Hisatsu Orange Railway Co., Ltd. (肥薩おれんじ鉄道株式会社, Hisatsu Orenji Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha?) is a third-sector railway company which operates Hisatsu Orange Railway Line in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures. The line follows the former part of the JR Kyushu Kagoshima Main Line that connected Yatsushiro and Sendai in Kumamoto and Kagoshima Prefectures, known historically as Higo and Satsuma Provinces. The length of the line is 116.9 km.
Hisatsu Orange Railway went into service on March 13, 2004 when ownership was transferred from JR and the high speed Kyushu Shinkansen service began. The Hisatsu Orange Railway runs close to the Yatsushiro Sea and East China Sea and connects to the Kagoshima Main Line on both ends. The route is indirect and winding, but connects several cities along the coast.
The company has a total of 19 diesel cars, but two of them are reserved for special events.
Shareholders in the railway include prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima, cities of Yatsushiro, Minamata, Izumi, Akune and Satsumasendai, towns of Tsunagi and Ashikita, and the Japan Freight Railway Company.
Famous quotes containing the words orange and/or railway:
“Give not this rotten orange to your friend;
She’s but the sign and semblance of her honor.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)