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Katsuyama Eiheiji Line

Echizen Railway
Katsuyama Eiheiji Line
Katsuyama Station platform 200507.jpg
Echizen Railway MC6101 series train at Katsuyama Station
Overview
Type Heavy rail
Locale Fukui Prefecture
Termini Fukui
Katsuyama
Stations 22
Operation
Opened 1914
Owner Echizen Railway
Technical
Line length 27.8 km
Track gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Electrification 600 V DC, overhead catenary

The Katsuyama Eiheiji Line (勝山永平寺線 Katsuyama Eiheiji-sen?) is a railway line operated by Echizen Railway in Fukui Prefecture. The line extends 27.8 km from the city of Fukui to Katsuyama with a total of 23 stations. It was operated by Keifuku Electric Railway until 2001; Echizen Railway took over the line in 2003.

Trains run twice per hour during the day; during morning peak hours between 7:00 and 9:00, three trains run per hour. There is a single Fukui-bound rapid train each morning, as well as a local "Mezamashi Train" (lit. "wake-up train") departing Katsuyama at 5:09 every Monday morning that connects with Osaka and Nagoya-bound JR West limited express trains departing from Fukui Station.

Kyoto Dentō, a former body of Keifuku began operating the line in 1914 between Shin-Fukui Station and Ichiarakawa Station (now Echizen-Takehara Station). The line was extended in 1918 to Ōno-Sanban Station (later renamed to Keifuku-Ōno), and again to Fukui Station in 1929. In 1974 due to falling ridership, the section from Katsuyama to Keifuku-Ōno was closed. In 1998, Keifuku proposed that the section from Eiheijiguchi to Katsuyama also be closed, but after local opposition the line was kept open. On December 17, 2000, a train entering from the Eiheiji Line at Higashi-Furuichi (now Eiheijiguchi) Station could not stop due to brake problems and collided with another train on the Echizen Main Line, killing the driver and injuring 24 passengers. Only six months later on June 24, 2001, two trains going different directions collided head-on between Hota and Hossaka stations on the Echizen Main Line injuring 24. These two accidents forced Keifuku to cease operation in 2001 and eventually transfer its Fukui Prefecture lines to Echizen Railway in 2003.

Echizen Railway uses twenty-five cars total in its entire railway. The main type active is the MC6101 with twelve cars, followed by MC2101 with eight cars, MC6001 with two cars, and three other types with one car each.


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