Flower Nagai Line

The Flower Nagai Line (フラワー長井線, Furawā-Nagai-sen) is a Japanese railway line in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. It connects Akayu Station in Nanyō to Arato Station in Shirataka.

Flower Nagai Line
A Flower Nagai Line train at Akayu station in December 2006
Overview
Native name	フラワー長井線
Status	In operation
Owner	Yamagata Railway
Locale	Yamagata Prefecture
Termini	Akayu Arato
Stations	17
Service
Type	Regional rail
Operator(s)	Yamagata Railway
Rolling stock	YR-880 series DMU
History
Opened	1913
Technical
Line length	30.5 km (19.0 mi)
Number of tracks	Entire line single tracked
Character	Rural
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Electrification	None
Operating speed	85 km/h (53 mph)
Route map JR East：Yamagata Shinkansen JR East Ōu Main Line（Yamagata Line） 0.0 Akayu 0.9 Nanyō-Shiyakusho 3.0 Miyauchi 4.4 Orihata 6.8 Ringō Mogami River 10.3 Nishi-Ōtsuka JR East：Yonesaka Line 12.2 Imaizumi Shirakawa River Shirakawa Signal Stop -1984 JR East：Yonesaka Line 14.9 Tokiniwa 17.3 Minami-Nagai 18.3 Nagai 19.1 Ayame-Kōen 21.0 Uzen-Narita 23.2 Shirousagi 24.6 Koguwa 27.9 Ayukai 28.6 Shikinosato Mogami River 30.5 Arato

The Flower Nagai Line is the only line operated by the third sector Yamagata Railway Company (山形鉄道, Yamagata Tetsudō), which took over the former JR East line in 1988.

In 2005, Yamagata Railway was in danger of having to shut down due to low patronage, leaving many residents, especially the young and old, without a mode of transportation from their farms. The only option available to the company was to try to attract more tourists to the scenic views. Lone train operator, Tatsuo Asakura, working without the knowledge of his superiors increased out-of-town passengers from 350 in 2005 to 7,000 in 2006, and in September 2008 had entertained more than 20,000 tourists with his uplifting guided tours, spoken in local dialect.[1]