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 Six-track section near theUmeda Station terminal;Nakatsu Station in the center | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Hankyu Hanshin Holdings(Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group) |
| Headquarters | Osaka, Japan |
| Locale | Kansai region, Japan |
| Dates of operation | 1910 (established in 1907)– |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
| Length | 138.4 km (86.0 mi) |
| Other | |
| Website | https://www.hankyu.co.jp/en/ |
Hankyu Corporation (阪急電鉄株式会社,Hankyū Dentetsu kabushiki gaisha;lit. 'Hankyu Electric Railway Stock Company'),trading asHankyu Railway (阪急電鉄,Hankyū Dentetsu;lit. 'Hankyu Electric Railway'), is a Japaneseprivate railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northernKansai region. It is one of the flagship properties ofHankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of theHankyu Hanshin Toho Group (which includesH2O Retailing Corporation andToho Co., the creator ofGodzilla). The railway's main terminal is atUmeda Station in Osaka. The signature color of Hankyu cars ismaroon.[1]
The Hankyu network serves 1,950,000 people every weekday and offers several types of express service with no extra charge.
The head offices ofHankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc. and Hankyu Corporation are at 1-16-1, Shibata,Kita-ku, Osaka; both companies' registered headquarters are atIkeda Station, 1-1, Sakaemachi,Ikeda,Osaka Prefecture.
TheTakarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theatre performance company, is well known as a division of the Hankyu railway company; all of its members are employed by Hankyu.
The nameHankyu is an abbreviation ofKeihanshin Kyūkō (京阪神急行).
Keihanshin (京阪神) refers to the area served by Hankyu trains, comprising the cities ofKyoto (京都),Osaka (大阪) andKobe (神戸), along with the suburbs that connect them to each other.
Kyūkō (急行) means "express train(s)".
In 1907, the Minoo Arima Electric Tramway Company (箕面有馬電気軌道株式会社,Minoo Arima Denki Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha), a forerunner ofHankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc., was established byIchizō Kobayashi (precisely, he was one of the "promoters" of the tramway).On 10 March 1910, Minoo Arima Tramway opened the rail lines from Umeda to Takarazuka (theTakarazuka Main Line) and from Ishibashi to Minoo (theMinoo Line). The tramway was popular due to Kobayashi's pioneering act to develop housing around stations along the line (a first in Japan), a forerunner totransit-oriented developments.
On February 4, 1918, Minoo Arima Tramway was renamed Hanshin Kyūkō Railway Company (阪神急行電鉄株式会社,Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu Kabushiki-gaisha; referred to as "Hankyū",阪急).
On July 16, 1920, theKobe Main Line from Jūsō to Kobe (later, renamed Kamitsutsui) and the Itami Line from Tsukaguchi to Itami were opened.
On April 1, 1936, the Kobe Main Line was extended from Nishi-Nada (present-day Ōji-kōen) to the new terminal in Kobe (present-dayKobe-Sannomiya Station), and the Kobe Main Line from Nishi-Nada to Kamitsutsui was named the Kamitsutsui Line, which was abandoned on May 20, 1940.
In 1936, Hankyu established aprofessional baseball team and in 1937 theNishinomiya Stadium as the team's home field was completed nearNishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station. The Hankyu Braves (named in 1947) played until the 1988 season and became the predecessors of the present-dayOrix Buffaloes.
On October 1, 1943, under the order of the government, Hanshin Kyūkō andKeihan Electric Railway were merged, and renamed Keihanshin Kyūkō Railway Company (京阪神急行電鉄株式会社,Keihanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu Kabushiki-gaisha; referred to as "Keihanshin",京阪神). The merged lines included theKeihan Main Line, theUji Line, theShinkeihan Line (present-day Kyoto Main Line), theSenriyama Line (present-day Senri Line), the Jūsō Line (part of Kyoto Main Line), theArashiyama Line, theKeishin Line and theIshiyama Sakamoto Line. TheKatano Line was also added in 1945.
On December 1, 1949, the Keihan Main Line, the Katano Line, the Uji Line, the Keishin Line, and the Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line were split off to become part of the newly establishedKeihan Electric Railway Co., Ltd. Although this revived the former Keihan Electric Railway, Keihan was now smaller than before the 1943 merger, because the Shinkeihan Line and its branches were not given up by Keihanshin. The present structure of the Hankyu network with the three main lines was fixed by this transaction. The abbreviation of Keihanshin Kyūkō Railway was changed from "Keihanshin" to "Hankyū".
On April 7, 1968, the Kobe Main Line started through service to theKobe Rapid Transit RailwayTozai Line and theSanyo Electric RailwayMain Line.
On December 6, 1969, the Kyoto Main Line and the Senri Line started through service to theOsaka Municipal SubwaySakaisuji Line. In 1970, the Senri Line was one of access routes to theExpo '70 held in Senri area.
