Sangū Line
In the 1960s, there was a plan to rebuild the dual tracks that had been taken away by the government during the war but the plan encountered some problems. By 1960, Kintetsu had altered its Nagoya Line to utilize the same gauge as the rest of its lines and therefore direct Kintetsu service was now available. A few years later, Kintetsu acquired its Kyoto Line and thus it was now offering direct service from Kyoto as well as Osaka and Nagoya. Finally, Kintetsu built its Toba Line, which created competition along the only remaining section of the Sangū Line that had previously had no rival. All this combined led to reduced ridership which in turn led Kokutetsu to revoke the Sangū Line's status as a major line; the line became classified as a local line and the plan to rebuild the dual tracks was abandoned. Kokutetsu was even advised in 1968 to permanently close the Iseshi to Toba section of the line, however they opted instead to discontinue direct express service from various major cities in the following years. This issue of permanently closing the line arose again in the early 1980s, however after a close inspection of the daily number of riders on the line it narrowly avoided being re-classified as a third sector railway and survived the transition to JR in 1987.