MINAMI-ALPS ABT LINE Minami-Alps Abt Line — Ikawa Line Into the Serene Japanese Alps by Rack Railway

Where you will find us

*Approximate journey times to Senzu by Shinkansen, local rail and connecting bus, or by car; they will vary with connections and traffic.

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The delights of the Minami-Alps Abt Line

Highlight 1 — Japan’s only Abt rack railway, and the coupling spectacle

Between Abt Ichishiro and Nagashima Dam the line is so steep that an extra locomotive must lend a hand. Here — and nowhere else in Japan — rack-and-pinion ED90 electric locomotives are coupled to and uncoupled from the train before your eyes.

The shunting is performed at Abt Ichishiro and Nagashima Dam stations, and you are welcome to step down and watch the spectacle at close quarters.

Watching the locomotive coupling

Passengers continuing on the same train are very welcome to step onto the platform during the shunting to watch and take photographs.

Stepping onto the platform to watch does not invalidate your ticket — please simply return to your train and seat once the work is done.

Choose this journey: Senzu → Nagashima Dam

Highlight 2 — The steepest railway gradient in Japan: 90‰

Ninety per mille — a climb of 90 metres for every kilometre travelled — is the steepest gradient of any ordinary railway in Japan. It is for this climb that the Abt rack system survives here.

Glance back down the line as you climb and the drop will quite take your breath away. Do enjoy the sure-footed, determined work of the Abt locomotive beneath you.

Choose this journey: Senzu → Nagashima Dam

Highlight 3 — Crossing the Sekinosawa Bridge, high above the gorge

Between Omori and Kanzō the train creeps out onto the Sekinosawa Bridge, suspended dizzyingly high above the valley floor.

The driver slows right down on the bridge. Peer from your window and the stream glitters far, far below — a stroll through the sky that only a mountain railway can offer.

Choose this journey: Senzu → IkawaRelated package: Hidden Station Return Plan

Highlight 4 — Oku-Ōi Laketop, the station that floats on the lake

On a slender finger of land reaching into the emerald waters of Lake Sesso sits Oku-Ōi Laketop — a station that, from the hillside viewpoint, seems to float upon the lake itself.

Alight here for the footpath to the viewpoint, a small lakeside café, and one of the most photographed railway scenes in Japan. It is, quite simply, the jewel of the line.

Choose this journey: Senzu → Oku‑Ōi LaketopRelated package: Senzu ⇔ Laketop Return Plan

Frequently asked questions about Oku-Ōi Laketop Station

A railway for every season — and every sort of weather

Spring brings wild cherry blossom and the soft greens of new leaves; in summer the deep forest and the emerald of Lake Sesso are at their most vivid, with a welcome mountain coolness in the air. Autumn fills every window with colour, and in winter the crystal-clear air offers the longest views of the year across bare hillsides and still water.

Even on a wet or misty day the gorge takes on the air of an ink-wash painting — quietly magical. Parts of the line have no mobile signal at all: a rather wonderful excuse to put the telephone away and give the scenery your full attention. And our gently-paced little trains are a perfect match for film and instant cameras, too.

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Riding the Sightseeing Train

Everything you have just seen can be enjoyed in a single journey. Riding the Minami-Alps Abt Line is a premium experience found nowhere else — and we have kept the pricing refreshingly simple. Please read the fares and conditions below, then choose your journey.

Fares (the basic one-way travel plan, “Ikawa Line Sightseeing Train Plan”):

• One flat price for any distance — ride the whole line or just a few stops for the same fare
• Valid for one journey on your booked train. Even if you have booked through to a farther station, your plan becomes invalid the moment you alight and leave a station (changing to another train requires a new plan each time)
• At Abt Ichishiro and Nagashima Dam you are welcome to step onto the platform to watch the locomotive coupling — rejoining the same train is not counted as alighting, so please watch with an easy mind

The ¥3,500 is not a railway fare but the price of a package tour (an “agent-organised tour” under Japanese travel law), covering the sightseeing-train experience and associated costs.

