導入へ" [JA, JK, JT, AKB … JR East to introduce station numbering in the Tokyo metropolitan area]. Response Automotive Media (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 6 August 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
External links
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