The story
Construction of the line was approved under the Railway Construction Act in 1922 and commenced by Japanese National Railways (JNR) in June 1966. Work was well advanced when a freeze on expenditure in 1980 resulted in construction being halted with 95% of the route acquired and 93% of the earthworks completed.
The Tottori Prefectural Government facilitated the establishment of the Chizu Express Company in May 1986, which resumed construction.
The line opened on December 3, 1994, and includes the 5,592 m Shitozaka tunnel.
On the same day JR West's Super Hakuto Limited Express service commenced operation Shin-Osaka — Osaka — Tottori — Kurayoshi using the Chizu Line. Travel time between Osaka & Tottori was reduced to 2.5 hours, 1.5 hours faster than previous Limited Express trains. Trains were extended to operate to/from Kyoto - initially as a temporary train[ja] from April 1995 then permanently for all trains from March 16, 1996. From March 16, 2024, 5 round trips were changed to operate to/from Osaka instead of Kyoto, leaving Kyoto with only 2 trips in each direction per day.
From November 29, 1997, the JR West Limited Express Super Inaba service commenced between Okayama and Tottori.
From Wikipedia’s article on Chizu Express, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4