The Tadami Line: Triumph after ten years of tribulations, but what’s next? (Part 1)
The heavy rains that fell over much of East Japan just recently in August this year have caused much destruction, and unfortunately the rail infrastructure of many local lines has been hit hard—within the Tohoku Region (東北地方 Tōhoku-chihō), the Ban’etsu West Line (磐越西線 Ban’etsu Sai-sen), the Gonō Line (五能線 Gonō-sen), and the Yonesaka Line (米坂線 Yonesaka-sen) have had bridges swept away.
Other lines like the Ōu Main Line (奥羽本線 Ōu Honsen) as well as the Tsugaru Line (津軽線 Tsugaru-sen) had their roadbeds washed away and rails left dangling in mid-air.
Over ten years ago, though, during a bout of similarly cataclysmic weather, one local line fell to the onslaught of torrential waters—yet, more than a decade later, trains are finally scheduled to run along the whole line again.
On this very day (1 October 2022), the Tadami Line (只見線 Tadami-sen) is scheduled to resume operations along the whole line, more than 11 years after part of it was replaced by bus services after heavy rainfall destroyed part of its infrastructure in August 2011. I took the entirety of the Tadami Line almost seven years ago in winter. Today, as we celebrate its reopening, let’s take a journey along the line to find out more about it, and what the future holds in store for it.
The Tadami Line: A fact sheet
Aizu-Wakamatsu Station, the Fukushima terminus of the Tadami Line. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
The Tadami Line is a 135.2km behemoth of a line that straddles the prefectures of Fukushima (福島県 Fukushima-ken) and Niigata (新潟県 Niigata-ken), connecting Aizu-Wakamatsu Station (会津若松駅 Aizu-Wakamatsu-eki) in Fukushima’s Aizu-Wakamatsu City (会津若松市 Aizu-Wakamatsu-shi) with Koide Station (小出駅 Koide-eki) in Niigata’s Uonuma City (魚沼市 Uonuma-shi). Weaving its way between mountains and across rivers, it is known for its beautiful scenery, especially in autumn, and seasonal rapid services frequently ran along its tracks in the past. Today, though, it is all but a typical local line, with infrequent local trains plying its route mainly in the morning and evening.
Fully opened in 1971, the Tadami Line celebrated its 40th anniversary in mid-July 2011 with special trains that ran its entirety. It is all the more ironic, then, that heavy rains merely a week later led to severe flooding that washed away multiple bridges along the line and caused operations to cease between Tadami Station (只見駅 Tadami-eki) and Aizu-Kawaguchi Station (会津川口駅 Aizu-Kawaguchi-eki) for more than 10 years.
In the decade that followed, countless talks between railway giant JR East and local municipalities were held, and rumours that the section of the Tadami Line currently not in service would be abolished continued to abound. Thankfully, though, the local governments and JR East reached a consensus in which the line would be restored under a two-tiered system where Fukushima Prefecture and the local governments would handle the maintenance and upkeep of the tracks and related facilities, while JR East would focus solely on operations. It was only after this agreement was reached in 2017 that repair works along the Tadami Line began the following year, and the 27.6km section currently out of service resumed operations on 1 October 2022.
Part of the section between Tadami Station and Aizu-Kawaguchi Station looking the worse for wear. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
With all sections of the Tadami Line being connected by a set of rails again, there is much excitement over the reopening of the line, both domestically and internationally—there are many famed photography spots along the Tadami Line, and tourists, both domestic and international, flocked to the area in pre-COVID years.
I took the entirety of the Tadami Line in January 2016, well before any announcement regarding its restoration was made. I hope this article can serve as a sort of memoir of the ten years in between, as well as give a glimpse of what might lie in store for the lines that suffered damage during the torrential rains earlier in August this year.
Writer’s note: While this article was published on 1 October 2022, the information that follows regarding the Tadami Line and its surroundings, including the replacement bus schedule, are all correct as of the time of writing, 19 September 2022. For more information about the new timetable of the Tadami Line after its reopening, please refer to this announcement.
Koide → Tadami: Crossing the prefectural border
At the platform for the Tadami Line at Koide Station. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
Making my way towards Tokyo Station (東京駅 Tōkyō-eki) in the wee hours of a winter morning, I was determined not to miss the first Jōetsu Shinkansen (上越新幹線) of the day, as it makes a stop at Urasa Station (浦佐駅 Urasa-eki) en route to Niigata, where I could catch a transfer via the Jōetsu Line (上越線 Jōetsu-sen) to Koide Station, the start of the Tadami Line from Niigata's side. In addition, train services along the Tadami Line are sparse—only three trains a day run between Koide Station and Tadami Station, and missing the first train of the day would mean a five-hour wait before the next train at 1:15pm, something I had no intention of doing!
The dramatic winter scenery along the Tadami Line. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
Thankfully, my transfers went smoothly, and slightly more than 15 minutes after I got off the shinkansen, I was at the Tadami Line platform at Koide Station, waiting for the train to depart.
The first leg of my journey, between Koide Station and Tadami Station, took me through many snow-covered rice fields, the crop which Uonuma is well-known for.
