The is a railway line in Japan operated by the private railway company Tobu Railway. It branches from Tōbu Dōbutsu Kōen Station in Miyashiro, Saitama on the Skytree Line, extending north to Tōbu Nikkō Station in Nikkō, Tochigi.

The line has two branch lines: the Utsunomiya Line at Shin-Tochigi Station in Tochigi, Tochigi, and the Kinugawa Line at Shimo-Imaichi Station in Nikkō.

Service patterns

, stops and service patterns are

• : Stops at all stations on the Nikko Line. Through to/from Naka-Meguro on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line;

• : Stops at all stations on the Nikko Line, limited-stop service on the Skytree Line;

• : Stops at all stations on the Nikko Line, limited-stop service on the Skytree Line. Through to/from Chūō-Rinkan on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line via the Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line;

• : Stops at all stations on the Nikko Line, limited-stop service on the Skytree Line;

• : Stops at all stations on the Nikko Line, express service on the Skytree Line. Through to/from Chūō-Rinkan on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line via the Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line.

• : Stops at partly stations on the Nikko Line, Limited express also services on the Skytree Line. There are Limited Express which are 4 types of ・・・. Trains which are named KINU or KINUGAWA bound to Kinugawaonsen Station. Trains which are named KEGON or NIKKO, KIRIFURI bound to Tobu-Nikko Station. Trains which are named AIZU bound to Aizu-Tajima Station.

• : Stops at Tobu-Nikko and Shimo-Imaichi. Passengers riding on this train must purchase the package on Tobu Top Tours and so on. Runs once a month.

Stations

Notes:

• O: Stop

• |: Non-stop

• 1: Terminating Services from on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line

• 2: Terminating Services from on the Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line via Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line

• 3: Terminating Services from

• 4: Partly Services stop at the stations

• A: to/from

• C: to/from

• S: to/from when named as JR

History

The Nikko Line opened (dual track and electrified) on 1 October 1929.

In 1943, the section north of Kassemba was reduced to single track and the recovered rails were used to build the Tobu Kumagaya Line.

Electric limited express services first started operating in February 1949. From October 1960, new 1720 series "Deluxe Romance car" EMUs were introduced on limited express services to and from Nikko.

From 1 June 1990, new 100 series "Spacia" EMUs were introduced on limited express services, and the maximum speed of these was raised to 120km/h in 1992.

A connecting track at was built to the JR-East Tōhoku Main Line (Utsunomiya Line) from 18 March 2006, allowing through-operations of Nikkō and Kinugawa limited express services to/from , , and .

From 17 March 2012, station numbering was introduced on all Tobu lines, with Tobu Nikko Line stations adopting the prefix "TN" in orange.

The former Skytree Train and 300 series limited express trains, Rapid, and Section Rapid services were discontinued from the start of the revised timetable on 21 April 2017.

Incidents

On 20 August 2026, four Tobu Railway workers were struck and killed by a limited express train outside of Shin-Kanuma Station as they were spraying herbicide to remove weeds from the tracks. Police were investigating if relevant safety regulations were followed at the time of the accident.

See also

• List of railway lines in Japan

References

External links