| West Japan Railway Company | |
| Native Name: | 西日本旅客鉄道株式会社 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Romanized Name: | Nishi-nihon Ryokaku Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha lit. "West Japan Passenger Railway Stock Company" |
| Type: | Public KK |
| Predecessor: | Japanese National Railways (JNR) |
| Location City: | 4-24 Shibata 2-chome, Kita-ku, Osaka, 530-8341 |
| Location Country: | Japan |
| Key People: | Takayuki Sasaki (Executive Chairman of the Board)[1] Seiji Manabe (Representative Director and President) |
| Industry: | Rail transport |
| Products: | ICOCA (a rechargeable contactless smart card) |
| Revenue: | (FY 2013)[2] |
| Operating Income: | (FY 2013) |
| Net Income: | (FY 2013) |
| Assets: | (FY 2013) |
| Equity: | (FY 2013) |
| Owners: | Investment trusts (TMTBJ 5.52%, JTSB 4.74%) SMBC (3.33%) MUFG Bank (3.27%) Nippon Life (2.08%) As of 31 March 2018 |
| Num Employees: | [3] |
| Homepage: | westjr.co.jp |
| Foundation: | Osaka, Japan (privatization of JNR) |
| West Japan Railway Company | |
| Nationalrailway: | Japan Railways Group |
| Infrastructure: | Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency |
| Ridership: | 1.778 billion per year |
| Passkm: | 52.614 billion per year |
| Length: | 5012.7km (3,114.7miles) |
| Doublelength: | 2253.2km (1,400.1miles) (44.9%) |
| Ellength: | 3385.7km (2,103.8miles) (67.5%) |
| Hslength: | 644km (400miles) (12.8%) |
| El: | 1,500 V DC overhead catenary 2447km (1,520miles)[4] |
| El1: | 20 kV AC 60 Hz overhead |
| El1length: | 278km (173miles) Hokuriku Main Line (-) |
| El2length: | 644km (400miles) Sanyo Shinkansen |
| Notunnels: | 1,016 |
| Tunnellength: | 667km (414miles) |
| Longesttunnel: | The Shin-Kanmon Tunnel 18713m (61,394feet) Sanyo Shinkansen (-) |
| Nobridges: | 28,568 |
| Longestbridge: | The Yoshii River Bridge 669m (2,195feet) Sanyo Shinkansen (-) |
| Nostations: | 1,222 |
, also referred to as, is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka.[5] It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and is also one of only three Japan Railways Group constituents of the Nikkei 225 index: the others are JR East and JR Central. It was also listed in the Nagoya and Fukuoka stock exchanges until late 2020.
Officially not a ShinkansenJR-West's highest-grossing line is the Sanyo Shinkansen high-speed rail line between Osaka and Fukuoka. The Sanyo Shinkansen alone accounts for about 40% of JR-West's passenger revenues. The company also operates Hakata Minami Line, a short commuter line with Shinkansen trains in Fukuoka.
The "Urban Network" is JR-West's name for its commuter rail lines in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. These lines together comprise 610 km of track, have 245 stations and account for about 43% of JR-West's passenger revenues. Urban Network stations are equipped to handle ICOCA fare cards. Train control on these lines is highly automated, and during peak hours trains run as often as every two minutes.
JR-West's Urban Network competes with a number of private commuter rail operators around Osaka, the "Big 4" being Hankyu Railway/Hanshin Railway (Hankyu bought Hanshin in April 2005), Keihan Railway, Kintetsu, and Nankai Railway. JR-West's market share in the region is roughly equal to that of the Big 4 put together, largely due to its comprehensive network and high-speed commuter trains (Special Rapid Service trains on the Kobe and Kyoto lines operate at up to 130 km/h).
Those in italics are announcement names.
Officially Tōkaidō Main Line, Hokuriku Main Line
Officially Katamachi Line
Officially Tōkaidō Main Line, San'yō Main Line
Officially Tōkaidō Main Line
Officially San'in Main Line
Officially Sakurai Line
Officially Fukuchiyama Line
Officially Kansai Main Line
Officially Sakurajima Line
A number of other lines account for more than half of JR-West's track mileage. These lines mainly handle business and leisure travel between smaller cities and rural areas in western Japan. They account for about 20% of the company's passenger revenues.
Includes JR Takarazuka Line.
Includes Biwako Line.
Officially Seto-Ōhashi Line
Includes Yamatoji Line.
Includes Kinokuni Line.
Includes Sagano Line.
Includes JR Kobe Line.
Includes Biwako Line, JR Kyoto Line, and JR Kobe Line.
Nicknamed Kuzuryū Line
Officially Kibi Line
Includes Setouchi Sazanami Line
Officially Uno Line
JR-West subsidiaries include the following.
JR-West was incorporated as a business corporation (kabushiki kaisha) on April 1, 1987, as part of the breakup of the state-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). Initially, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the JNR Settlement Corporation (JNRSC), a special company created to hold the assets of the former JNR while they were shuffled among the new JR companies.
For the first four years of its existence, JR-West leased its highest-revenue line, the Sanyō Shinkansen, from the separate Shinkansen Holding Corporation. JR-West purchased the line in October 1991 at a cost of 974.1 billion JPY (about US$7.2 billion) in long-term debt.
JNRSC sold 68.3% of JR-West in an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 1996. After JNRSC was dissolved in October 1998, its shares of JR-West were transferred to the government-owned Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation (JRCC), which merged into the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) as part of a bureaucratic reform package in October 2003. JRTT offered all of its shares in JR-West to the public in an international IPO in 2004, ending the era of government ownership of JR-West. JR-West is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange, Osaka Securities Exchange and Fukuoka Stock Exchange.