The is a public transport company in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is abbreviated as or . The company was founded in 1909. The company operates railway and bus lines.
A short section of the Fujisaki Line shares its track with public road.
Train services operate on two routes:
Services from the 3 termini (Kami-Kumamoto, Miyoshi and Fujisakigà «-mae) meet at Kita-Kumamoto at the same times allowing seamless transfer between services.
From 3 February 2025, Kumamoto Electric Railway implemented service reductions due to chronic driver shortages. Kami-Kumamoto â Kita-Kumamoto services will operate every 40 minutes (previously every 30 minutes), and Miyoshi â Kita-Kumamoto â Fujisakigà «-mae services will operate every 20 minutes during morning & evening peak hours (previously every 15 minutes) and every 40 minutes at other times (previously every 30 minutes).
At Kami-Kumamoto, passengers can transfer to JR Kyushu Kagoshima Line trains and Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau tram (streetcar) Route B.
All trains are 2-car sets acquired second-hand from other operators.
The forerunner of the company, , was established in on 15 August 1909, and opened the gauge steam-hauled line from (close to the present-day Kami-Kumamoto Station) to (present-day Fujisakigà «-mae Station) on 1 October 1911. On 27 August 1913, the line between Ikeda and (later named Kikuchi) was opened.
From 31 August 1923, the line was converted to gauge and electrified at 600 V DC.
The current section of the Kikuchi Line between Kita-Kumamoto and Kami-Kumamoto opened on 1 October 1950, resulting in two lines between those stations, the original via Fujisakigà «-mae and the new line. In June 1953 the original line from Kami-Kumamoto to Fujisakigà «-mae closed. The 13.5 km Miyoshi to Kikuchi section closed on 16 February 1986 due to falling patronage.
This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia.