Kantō Railway
Kantō Railway (関東鉄道, Kantō Tetsudō) is a private railway company, which operates two lines in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. The company is a subsidiary of Keisei Electric Railway and other companies. Additionally, the company has a bus department in Ibaraki Prefecture and Chiba Prefecture in Japan.
Parent | Keisei Electric Railway, Tōbu Railway, Ibaraki Kōtsū |
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Founded | 3 September 1922 |
Headquarters | 1-10-8 Manabe, Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan |
Service area | Chiba, Ibaraki |
Service type | Bus and Train |
Fleet | 62 trains and 414 buses |
Chief executive | 松上 英一郎 |
Website | Kanto Railway(in Japanese) |
Overview
This company was established as Joso Railway in 1913. In 1945, Joso Railway was merged into Joso-Tsukuba Railway with Tsukuba Railway. Joso-Tsukuba Railway was split into Kanto Railway in 1965, which merged with Ryugasaki Railway. Around 1980, Tsukuba Railway (which would be suspended) and Kashima Railway (which would be replaced by the Keisei affiliated company Kashitetsu Bus) were split from Kanto Railway. Mount Tsukuba Cable Car and Mount Tsukuba Ropeway were transferred to Keisei Electric Railway. Kanto Railway has had a 0.01% investment in Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company since 2001.
Buses
The company manages the following four bus companies:
- Kanto Railway
- Kantetsu Green Bus
- Kantetsu Purple Bus
- Kantetsu Kankō Bus
Outline
Kanto Railway is also a bus company with coverage in the south and central Ibaraki and east Chiba. The bus department occupies 70% of benefit of the Kanto Railway. The company has ten offices and the service distance is 2,788.8 km.
The bus department used to have vast bus routes, but some were discontinued after proving unprofitable. Currently, certain discontinued bus routes have been revived as community buses operated by subsidiary bus companies (Kantetsu Green Bus, Kantetsu Purple Bus and Kantetsu Kankō Bus) in areas of Sakuragawa, Chikusei and more places.
The company has coverage of many attractions (Mount Tsukuba, Lake Kasumigaura, Kairakuen and so on), commercial facilities (Ami Premium Outlet, AeonMall Tsukuba and more), and a bed suburb of Tokyo (Tsukuba).
When many events are happening in Ibaraki, the company operates extra bus routes to Ibaraki Airport, Kashima Soccer Stadium and more.
Tickets can be purchased in stores at Mito Station (Ibaraki), Tsuchiura Station, Toride Station, Moriya Station, Tsukuba Station, Suigō-Itako Bus Terminal and more. Furthermore, there are ticket machines at the University of Tsukuba and Tsukuba Center.
Highway buses
- TSUKUBA
- TM Liner
- MITO
- KASHIMA
- Night bus
Rolling stock
- 2300 series DMU
- KiHa 350 DMU
- KiHa 350 DMU
- KiHa 300 DMU
- Ryūgasaki Line KiHa 530 DMU
- Diesel locomotive DD502