Kesennuma Line

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Kesennuma Line
North and southbound trains at Motoyoshi Station, April 2005
Overview
Native name	気仙沼線
Status	In operation (Maeyachi - Yanaizu as a railway) (Yanaizu - Kesennuma as a BRT route)
Owner	JR East
Locale	Miyagi Prefecture
Termini	Maeyachi Station Kesennuma Station
Stations	23 (Only 6 are railway stations following the 2011 disaster)
Service
Operator(s)	JR East
Rolling stock	KiHa 110 series DMU, Hino Blue Ribbon City Bus
History
Opened	11 February 1957
Closed	1 April 2020 (Section between Yanaizu - Kesennuma was replaced by bus rapid transit in December 2012 but was only formally closed in 2020)
Technical
Line length	72.8 km (45.2 mi) (Until 2011) 17.5 km (10.9 mi) (After 2011)
Number of tracks	Entire line single tracked
Character	Mainly rural with some more urban areas
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Electrification	None
Operating speed	85 km/h (53 mph)
Route map

Route map
Legend
Services suspended indefinitely BRT service area
Ishinomaki Line 0.0 Maeyachi Ishinomaki Line 3.2 Wabuchi 6.2 Nonodake 10.3 Rikuzen-Toyosato 13.6 Mitakedō Kitakami River 17.5 Yanaizu 22.3 Rikuzen-Yokoyama Yokoyama Tunnel 3,508 m 29.5 Rikuzen-Togura 33.7 Shizugawa Shizugawa Tunnel 2,136 m 36.1 Bayside Arena 38.2 Shizuhama 42.3 Utatsu 44.9 Rikuzen-Minato 46.7 Kurauchi 48.7 Rikuzen-Koizumi 51.5 Motoyoshi 54.6 Koganezawa 58.3 Ōya-Kaigan Otanimachi 61.6 Rikuzen-Hashikami 63.3 Saichi 65.6 Matsuiwa 68.3 Minami-Kesennuma 69.6 Kesennumakō 69.6 Fudōnosawa 72.8 Kesennuma Ōfunato Line

The Kesennuma Line (気仙沼線, Kesennuma-sen) is a local railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connected Maeyachi Station in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi to Kesennuma Station in the city of Kesennuma, Miyagi. The route links the north-eastern coast of Miyagi Prefecture, with the Ishinomaki Line (and the Tohoku Main Line a few stops farther) available for transfer in the south, and the Ōfunato Line in the north.

A large section of the railway infrastructure between Minami-Kesennuma Station and Rikuzen-Togura Station, including tracks, stations, and railway bridges, were badly damaged or destroyed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Destroyed stations include Minami-Kesennuma (except for the platform)^[1] and Shizugawa Station, as well as various others. As a result of the catastrophic damage to the line and prohibitive costs of restoration as a railway, JR East officially proposed the line's conversion into a dedicated bus rapid transit (BRT) route on 27 December 2011.^[2] At present only the Maeyachi to Yanaizu section is operated as a railway, with services on the balance of the route provided by buses.

An autonomous driving system has been being tested on the BRT line since 2018 and has been fully implemented since 5 December 2022.^[3]