Scenic route
Sanriku Railway Rias Line
Sakari → Kuji · Japan
- Distance
- 163 km
- Fastest time
- 4 h 25 min
- Top speed
- 90 km/h
- Operator
- Sanriku Railway
- Train
- Sanriku 36-700 series railcars
- Countries
- Japan
- In service since
- 1984
- Runs
- every 1–2 h per section; several through runs daily
Japan’s longest third-sector railway threads 163 km of tsunami-rebuilt coast; the final gap closed in 2019, eight years after the 2011 wave.
The Rias Line hugs one of the world’s great drowned coastlines, diving between tunnels to burst onto viaducts above tiny fishing harbours. The 2011 tsunami tore the railway apart, and its station-by-station rebuilding — finished when the last gap closed in 2019 — made the red-and-white railcars a national symbol of recovery. In winter, kotatsu trains with heated quilt tables run along the same cliffs.
Along the way
- Ofunato’s rebuilt harbour
- Sea-cliff viaducts at Okirai
- Kamaishi steel town
- Jodogahama’s white rocks near Miyako
- Taro’s giant sea walls
- Kuji’s amber coast
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More train routes in Japan.