Takachiho Railway

The Takachiho Railway was a private third-sector railway company based in Miyazaki, Japan.
The railway's origins date back to 1988, when it was founded by a group of investors to operate its only line, the Takachiho Line, an ex-JNR line. The Takachiho Railway inherited the old line and oversaw operations. The Takachiho Line was a 50 kilometer (31.1 miles) line which consisted of nineteen stations, stretching from Nobeoka to Takachiho. A popular service on the line was the Torokko Kagura tourist train.
The line was heavily damaged when Typhoon Nabi made landfall in Japan in September 2005, forcing a temporary closure of the line while infrastructure was rebuilt; however the cost of rebuilding the line became too much to bear, with operations being limited to a stretch of line between Makimine and Takachiho which was relatively undamaged by the typhoon. All restoration work on the affected parts of the line damaged or destroyed by the typhoon would be called off soon after, with these sections closed sequentially until the railway's management announced that the remaining stretch of the line would close on 28 December 2008. Past that date, the line was closed and the company closed. The company was dissolved in January 2009 and liquidation was complete by March the same year. The Takachiho Railway was the last private railway in existence in Miyazaki, with the areas the line served now largely served by bus company Miyazaki Kōtsū.
A portion of the line exists today, owned by the heritage Takachiho Amaterasu Railway, which operates some of the Takachiho Railway's ex-rolling stock.
Category:Companies
Category:Japanese Railways
Category:Defunct companies