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3d ago

Yamaguchi’s JR Mine Line to Be Converted to Bus Rapid Transit

Stakeholders finalized BRT as the restoration route, with financial terms to be set in a statutory council.

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Overview

  • The Mine Line Promotion Council voted on July 16, 2025, to abandon rail restoration after heavy rains in summer 2023 damaged 80 sites and halted all service.
  • A subcommittee found that rebuilding the railway would exceed ¥5.8 billion and take at least 10 years, whereas a BRT conversion is estimated at about ¥5.5 billion and could finish in 3–4 years.
  • This would mark JR West’s first conversion of a disaster-hit rail line to BRT and the fourth such case nationally since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.
  • The 46 km Mine Line runs between Asa Station in Sanyo Onoda City and Nagato City, with the worst flood damage occurring between Yuno-Tōge and Nagato-Yumoto.
  • Yamaguchi Prefecture and the three municipalities will negotiate cost-sharing and operational details in an upcoming statutory council to finalize the restoration plan.