Renraku Line

The connecting section was originally part of the Jōhoku Line, whose Kiyamachi–Ichiman stretch (Ichiman is today's Kamiichiman) opened on 3 April 1927. At Ichiman the Jōhoku Line met the Jōnan Line, and in the original layout the junction faced the Dōgo Onsen direction of the Jōnan Line, branching from there toward the Minami-horibata side and onto the Jōhoku Line.

Iyotetsu began circular (loop) operation over the Jōhoku and Jōnan lines in 1969, and the section was reorganised as part of that change. On 1 December that year a new stop, Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme, opened; the short Jōhoku Line section between Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme and Kamiichiman was abolished, and the same section opened as a branch of the Jōnan Line. The junction at Kamiichiman was reoriented so that the connection to the Jōnan Line faced the Keisatsusho-mae (police-station) direction rather than the Dōgo Onsen direction.

For nearly half a century the section remained a branch of the Jōnan Line with no name of its own. That changed in 2018: beginning with that year's edition of the Railway Handbook (Tetsudō Yōran), published under the supervision of the Railway Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme to Kamiichiman section was split out from the Jōnan Line and listed independently under the name 'Renraku Line'.

In service, the whole of its 0.1 km is covered by two circular routes: the No. 1 loop, which runs from Matsuyama City Station via JR Matsuyama Station, Kiyamachi, Teppōchō and Ōkaidō back to Matsuyama City Station, and the No. 2 loop, which runs the same ring in the opposite direction. The line is single-track throughout and uses a special automatic block system of the trolley-contactor type. Its rolling stock is shared with the rest of the Matsuyama city tram network and based at the Komachi rolling-stock works.

The line has just two stops, both in Matsuyama: Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme at the 0.0 km point, where it connects with the Jōhoku Line, and Kamiichiman at 0.1 km, where it connects with the Jōnan Line.

2 stations tracked on the map, listed alphabetically. Select any to read its page.

• Heiwadori 1-chome平和通一丁目
• Kamiichiman上一万

• 19273 April: the Jōhoku Line's Kiyamachi–Ichiman section (Ichiman is today's Kamiichiman) opens and meets the Jōnan Line at Ichiman, the junction facing the Dōgo Onsen direction.
• 19691 December: Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme stop opens; the Jōhoku Line's Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme–Kamiichiman section is abolished and the same section opens as a branch of the Jōnan Line; the Kamiichiman junction is reoriented from the Dōgo Onsen direction to the Keisatsusho-mae direction. The changes accompany the introduction of circular operation on the Jōhoku and Jōnan lines.
• 2018From this year's edition of the Railway Handbook (Tetsudō Yōran), the Heiwa-dōri 1-chōme–Kamiichiman section is separated from the Jōnan Line and listed independently under the name 'Renraku Line'.