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The West Japan Railway Company[6], also referred to as JR West (JR西日本, Jeiāru Nishi-Nihon), is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka.[2] 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.
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The company headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka
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Native name | 西日本旅客鉄道株式会社 |
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Romanized name | Nishi-nihon Ryokaku Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha lit. "West Japan Passenger Railway Stock Company" |
| Company type | Public KK |
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| Industry | Rail transport |
| Predecessor | Japanese National Railways (JNR) |
| Founded | Osaka, Japan (1 April 1987; 37 years ago (1987-04-01), privatization of JNR) |
| Headquarters |
4-24 Shibata 2-chome, Kita-ku, Osaka, 530-8341
,
Japan
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Area served |
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Key people | Takayuki Sasaki (Executive Chairman of the Board)[1] Seiji Manabe (Representative Director and President)[1] |
| Products | ICOCA (a rechargeable contactless smart card) |
| Services |
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| Revenue |  ¥1,298,913 million (FY 2013)[3] |
| ¥129,497 million (FY 2013)[3] | |
| ¥60,198 million (FY 2013)[3] | |
| Total assets | ¥2,613,743 million (FY 2013)[3] |
| Total equity | ¥768,174 million (FY 2013)[3] |
| 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 |
Number of employees |
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| Divisions |
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| Subsidiaries |
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| Website | westjr.co.jp |
| West Japan Railway Company | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation | |||||
| National railway | Japan Railways Group | ||||
| Infrastructure company | Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency | ||||
| Statistics | |||||
| Ridership | 1.778 billion per year[2] | ||||
| Passenger km | 52.614 billion per year[2] | ||||
| System length | |||||
| Total | 5,012.7 km (3,114.7 mi)[2] | ||||
| Double track | 2,253.2 km (1,400.1 mi) (44.9%)[2] | ||||
| Electrified | 3,385.7 km (2,103.8 mi) (67.5%)[2] | ||||
| High-speed | 644.0 km (400.2 mi) (12.8%)[2] | ||||
| Track gauge | |||||
| Main | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | ||||
| High-speed | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | ||||
| Electrification | |||||
| Main | 1,500 V DC overhead catenary 2,447 km (1,520 mi)[5] | ||||
| 20 kV AC 60 Hz overhead | 278.0 km (172.7 mi) Hokuriku Main Line (Tsuruga - Itoigawa)[5] | ||||
| 25 kV AC 60 Hz overhead | 644.0 km (400.2 mi) Sanyo Shinkansen[5] | ||||
| Features | |||||
| No. tunnels | 1,016[5] | ||||
| Tunnel length | 667 km (414 mi)[5] | ||||
| Longest tunnel | The Shin-Kanmon Tunnel 18,713 metres (61,394 ft) Sanyo Shinkansen (Shin-Shimonoseki - Kokura)[5] | ||||
| No. bridges | 28,568[5] | ||||
| Longest bridge | The Yoshii River Bridge 669 m (2,195 ft) Sanyo Shinkansen (Okayama - Aioi)[5] | ||||
| No. stations | 1,222[2] | ||||
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JR-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.[clarification needed]
Man-yo Mahoroba LineA 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.
Seto-Ōhashi Line, Chayamachi — Kojima
Kansai Main Line, Kameyama — JR Namba
Kisei Main Line, Shingū — Wakayamashi
San'yō Main Line, Kobe — Shimonoseki, Hyōgo — Wadamisaki. Tōkaidō Main Line, Maibara — Kobe
Fukuen Line
Geibi Line
Inbi Line
Kabe Line
Kakogawa Line
Momotarō Line
Kusatsu Line
Maizuru Line
Sakai Line
Tsuyama Line
Uno-Port 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.[citation needed]
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.
