Sagano/San'in Line Double Track

[miyakoji]

Hello all,

 

Well, the work to fully* double track the Sagano Line aka San'in Main Line between Kyoto and Sonobe has been done for a while now.  I used to ride this pretty frequently and the single-track sections were painful.  Here is the full ride, inbound, from the excellent youtube contributor aomonoya:

 

Sonobe - Kameoka:

 

 

Kameoka - Saga-Arashiyama:

 

 

Saga-Arashiyama - Kyoto:

 

 

(He also has the outbound run on youtube).

 

I'm glad to see this work done.  However, I wonder why this appears to have been done in two phases--about 20 years apart!  Work was done to elevate the Kyoto - Emmachi section (or thereabout), the tunnels between Hozukyo and Umahori were built double tracked, but then significant lengths, including on the newly elevated sections, were left single-tracked.  Strange, I think.  Does anyone know if it was a lack of funding?

 

Visible at 9:15 in the third video is the "San'in Connector Line" or something like that, which looks useful but of course bypasses Kyoto Station!

 

Also, my asterisk at the top marks a statement that is not entirely true--notice that after passing the connector, more new track was added, but at 10:25, oops, the Sagano Line still has a single-track section.

 

Additionally there's the siding at 10:16 with what appears to be an active switch, although it doesn't look long enough to store much of anything.

[bikkuri bahn]

I'm glad to see this work done.  However, I wonder why this appears to have been done in two phases--about 20 years apart!  Work was done to elevate the Kyoto - Emmachi section (or thereabout), the tunnels between Hozukyo and Umahori were built double tracked, but then significant lengths, including on the newly elevated sections, were left single-tracked.  Strange, I think.  Does anyone know if it was a lack of funding?

 

Good question.  Probably this line was not a priority in funding, as the passenger volume didn't justify the expense of upgrading too quickly.  Also, I think there were some issues of space within the Kyoto city limits, overcome through the gradual introduction of elevated sections.  Electrification was not introduced until 1990, and that was only on the first section.  Unlike a lot of the JR lines in the Kansai area, there is no competing private railway, so that incentive is absent also.

 

Nice website with many pictures of the Sagano Line:

 

http://www.kokyu-gr.jp/railtrip/saganotop.html

[miyakoji]

Great pics there bikkuri, thanks for the link, and too many things to comment on!  Some things that come to mind however are the retirement of 113/115s, that awkward offset in the tracks on the north side of Nijo, and the author's calling the San'in Connector Line (as it's called on Wikipedia) the Umekoji Delta Line.  It also appears that they ran "rust removal" trains.  On youtube there are videos of 117s being run on the Hanwa Freight Line even after they knew they were going to permanently close it, I believe.