Iga Railway

Iga Railway

The Iga Railway (伊賀鉄道), opened in 1916 as the Iga Tramway, is a 16.6-kilometre line in Iga City, Mie Prefecture, between Iga-Ueno Station on the JR Kansai Line and Igakambe Station on the Kintetsu line, and four of its structures, Uenoshi Station, the Kuwamachi Overbridge, the Ota No. 2 Culvert and the Ota Arch Bridge, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on February 4, 2021 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All four are owned by Iga City.

According to Iga City, its forerunner, the Iga Tramway, opened between Iga-Ueno and Uenomachi in 1916; the whole line was finished in 1922 and electrified in 1926. The city treats the station and the other structures of the line as a legacy of the modernisation of Iga.

The Four Structures

Uenoshi Station, a three-storey timber station of 1917, crosses two Western-style gambrel roofs and is loved as a landmark of the town (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Kuwamachi Overbridge of 1922 is a single brick arch with finely detailed parapets pierced by cross-shaped openings (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

In the farmland south-west of Iga-Ueno Station, the Ota No. 2 Culvert and the Ota Arch Bridge, both of 1916, lie about 250 metres apart: the first carries the track on granite beams, the second runs a brick tunnel under it, and both still serve as roads (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Together they show the station, bridges and culverts that carried the line in its first years. Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

The four structures are scattered along the line in Iga City. No official visiting information was found.