West Japan Railway Company (???????????, Nishi-Nihon Ryokaku Tetsud? Kabushiki-gaisha), also referred to as JR-West (JR???, Jei?ru Nishi-Nihon), is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka.
Video West Japan Railway Company
Lines
Shinkansen
- Hokuriku Shinkansen (J?etsumy?k? - Kanazawa)
- Sanyo Shinkansen
- Hakata Minami Line
JR-West's highest-grossing line is the Sanyo Shinkansen high-speed rail line between Osaka and Fukuoka. The Sanyo Shinkansen alone accounts for about 40% of JR-West's passenger revenues. The company also operates Hakata Minami Line, a short commuter line with Shinkansen trains in Fukuoka.
Urban Network
The "Urban Network" is JR-West's name for its commuter rail lines in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. These lines together comprise 610 km of track, have 245 stations and account for about 40% of JR West's passenger revenues. Urban Network stations are equipped to handle ICOCA fare cards. Train control on these lines is highly automated, and during peak hours trains run as often as every two minutes.
JR-West's Urban Network competes with a number of private commuter rail operators around Osaka, the "Big 4" being Hankyu Railway/Hanshin Railway (Hankyu bought Hanshin in 2005), Keihan Railway, Kintetsu, and Nankai Railway. JR-West's market share in the region is roughly equal to that of the Big 4 put together, largely due to its comprehensive network and high-speed commuter trains (Special Rapid Service trains on the Kobe and Kyoto lines operate at up to 130 km/h).
Those in italics are announcement names.
- Ak? Line
- Biwako Line
- Gakkentoshi Line
- Officially Katamachi Line
- Hanwa Line
- Kansai Airport Line
- JR Kobe Line
- Kosei Line
- JR Kyoto Line
- Nara Line
- Osaka Loop Line
- Osaka Higashi Line
- Sagano Line
- Sakurai Line
- JR Takarazuka Line
- JR T?zai Line
- Yamatoji Line
- Wakayama Line
- JR Yumesaki Line
- Officially Sakurajima Line
Intercity and regional lines
A number of other lines account for more than half of JR-West's track mileage. These lines mainly handle business and leisure travel between smaller cities and rural areas in western Japan. They account for about 20% of the company's passenger revenues.
Intercity lines
- Fukuchiyama Line
- Includes JR Takarazuka Line.
- Hakubi Line
- Hokuriku Main Line
- Includes Biwako Line.
- Honshi-Bisan Line, Chayamachi -- Kojima
- Nicknamed Seto-?hashi Line
- Kansai Main Line, Kameyama -- JR Namba
- Includes Yamatoji Line.
- Kisei Main Line, Shing? -- Wakayamashi
- Includes Kinokuni Line.
- San'in Main Line
- Includes Sagano Line.
- Sany? Main Line, Kobe -- Shimonoseki, Hy?go -- Wadamisaki.
- Includes JR Kobe Line.
- Takayama Main Line, Inotani -- Toyama
- T?kaid? Main Line, Maibara -- Kobe
- Includes Biwako Line, JR Kyoto Line, and JR Kobe Line.
Regional lines
- Bantan Line
- Etsumi-Hoku Line
- Nicknamed Kuzury? Line
- Fukuen Line
- Gantoku Line
- Geibi Line
- Himi Line
- Imbi Line
- J?hana Line
- Kabe Line
- Kakogawa Line
- Kibi Line
- Kishin Line
- Kisuki Line
- Kure Line
- Includes Setouchi Sazanami Line
- Kusatsu Line
- Maizuru Line
- Mine Line
- Nanao Line
- Obama Line
- ?ito Line, Minami-Otari -- Itoigawa
- Onoda Line
- Sakai Line
- Sank? Line
- Tsuyama Line
- Ube Line
- Uno Line
- Yamaguchi Line
Maps West Japan Railway Company
Other businesses
JR-West subsidiaries include the following.
- West Japan Railway Hotel Development Company - Owns Hotel Granvia Kyoto, Hotel Granvia Osaka, Hotel Granvia Wakayama, Hotel Granvia Okayama, Hotel Granvia Hiroshima, Nara Hotel, Sannomiya Terminal Hotel and Hotel Hopinn Aming
- West Japan Railway Isetan - A joint venture with Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd; operates the Isetan department store in Kyoto Station
- West JR Bus Company - Intercity bus operator
- Ch?goku JR Bus Company - Intercity bus operator
- Japan Railway West Trading Co.
- Nippon Travel Agency Co., Ltd
- Sagano Scenic Railway
- JR-West Miyajima Ferry Company - operator of JR Miyajima Ferry service to the island of Miyajima
History
JR-West was incorporated as a business corporation (kabushiki kaisha) on April 1, 1987 as part of the breakup of government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). Initially, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the JNR Settlement Corporation (JNRSC), a special company created to hold the assets of the former JNR while they were shuffled among the new JR companies.
For the first four years of its existence, JR-West leased its highest-revenue line, the Sany? Shinkansen, from the separate Shinkansen Holding Corporation. JR-West purchased the line in October 1991 at a cost of 974.1 billion JPY (about US$7.2 billion) in long-term payable debt.
JNRSC sold 68.3% of JR-West in an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 1996. After JNRSC was dissolved in October 1998, its shares of JR-West were transferred to the government-owned Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation (JRCC), which merged into the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) as part of a bureaucratic reform package in October 2003. JRTT offered all of its shares in JR-West to the public in an international IPO in 2004, ending the era of government ownership of JR-West. JR-West is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange, Osaka Securities Exchange and the Fukuoka Stock Exchange.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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