The Kosei Line (湖西線, Kosei-sen?) is a commuter rail line in Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The line was completed in 1974 by the former Japanese National Railways (JNR) to provide faster access from the Kansai region to the Hokuriku region. It originates at Yamashina Station in Yamashina-ku, Kyoto and ends at Ōmi-Shiotsu Station in Nagahama, Shiga.
Its name means "the line to the west of the lake," indicating that it skirts Lake Biwa along its western shore. Trains continue from Yamashina to Kyoto Station on the Tōkaidō Main Line for convenient transfer to lines serving the Kansai as well as the Tōkaidō Shinkansen.
In addition to local, Rapid and Special Rapid services, limited express trains such as Raichō, Thunderbird and Nihonkai as well as freight trains are frequently operated on the line. Some of limited express trains stop at Ōtsukyō or Katata and others skip all stations on the line. The section from Nagahara to Ōmi-Shiotsu, originally electrified with 20 kV AC, was re-electrified to 1,500 V DC on September 24, 2006 enabling DC-only EMUs used in Osaka-Kyoto region to operate, and the Special Rapid through train service from JR Kyoto Line (Tokaido Main Line) was extended beyond Ōmi-Shiotsu to Tsuruga on the Hokuriku Main Line.
Read more about Kosei Line: Stations
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