*The above is the basic one-way plan. Packages with lunch, hot-spring bathing and so on differ in price and validity (return, one-way, etc.) — see Plans & packages.

How to book:

• All trains are reserved-capacity, train-specific. When booking you choose your train (departure time); seats themselves are unreserved
• Book on the dedicated website, from 30 days ahead until departure time on the day, around the clock, subject to availability

Payment:

• Booking website: card and online payment
• Station windows & on board: cash only

Please read — your e-ticket: your e-ticket is sent by email when booking is complete. Parts of the line have no mobile signal, so before boarding, please save a screenshot of your e-ticket (voucher) or print it while you still have reception.

*The first up train (from Sessokyō‑Onsen) and the last down train (from Senzu) also convey an ordinary carriage (unreserved, no booking needed) at normal railway fares, as before.

*Tickets are sold as package travel products (agent-organised tours). Train times are shown in the timetable below; for details of how tickets are sold, see our announcement (Japanese).

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Train Times

Times from 1 July 2026. Five trains run each way daily — do check what time you can set out and what time you can be back, and allow for the wait for the next train if you plan to break your journey at Oku‑Ōi Laketop or elsewhere.

Trains shown in green (405 & 402) also convey an ordinary carriage — unreserved, no booking needed, normal railway fares.

Down trains (Senzu → Ikawa)

▶ The table scrolls sideways

*Trains 271 & 273 run through to Ikawa; 471 & 473 terminate at Sessokyō‑Onsen (Omori and Kanzō served alternately). Train 405 terminates at Sessokyō‑Onsen (ordinary carriage conveyed). “↓” = passes without stopping; “=” = operational stop, no passengers; blank = train does not operate to this station.

Up trains (Ikawa → Senzu)

▶ The table scrolls sideways

*Principal stations only. For all stations, including Kawane‑Ryogoku, Sawama, Domoto, Kawane‑Koyama, Hiranda and Omori, see our announcement (Japanese). Times are subject to alteration.

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Plans & packages to look forward to

We are preparing a tempting range of packages — with lunch, hot-spring bathing, vouchers and more. Full details will appear on this page as soon as they are settled.

Senzu ⇔ Oku‑Ōi Laketop Return Plan (with voucher)

A return journey to the lake-top station, with a voucher to spend at the station café or the Senzu station shop — just the thing for a pause on the lakeside terrace.

Lunch-box Plan

A lunch box from Ebisuya, the much-loved eatery by Senzu station — brimming with local fare such as whole fried amago trout — enjoyed with the finest view in Shizuoka for company. *Contents vary with the seasons.

Sessokyō‑Onsen Hot-spring Plan

A return journey with a bathing ticket for the hot springs at Sessokyō‑Onsen. Ramble, photograph, then soak away the day before the train home — walking, snapping and bathing all in one outing.

Hidden Station Return Plan

For the adventurous: a return journey to Omori, ranked Japan’s second-most-remote station — deep in the forest and reachable only by rail. A bear-bell is thoughtfully included.

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Getting to Senzu

The Abt Line begins at Senzu Station, the gateway to the Oku-Ōi region (Kawanehon-chō, Shizuoka Prefecture).

By car

Leave the Shin-Tōmei Expressway at Shimada-Kanaya Interchange and follow Route 473 north along the Ōi River. Your satnav may suggest Route 362 over the mountains — it is narrow and relentlessly twisty, and we strongly advise against it. Please allow plenty of time for the journey; for parking at Senzu, see our parking guide (Japanese).

*Even travelling from Shizuoka City, we recommend the Shin-Tōmei Expressway to Shimada-Kanaya IC, then Route 473 north along the Ōi River, rather than the mountain Route 362 your satnav may suggest.

By train and bus

Change at JR Kanaya (Tōkaidō Line) onto the Ōigawa Main Line and head up the valley. The Main Line is presently closed between Kawaneonsen-Sasamado and Senzu; this stretch is covered by the Kawanehon-chō town bus (the Senzu–Ieyama route), which runs along the river. Please note the town bus is a local bus operated by the town of Kawanehon-chō — it is not a rail-replacement service of the Ōigawa Railway.

