The Hachinoe Rinkai Railway operates an 8,5Km-long line connecting the Hachinoe Freight terminal with the Kitanuma Freight station, wich serves the nearby port and the Mitsubishi Paper Hachinoe mill, wich is the largest source of traffic for the railway.

The line opened in 1966, built and managed by the prefectural government. Four years later, in 1970, the ownership and operations of the line was transferred to the current Hachinoe Rinkai Railway company.

Currently, the railway owns a fleet of three DD56s (derived from JNR’s well-proven DD13s), two DD35 and one D727 small-size shunters, one DD16 (no.303) and one DE10 (no.1761), the latter two bought second-hand from JR East in 2009. Maintainance of the railway’s diesel locomotives is subcontracted to the Fukushima Rinkai Railway or to JR East itself, as the Hachinoe Rinkai Railway has no facilities for the job.

Trivia:

Besides operations on it’s “own” line, the Hachinoe Rinkai Railway also operates some services (such as maintainance trains) for the Aoimori Railway. 

Diesel locomotives