Ban'etsu West Line
The is a railway line in Japan operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Kōriyama Station in Kōriyama, Fukushima and Niitsu Station in Niigata, Niigata. The name "Banetsu" is taken from the first characters of the names of the ancient provinces of and , which the Banetsu East and Banetsu West lines connect. means "west" in Japanese. The line's nickname is the . Rolling stock. , the following rolling stock is used on the Banetsu West Line. Kōriyama—Kitakata. From 25 April 2015, a two-car 719 series set entered service on services on the line  between Koriyama and Aizu-Wakamatsu. The train accommodates 36 passengers. History. The private Ganetsu Railway opened the initial section from Kōriyama to Nakayamajuku on July 26, 1898, and extended the line to Aizu-Wakamatsu the following year. Japanese National Railways (JNR) started to modernize the line in the 1960s, introducing the line's first limited express service (as a part of the Yamagata-bound "Yamabata") in 1965 between Ueno Station in Tokyo and Aizu-Wakamatsu via the Tōhoku Main Line. In 1968 the train was renamed "Aizu Yamabata", but from 1993 onward it was renamed "Viva Aizu" and ran only  between Koriyama and Aizu-Wakamatsu. The train was finally discontinued as a limited express service in 2003. In 1967, JNR electrified the section between Kōriyama and Kitakata at 20 kV AC. In 2011 the line was closed for 15 days in March following the Tohoku earthquake, two days in April as a result of aftershocks, and for 10 weeks following torrential rain at the end of July. A new station, called , opened on 1 April 2017 between and Kōriyama and Kikuta stations.