History
The line was opened by the private Yokohama Railway (横浜鉄道, Yokohama Tetsudō?) on 23 September 1908 and leased to the government in 1910. The line was nationalized in 1917.
Taking advantage of the line's location near the Japanese National Railways headquarters in Tokyo and relatively little traffic, the line was used as a test bed for regauging to standard gauge in 1917, with the intent of expanding it nationwide; due to political considerations, however, it was abandoned. In 1925, the Yokohama Line was electrified as a test prior to electrification of the Tōkaidō Main Line.
The line was formally electrified in two phases. The Higashi-Kanagawa – Haramachida (now Machida) section was electrified in 1932, and the Haramachida – Hachiōji section was electrified in 1941.
Only part of the route was double-tracked prior to 1967, when the Kikuna – Shin-Yokohama section was double-tracked. In 1988 the Aihara –Hachiōji section was double-tracked, eliminating all single-track sections from the line.
Read more about this topic: Yokohama Line
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