History
Despite being operated like the rest of the Matsuyama tram system, the Jōhoku Line occupies an unusual legal position. Where the other lines of Iyotetsu's city network are tramways governed by the Tram Act (軌道法), the Jōhoku Line is the only one classified as a railway under the Railway Business Act (鉄道事業法).
The line began as the work of the Dōgō Railway (道後鉄道), which opened it in 1895 as a 762 mm gauge light railway worked by steam locomotives. Its original alignment was not that of the present Jōhoku Line: between Kiyachō and Dōgo (later Dōgo Onsen) the railway ran east along what is now Hiyamata-dōri, passing to the north of the site of today's Ehime University, where the Jōhoku military parade ground then stood. When it opened on 22 August 1895, the line ran from Komachi by way of Dōgo to Matsuyama, the terminus that later became Ichibanchō.
In 1900 the Dōgō Railway was absorbed into Iyo Railway, which continued to run the route under the name Dōgo Line (道後線). On 8 August 1911 the whole of the Dōgo Line was regauged from 762 mm to 1,067 mm and electrified. The older route through Dōgo would not last much longer in its original form, and in 1926 the Dōgo–Ichibanchō section was abandoned.
The Jōhoku Line in its present form dates from 1927. On 3 April that year a new section between Kiyachō and Ichiman (today's Kami-Ichiman) opened, running closer to the built-up centre of Matsuyama, and the Komachi–Kiyachō portion of the old Dōgo Line was incorporated into the new Jōhoku Line; the surviving Kiyachō–Dōgo stretch was closed at the same time. The trackbed of the abandoned Kiyachō–Dōgo route survives today as Hiyamata-dōri.
The line changed again with the creation of Matsuyama's circular tram operation. Until then trains had run through from the Kiyachō direction towards Dōgo Onsen, but when Iyotetsu introduced loop running over the Jōhoku and Jōnan lines in 1969, the junction at Kami-Ichiman was reoriented on 1 December that year to face the Keisatsusho-mae direction instead. The Heiwadōri-Itchōme–Kami-Ichiman segment of the Jōhoku Line was formally abolished and re-laid as part of the Jōnan Line — the connecting track that, in 2018, would itself be renamed the Renraku Line.
Both of Iyotetsu's circular tram routes cover the whole line: Route 1, which runs from Matsuyama City Station via JR Matsuyama Station, Kiyachō and Teppōchō to Ōkaidō and back, and Route 2, which traces the same ring in the opposite direction. Because the line is single-track throughout, with passing places at only three stops — Komachi, Kiyachō and Teppōchō — extra services are difficult to add; in the daytime both routes run every ten minutes. The line is signalled by a special automatic block system of the trolley-contactor type.
Stations on this line
9 stations tracked on the map, listed alphabetically. Select any to read its page.
Timeline
- 189522 August: the Dōgō Railway opens its 762 mm gauge, steam-worked line from Komachi via Dōgo to Matsuyama (the terminus later called Ichibanchō).
- 19001 May: the Dōgō Railway is merged into Iyo Railway, which operates the route as the Dōgo Line.
- 19118 August: the whole Dōgo Line is regauged from 762 mm to 1,067 mm and electrified.
- 19262 May: the Dōgo–Ichibanchō section of the Dōgo Line is abandoned.
- 19273 April: the Jōhoku Line's Kiyachō–Ichiman (today's Kami-Ichiman) section opens; the Komachi–Kiyachō part of the Dōgo Line is incorporated into the Jōhoku Line and the Kiyachō–Dōgo stretch is closed, giving the line its present route.
- 19691 December: with the start of circular operation over the Jōhoku and Jōnan lines, the Kami-Ichiman junction is reoriented toward the Keisatsusho-mae direction; the Jōhoku Line's Heiwadōri-Itchōme–Kami-Ichiman segment is abolished and re-laid as part of the Jōnan Line.
- 2018The re-laid Heiwadōri-Itchōme–Kami-Ichiman connecting track, until then carried as a branch of the Jōnan Line, is renamed the Renraku Line.
Sources
Last updated 16 October 2026.