Our favourite connection: ride the train to the end of the line at Kawaneonsen-Sasamado. Some ten minutes’ walk away is the Kawane Onsen roadside station, with its day-bathing house “Fureai-no-Izumi” — a lovely spot for lunch and a soak before the country beyond, where eating places are few. The “Kawane Onsen Hotel-mae” bus stop beside it takes you on to Senzu. Of course, you may equally change at Ieyama, one station earlier.

For the latest service information and times, see the fares & timetable page (Japanese).

*The town bus is a local service run by Kawanehon-chō, not an Ōigawa Railway rail-replacement bus. At Ieyama the bus stop is right outside the station building, so the change takes no time at all. Or ride one stop farther to the terminus at Kawaneonsen-Sasamado, enjoy lunch and a soak at the Kawane Onsen roadside station (about 10 minutes on foot), and board at “Kawane Onsen Hotel-mae” — a fine idea before heading into country where eating places are few.

Make a day of it with steam & Thomas

The Ōigawa Main Line is home to our steam and electric-hauled heritage trains and “Day out with Thomas” (departing Shin-Kanaya). Combine a Main Line journey with the Abt Line’s mountain trains and you have a full day of railway delights. See SL & EL trains and Day out with Thomas (Japanese).

For maps and full details, see the access page (Japanese).

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Conditions of Travel (package tours)

Travel on the sightseeing train is sold as a package tour (an agent-organised tour) planned and operated by Ōigawa Railway Co., Ltd. Your booking is governed by the summary below, together with our General Terms and Conditions of Travel Contracts (agent-organised tour section). Before applying, please read the full Conditions of Travel (PDF, Japanese).

Application & formation of contract

Bookings made online are communications contracts: the contract is formed when we dispatch notice of acceptance (where acceptance is notified electronically, when that notice reaches you). By proceeding with a booking you are deemed to have agreed to these Conditions of Travel.

Tour price

The basic one-way plan, the “Ikawa Line Sightseeing Train Plan”, is a flat Adults (12+) ¥3,500 / Children (6–11) ¥1,750 per journey (incl. tax), regardless of distance. Infants (1–5) travel free, up to two per accompanying adult or child; babies (under 1) travel free. The child price applies where a seat is occupied, where infants travel unaccompanied, or from the third infant per accompanying adult or child. The price includes carriage on the Ikawa Line train. Railcards, disability concessions and group discounts do not apply. Lunch, hot-spring and other packages differ in price, route and validity — see Plans & packages.

Minimum party: 1 (tours are never cancelled for low numbers). No tour conductor accompanies the journey. The booking is valid for one journey on the booked train on the day of travel; even where booked to a farther station, it becomes invalid once you alight and leave a station (excepting a brief step onto the platform at Abt Ichishiro or Nagashima Dam to watch the locomotive coupling). Seats are not individually reserved.

Cancellation charges

Cancellations of online bookings may be made by you in your account pages. Where you cancel for your own reasons, the following charges (per person) apply:

*Purchases made on board count as applications after the start of travel and cannot be refunded once paid.

*Should a train be unable to run, the untravelled portion of your journey is refunded pro rata without charge. No refund is made for delays, nor where poor weather obscures the views. Final application is governed by the Conditions of Travel (PDF, Japanese) and our General Terms and Conditions.

Tour planning & operation

Ōigawa Railway Co., Ltd.
1112-2 Kanaya-higashi 2-chōme, Shimada, Shizuoka 428-8503, Japan
Registered travel agency: Shizuoka Prefectural Governor Registration No. 3-301 / Member, All Nippon Travel Agents Association
Certified Domestic Travel Services Manager: Eri Niibori
Enquiries: Ōigawa Railway Sales Department, tel. +81 (0)547-45-4112 (10:00–17:00 JST)

This tour is planned, advertised and operated by Ōigawa Railway Co., Ltd.; participants enter into an agent-organised tour contract with the company. The contract is governed by this page, the final itinerary and our General Terms and Conditions of Travel Contracts (agent-organised tour section), available in Japanese.

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