The main line connects Sakura Station and Matsugishi Station (as an alternate route to the Sōbu Main Line), and is sometimes referred to as the Samatsu Line (Japanese: 佐松線, romanized: Samatsu-sen). A branch line from Abiko Station to Narita Station is often called the Abiko Line (Japanese: 我孫子線, romanized: Abiko-sen), and a second branch, known as the Airport Line (Japanese: 空港線, romanized: Kūkō-sen) connects Narita to Narita Airport Terminal 1 Station. The first two lines are owned and operated by JR East; the Airport Line is owned by a separate company, Narita Airport Rapid Railway, which allows JR East and Keisei Railway to use the line for passenger services.
Narita Express trains travel on the Narita Line but stop only at Narita Airport Terminal 2·3 and Narita Airport Terminal 1 stations, except during morning and evening rush hours when some trains stop at Narita Station.
Rapid commuter trains run between Tokyo and Narita Airport Terminal 1, stopping at all stations between Tsuga and Narita Airport Terminal 1.
Abiko branch line
All services on the Abiko branch line are local trains stopping at all stations. Some trains travel through onto the Jōban Line (Rapid) to Ueno and Shinagawa.
A 183 series EMU on an Ayame service in November 2005
A 253 series EMU on a Narita Express service in August 2003
211-3000 series EMU, May 2010
History
The Sakura - Narita - Namegawa section of the line was opened on 19 January 1897, by Sobu Railway, extended to Sawara the following year. The Narita to Abiko branch opened in 1901. The company was nationalised in 1920, and the Sawara to Matsugishi section opened between 1931 and 1933.[citation needed]
The Sakura to Narita section was electrified (at 1,500 V DC overhead) in 1968.[citation needed] The Abiko branch was electrified from 1 October 1973.[2] The Narita to Matsugishi section was electrified in 1974, and freight services ceased between 1984 and 1986.[citation needed]
The Sakura to Narita section was double-tracked in 1986, and the Airport branch opened in 1991 as an electrified, CTC-signalled line.[citation needed]
Accidents
Derailed wagons near Namegawa Station, March 2011
In the early hours of 10 March 2011, a day before 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred, a freight train carrying ethylene oxide derailed and overturned on the Narita Line near Namegawa Station.[3]
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Narita Line.
^Segawa, Yutaka (October 1973). 成田線・東金線ならびに関西本線の電化開業について [Electrification of Narita, Togane, and Kansai Main lines]. The Railway Pictorial (in Japanese) (284). Japan: Denkisha Kenkyūkai: 11–13.
^貨物列車：ＪＲ成田線滑河駅近くで横転 けが人いない模様 [Freight train overturns on JR Narita Line near Namegawa Station]. Mainichi.jp (in Japanese). Japan: The Mainichi Newspapers. 10 March 2011. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
.svg){kind=logo}
_symbol.svg){kind=small}
_symbol.svg){kind=small}
_symbol.svg){kind=small}
_symbol.svg){kind=small}
_symbol.svg){kind=small}
