The Hakone Tozan Line is a mountain railway in Japan operated by the Hakone Tozan Railway. This company belongs to the Odakyu Group, and also owns the Hakone Tozan Cable Car. The section of the line from Odawara Station to Hakone-Yumoto Station started operations in 1919, with current terminus Gōra reached in 1930. Since 2006, only Odakyū Odawara Line trains run on the section from Odawara Station to Hakone-Yumoto Station, as that section was converted from dual-gauge to just narrow-gauge. From Gora, visitors can continue up the mountain on the Hakone Tozan Cable Car. The railway is capable of climbing one meter vertically for every 12.5 meters of horizontal distance, a maximum gradient of 8%. The line traverses Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, so the line was carefully designed to limit the impact on scenery. Due to the difficult conditions, the line has three switchbacks used to ascend particularly steep sections. The section of the line between Hakone-Yumoto and Gora was suspended in October 2019 due to heavy damage caused by Typhoon Hagibis. On July 9th 2020, after repairs had been completed, test trains began running over the line with the expectation that the whole service would be restored and resumed on July 23rd.
* Local trains runs between Odawara and Hakone-Yumoto, partly from/to Shin-Matsuda Station using 4-car Odakyu EMUs.
Section between Hakone-Yumoto and Gōra is operated by local trains only, using Hakone Tozan 2/3-car EMUs.
* Trains stop at three signal stops which have no passenger platforms.
* There are three switchbacks: Deyama, Ōhiradai, and Kami-Ōhiradai.
Journey time between Odawara - Hakone-Yumoto is approximately 15 minutes, Hakone-Yumoto - Gōra is approximately 40 minutes, Shinjuku - Hakone-Yumoto is approximately an hour and 25–35 minutes by limited express.
Signal stops
There are three signal stops on the Hakone Tozan Line in addition to the regular passenger stations. All of them have a siding track and two of them have switchbacks.
June 1, 1919: Line opens between Hakone-Yumoto and Gōra as an electrified funicular railway.
December 16, 1920: Tram line closes between Kōzu - Odawara, and connected with the JGRTōkaidō Main Line at Odawara.
August 16, 1928: Hakone Tozan Railway is founded.
October 1, 1935: Mainline railway is extended from Hakone-Yumoto to Odawara. Tram line remains between Odawara - Hakone-Itabashi, and is renamed the "Odawara Town Line".
December 20, 1940: Tram section is renamed "Odawara City Line".
June 1, 1948: Hakone Tozan Railway becomes part of the Odakyu Group.
August 1, 1950: Odakyu Electric Railway begins operating Limited Express and Express trains from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto. The line voltage is changed to 1,500 V DC for the dual gauge section between Odawara and Hakone-Yumoto.
June 1, 1956: Odawara City Line is abandoned.
July 14, 1993: Hakone-Yumoto - Gōra section is uprated from 600 to 750 V DC. Operations start using 3-car EMUs.
March 18, 2006: Hakone Tozan Railway discontinues operation using its own units between Odawara and Hakone-Yumoto. Dual-gauge section reduced to Iriuda - Hakone-Yumoto.
March 15, 2008: New Odakyu "Romancecar" through service starts from Kita-Senju Station.
October 12, 2019: The section between Hakone-Yumoto and Gora closed due to severe damage caused by Typhoon Hagibis. The heavy rains caused landslides over the tracks and washed away ballast. In November 2019, the railway announced that repairs would keep the line closed until the fall of 2020.
On July 9th 2020, test trains began running on the fixed line with services scheduled to begin on July 23rd.