In fact, much of the scenery resembled Indian ink paintings, with the whiteness of the snow a foil against the black of the bare trees and the gray, overcast sky, the red façade of the train I was in the only splash of colour amidst the winter landscape.
Ōshirakawa Station, as taken from the train. The nameplate of Hiraishi-Tei can be seen on the second floor. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
Eventually, when we arrived at Ōshirakawa Station (大白川駅 Ōshirakawa-eki), I was surprised to see such a grand building standing amidst the snow, especially when compared to the far simpler stations that dotted the tracks before.
The second floor of the station building, built in 1988, houses a soba restaurant, Hiraishi-Tei (平石亭). Soba lovers will be pleased to know that the handmade noodles served here are made fully with locally-grown buckwheat, and other local delicacies like mountain vegetables and mushrooms can also be savoured—it is open only during weekends from end-April till the last week of October, though, so if you manage to go to Ōshirakawa Station during that period, you are in for a treat!
Hiraishi-Tei (平石亭)
Address: Ōshirakawa, Uonuma City, Niigata 946-0303
Nearest station: JR Ōshirakawa Station (JR大白川駅)
Access: Within Ōshirakawa Station
Opening hours: 11am–3pm (Weekends & Public Holidays) (Late April to Late October)
Tel: +81-25-796-2236
With the next stop, Tadami Station, being the then-terminus of the Niigata side of the Tadami Line, I was mentally steeling myself to get off the train once we left Ōshirakawa Station, since up till then the stations were fairly close to each other. However, I was not prepared for how long the ride between these two stations would be—at 20.8km, the distance between Ōshirakawa Station and Tadami Station is the second-longest distance between stations out of all non-shinkansen JR Lines. (The longest is 37.3km between Kamikawa Station and Shirataki Station on JR Hokkaido’s Sekihoku Line (石北本線 Sekihoku-Honsen)!)
“Welcome to Tadami. Please come again!” (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
The ride between these two stations took almost 30 minutes, and it was a struggle to try and stay awake, given how I woke up way before the crack of dawn to take the shinkansen out of Tokyo! The blast of cold air that hit my face when I lifted the train window open, though, was a good wake-up call, and it was not long after that that the train pulled into Tadami Station, ending the first leg of my journey.
Tadami → Aizu-Kawaguchi: The segment along which replacement buses ran
The train I arrived on, ready to depart as a return train bound for Koide. This train, at 9:30am, is the first train out of Tadami towards Niigata. Note that KIHA-40 trains (the one shown in the picture above) are no longer serving the line as of March 2020. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
The 15-minute transfer time between the train and the replacement bus service, scheduled to depart at 9:25am, meant that I had some time to walk about in front of the station and take pictures.
Tadami Town (只見町 Tadami-machi), despite having almost the same land area as Singapore, has a population that is only 0.07% of ours! Much of the land, though, is occupied by uninhabitable mountains and forests, and virtually all of the important facilities, like the city hall and post office, are all situated within a 15-minute walk from the station.
The entrance to Tadami Station. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
When I returned from my walk to see the replacement bus service parked at the bus stop in front of the station, I was surprised to find that it was a mini-bus.
Once the bus departed the station, though, the choice of vehicle made sense to me—the route chosen plied the narrow streets of the settlements along the way, so it was necessary for the bus to be small. The other reason was the number of passengers—even though it was a mini-bus, there were still empty seats when we left Tadami Station, highlighting the fact that cars are very much the de facto mode of transportation in such rural areas.
No. 8 Tadami River Bridge (in blue) between Aizu-Gamō Station and Aizu-Shiozawa Station, one of the bridges damaged in the 2011 rains and floods. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
Along the way, as the bus weaved in and out of the streets between stations, I caught glimpses of the section of the Tadami Line that was in disuse—it was a sobering sight to see one of the railway bridges with a huge gap at one of its ends, no doubt a section that got washed away in the 2011 floods and left as it was.
After more than four years of neglect, the bridges and rails looked more rusted and forlorn, and all I could think of while looking out of the bus window was if the Tadami Line would ever get repaired, and if trains would ever run along this section once again, even as the bus reached Aizu-Kawaguchi Station after a 50-minute ride.
No. 5 Tadami River Bridge between Honna Station and Aizu-Kawaguchi Station, one of the bridges damaged in the 2011 rains and floods. (Image credit: Kevin Koh)
Time for a break!
The replacement bus service ends at Aizu-Kawaguchi Station, and it is here that travellers will once again board a train along the section of the Tadami Line still in service towards Aizu-Wakamatsu. However, as there is some time between the replacement bus service and departure of the train, let’s stop here to catch a breather and stretch a little after all that sitting down.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where I detail my journey on the Tadami Line from Aizu-Kawaguchi Station to Aizu-Wakamatsu Station, as well as introduce some local delicacies and interesting spots to visit on the Tadami Line, and ruminate a bit about the possible future of local lines in Japan.
Header image credit: lscott200 / CC BY-ND-NC 2.0
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