On April 1, 1973, Keihanshin Kyūkō Railway Company assumed its current name.
On April 1, 2005, former Hankyu Corporation became a holding company and was renamedHankyu Holdings, Inc. (阪急ホールディングス株式会社,Hankyū Hōrudhingusu Kabushiki-gaisha). The railway business was ceded to a subsidiary, now namedHankyu Corporation (before the restructuring, the new company which reused a dormant company founded on December 7, 1989, was called "Act Systems" (株式会社アクトシステムズ) until March 28, 2004, then "Hankyū Dentetsu Bunkatsu Junbi K.K." (阪急電鉄分割準備株式会社) from the next day).
On October 1, 2006, Hankyu Holdings became the wholly owning parent company ofHanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd. and the holdings were renamedHankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.. Hankyu's stock purchase of Hanshin shares was completed on June 20, 2006.[2]
Hankyu operates three main trunk lines, connecting Osaka withKobe,Takarazuka andKyoto respectively, and their branches.
The three groups of the lines, the Kobe Lines, the Takarazuka Lines and the Kyoto Lines, can be further grouped into two, the Kobe-Takarazuka Lines and the Kyoto Lines from a historical reason. Hankyu has two groups of rolling stock, one for the Kobe-Takarazuka Lines and the other for the Kyoto Lines.
The Keihan and Ōtsu Lines were transferred toKeihan Electric Railway Co., Ltd. which separated from Keihanshin Kyūkō (now Hankyu) on December 1, 1949.
As of March 31, 2010[update], Hankyu had 1,319 cars for passenger service.[3] Standard cars have three pairs of doors per side and bench seating facing the center of the train (exceptions are noted below). TheKobe Line andTakarazuka Line use the same fleet.
Some former Hankyu trains, such as the2000 series (1960) and3100 series, have been transferred to theNose Electric Railway.
Single fare (adult) in Japanese Yen by travel distance is as follows. Fares for children (6–11 years old) are half the adult fare, rounded up to the nearest 10 yen.
| Distance | Fare (in JPY), effective | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2019 | 1 April 2014[4] | 1 April 1997 | |
| 1–4 km (1–2 mi) | 160 | 150 | 150 |
| 5–9 km (3–6 mi) | 190 | 190 | 180 |
| 10–14 km (6–9 mi) | 230 | 220 | 220 |
| 15–19 km (9–12 mi) | 270 | 270 | 260 |
| 20–26 km (12–16 mi) | 280 | 280 | 270 |
| 27–33 km (17–21 mi) | 320 | 320 | 310 |
| 34–42 km (21–26 mi) | 380 | 370 | 360 |
| 43–51 km (27–32 mi) | 400 | 400 | 390 |
| 52–60 km (32–37 mi) | 470 | 470 | 450 |
| 61–70 km (38–43 mi) | 530 | 530 | 510 |
| 71–76 km (44–47 mi) | 630 | 620 | 600 |
For fare collection, IC cards (PiTaPa, ICOCA and others) are accepted. Contactless payment (credit/debit/prepaid cards and compatible smartphones) is also accepted at designated ticket gates.[5][6]
The fare rate was changed on April 1, 2014, to reflect the change in the rate ofconsumption tax from 5% to 8%, and again on October 1, 2019, from 8% to 10%.[4]
A 2-car Hankyu train was featured in the 1988 Japanese animated war dramaGrave of the Fireflies.[7]
Hankyu trains appear in the Japanese animated seriesThe Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
In the 1999 film,10 Things I Hate About You, the character Bianca Stratford, played byLarisa Oleynik, is seen wearing a shirt reading “阪急 電車” translating to Hankyu Railway. This can be seen at 1:27:23 in the film.
One 2008 book by the Japanese writerHiro Arikawa,Hankyu Densha, occurs entirely on the Hankyu–Imazu line, in the north-west suburbs of Osaka, where various characters meet and interact in the trains and at the various stations of the line. It was made into a film in 2011, titledHankyu Railway: A 15-Minute Miracle.
The Hankyu 2000 is the locomotive of choice for Takumi Fujiwara, the main character in Densha de D, a parody ofInitial D where the main characters race with trains instead of cars.
| Shinkansen | |
|---|---|
 JR West | |
 Osaka Metro | |
 Kobe Municipal Subway | |
 Kyoto Municipal Subway | |
 Hankyu | |
 Hanshin | |
 Keihan | |
 Nankai | |
 Kintetsu | |
 Shintetsu | |
| Other heavy rail lines | |
| Light metros and monorails | |
| Tram and light rails |
|
| Hinterland | |
| Funiculars andaerial lifts | |
| Public ferries |
|
| Major terminals | |
| Miscellaneous | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
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