The Ōito Line (大糸線, Ōito-sen) is a railway line in Japan which connects Matsumoto Station in Nagano Prefecture with Itoigawa Station in Niigata Prefecture. There are two operators on the line: East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Minami-Otari is the boundary for the two companies. The section of the line operated by JR East, between Minami-Otari and Matsumoto, is electrified and trains are fairly regular along this section. The JR West section from Minami-Otari to Itoigawa, however, is not electrified and sees less use. Trains operate less frequently along this section.
The section between Matsumoto and Shinano-Ōmachi was built between 1915 and 1916 by the Shinano Railway (信濃鉄道, Shinano Tetsudō), which electrified the line in 1926. The company was nationalised in 1937 and was not the same entity as the present Shinano Railway.[citation needed]
The rest of the line was built by the Japanese Government Railways (JGR) and the Japanese National Railways (JNR) between 1929 and 1957. The Shinano-Ōmachi to Minami Otari section was electrified between 1959 and 1967. CTC signalling was commissioned in 1983, and freight services ceased in 1987.[citation needed]
Following privatization of JNR on 1 April 1987, the line was divided and assigned to JR East and JR West.
Station numbering was introduced on the line by JR East from 12 December 2016, with stations numbered in sequence from 9 (Minami-Otari) to 42 (Matsumoto).[2]
^大糸線に「駅ナンバー」を導入します [Station numbering to be introduced on Oito Line] (PDF). News release (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company, Nagano Division. 7 December 2016. Archived(PDF) from the original on 8 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
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