Kumamoto Electric Railway

The forerunner of the company, Kikuchi Tramway (菊池軌道), was established in on 15 August 1909, and opened the 914 mm (3 ft) gauge steam-hauled line from Ikeda Station (池田駅) (close to the present-day Kami-Kumamoto Station) to Sendanbatamachi Station (千反畑町駅) (present-day Fujisakigū-mae Station) on 1 October 1911. On 27 August 1913, the line between Ikeda and Waifu Station (隈府駅) (later named Kikuchi) was opened.

From 31 August 1923, the line was converted to 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge and electrified at 600 V DC.

The current section of the Kikuchi Line between Kita-Kumamoto and Kami-Kumamoto opened on 1 October 1950, resulting in two lines between those stations, the original via Fujisakigū-mae and the new line. In June 1953 the original line from Kami-Kumamoto to Fujisakigū-mae closed. The 13.5 km Miyoshi to Kikuchi section closed on 16 February 1986 due to falling patronage.

Train services operate on two routes:

Kami-Kumamoto — Kita-Kumamoto (a portion of the Kikuchi Line)

Miyoshi — Kita-Kumamoto — Fujisakigū-mae (the remaining portion of the Kikuchi Line combined with the Fujisaki Line)

Services from the 3 termini (Kami-Kumamoto, Miyoshi and Fujisakigū-mae) meet at Kita-Kumamoto at the same times allowing seamless transfer between services.