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Kamioka Railway

Inotani Station, April 2006
Back in April 2006 we were on our third trip to Japan and trying to get from Takayama to Kanazawa by train. Unbeknownst to us a section of the railway line north of Takayama had been washed away by a typhoon. So we had to change from train to a bus between Tsunogawa and Inotani.

While we waited for our onwards train at quiet Inotani Station a diesel railcar, pictured above, pulled up from somewhere towards the direction where we had come from. Strange, I thought, seeing as the line was supposed to be closed... Then I forgot about it. The maps only show one railway line in the area.

Eight years later and I happen to look up the Wikipedia page on Inotani Station. There it mentions that Inotani was the terminus of the Kamioka Line, abandoned in 2006. The year we were there.

So that's where that train came from.

There seems to be very little English information online about the Kamioka Railway. I love these little railway lines in Japan and it runs in a particularly scenic region of Japan, but sadly I'll never have a chance to ride a train on it now. Unless it is on this hybrid bicycle contraption (official Japanese page). But at least I briefly saw it in operation.
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