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Onoda Line

小野田線

The Onoda Line (小野田線, Onoda-sen) is a local railway line in the Ube–Sanyō-Onoda area of Yamaguchi Prefecture, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).

Its main line runs 11.6 kilometres from Inō to Onoda, where it meets the Sanyō Main Line, and a short 2.3-kilometre branch, the Motoyama branch line, diverges at Suzumeda to reach the terminus at Nagato-Motoyama. The whole line is single-track, laid to 1,067 mm narrow gauge and electrified at 1,500 V DC. The branch was the last place in Japan where an 'old-form' electric railcar, the KuMoHa 42, still carried passengers in regular service, running until March 2003.

2 km
Route of the Onoda Line · Yamaguchi · Boundaries: MLIT / GSI / Japan Post

History

The line did not begin as a single railway but grew from two separate private undertakings. The older of the two was the Onoda Light Railway, which on 25 November 1915 opened a 2.9-mile line from Onoda to Cement Town to serve a cement works. The company was renamed the Onoda Railway on 25 June 1923. The second undertaking was the Ube Electric Railway, which on 16 May 1929 opened an electrified line — at 600 V — to Shin-Okiyama, and on 21 January 1937 added the electrified branch from Suzumeda to Motoyama, also at 600 V.

Nationalisation in 1943 brought the two ventures under state control. The Ube Electric Railway was first absorbed by the Ube Railway in 1941; the Onoda Railway was then nationalised on 1 April 1943 to become the Onoda Line, and the Ube Railway followed on 1 May 1943, part of its network becoming the Ube West Line. In 1947 a new section from Onoda Port to Suzumeda joined the two halves together, after which the old Shin-Okiyama station was closed and the network was reorganised; in February 1948 the combined route was renamed the Onoda Line.

The line was then electrified to a uniform standard. On 1 March 1950 the overhead voltage on the sections electrified at 600 V was raised to 1,500 V, and on 10 August 1950 the remaining non-electrified section into Onoda was electrified, completing electrification of the entire line at 1,500 V DC. Centralised traffic control (CTC) was commissioned in 1983, and the line's freight services ceased in 1986.

The Onoda Line passed from Japanese National Railways (JNR) to the newly created West Japan Railway Company (JR West) on 1 April 1987 when JNR was privatised. Driver-only ('one-man') operation began on the Suzumeda–Nagato-Motoyama branch on 11 March 1989, using the veteran KuMoHa 42 railcars, and was extended to the Inō–Onoda main line on 1 June 1990 using 105 series electric multiple units.

From 1993 the line's regular fleet was mainly the KuMoHa 123 single-railcar transferred from the Kabe Line, and KuMoHa 42 operation on the Suzumeda–Nagato-Motoyama branch finally ended on 14 March 2003; the last surviving car was replaced the following day by a KuMoHa 123 transferred from the Uno Line. The line is lightly used: in 2022 JR West disclosed that the whole line's traffic density was below 2,000 passengers per day.

Stations on this line

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

Timeline
  • 191525 November: the Onoda Light Railway opens its first section, Onoda–Cement Town (2.9 miles), to serve a cement works.
  • 192325 June: the Onoda Light Railway is renamed the Onoda Railway.
  • 192916 May: the Ube Electric Railway opens its line to Shin-Okiyama, electrified at 600 V.
  • 193721 January: the Suzumeda–Motoyama branch opens, also electrified at 600 V.
  • 19431 April: the Onoda Railway is nationalised, becoming the Onoda Line; the Ube Railway is nationalised on 1 May, part of its network becoming the Ube West Line.
  • 19471 October: the Onoda Port–Suzumeda section opens, connecting the two halves; Shin-Okiyama station is closed and the Onoda Line is merged into the Ube West Line.
  • 19481 February: the combined Ube West Line is renamed the Onoda Line.
  • 19501 March: overhead voltage on the 600 V sections is raised to 1,500 V; on 10 August the remaining non-electrified section into Onoda is electrified, completing electrification of the whole line at 1,500 V DC.
  • 19838 March: centralised traffic control (CTC) is commissioned on the line.
  • 1986Freight services on the line cease.
  • 19871 April: on the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the line is transferred to the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).
  • 198911 March: driver-only ('one-man') operation begins on the Suzumeda–Nagato-Motoyama branch, worked by the veteran KuMoHa 42 railcars.
  • 19901 June: driver-only operation is extended to the Inō–Onoda main line using 105 series EMUs.
  • 200314 March: KuMoHa 42 operation on the Suzumeda–Nagato-Motoyama branch ends; the last car is replaced the next day by a KuMoHa 123 transferred from the Uno Line. (Kabe Line KuMoHa 123 had been the regular fleet since 1993.)
  • 202211 April: JR West discloses that the line's traffic density is below 2,000 passengers per day.

Sources

Last updated 16 October 2026.

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