JR West Kansai Main Line, Kamo to Kameyama

[Sacto1985]

YouTube member saremya filmed this zenmen tenbou video of a trip on the non-electrified portion of the Kansai Main Line between Kamo and Kameyama Stations:

 

 

Unfortunately, the picture quality is not the best, but you can clearly see the rural nature of the line. And more rural than you think--the train, a KiHa 120-300, smacked a deer around the 30:34 time in the video, and you can clearly hear the sound of the collision and the driver forced to make an emergency stop right afterwards.

 

For those of prurient interest, saremya showed a better version of this unfortunate collision here:

 

Edited September 28, 2014 by Sacto1985

[westfalen]

When my friend and I rode the line last December I was surprised by how rural it was.  A pleasent way to get from Osaka to Nagoya.

[miyakoji]

It just makes me wonder what the criteria are for "main line" classification :)

[westfalen]

It just makes me wonder what the criteria are for "main line" classification :)

It would have been considered a main line years ago when there was more freight traffic and before the Shinkansen took away the lion's share of Osaka - Nagoya passengers and the designation just stuck, just like a good portion of the Hakodate Main Line on Hokkaido is just a country byway today.  You can see how busy the Kansai Main Line once was by the long passing sidings and extra tracks removed at stations where limited express trains would have overtaken locals and freights.

 

Why such lines are never reclassified though is a good question.

[railsquid]

Same goes for the Shin'etsu Honsen from Takasaki to Yokogawa.

[bikkuri bahn]

The Kansai Main Line really had its heyday early in its life, when it was part of the private Kansai Railway.  It was locked in fierce competition with the government railway line between Nagoya and Osaka (the Tokaido Main Line).  Apparently to attract passengers, the Kansai Railway introduced the now common "ekiben" on their services.　However, the railway was nationalised in 1907, and of course the government favored the Tokaido Line for its main traffic, including later electrification while the Kansai Main Line remained a steam powered route. Post-war, the Kintetsu Railway consolidated its route between Osaka and Nagoya (first with a change of trains at Nakagawa, and then with the standard gauging of the Nagoya Line coupled with the Nakagawa cutoff), offering a competitive service to the Tokaido Main Line.  The Kansai Main Line was relegated to the status of a secondary main line.

[bikkuri bahn]

Same goes for the Shin'etsu Honsen from Takasaki to Yokogawa.

As a matter of fact, the Shin'etsu Main Line was once the main route between Tokyo and Niigata, before the opening of the tunnels on the Joetsu Main Line.

[Sacto1985]

As a matter of fact, the Shin'etsu Main Line was once the main route between Tokyo and Niigata, before the opening of the tunnels on the Joetsu Main Line.

 

When the Jōetsu Line fully opened in the 1930's, saved some 98 km of rail travel compared to using the Shin'etsu Main LIne--more importantly, you didn't have to deal with Usui Pass with the steepest railroad grades in Japan.

 

But getting back on topic, JGR chose to increase track capacity on the Tokaidō Main Line because the line passed through Kyoto instead of increasing capacity on the Kansai Main Line, which would have bypassed Kyoto.

 

By the way, I do think Kintetsu upgraded the capacity of its line between Osaka and Nagoya because of the need to increase capacity to the Ise Peninsula.

[Sacto1985]

YouTube member windowside5489jp recently posted a better quality zenmen tenbou video of the trip through the rural part of the Kansai Main Line, this time from Kameyama west to Kamo: