Shibayama Railway

The Shibayama Railway Company was founded on May 1, 1981. The company received an operating permit on June 24, 1988, to operate a 2.0-kilometre (1.2 mi) line between Shibayama-Chiyoda Station and Higashi-Narita Station. Smaller trains were initially planned for operation on the line. In 1990, following requests from local residents who wanted the possibility of through services to Tokyo, the company applied for permission to operate standard-sized trains. The application was approved two days later. That year, the company also applied for permission to provide through service to Keisei Narita Station via Higashi-Narita Station, which was approved in 1996.

The railway was developed as Narita International Airport embarked on an expansion project, in part to appease residents of Shibayama who had opposed the airport's original construction and complained that it had disrupted existing transportation routes and cut off parts of Shibayama from Narita City and other areas to the west. The airport's original construction had been highly controversial and sparked the prolonged Sanrizuka Struggle. Narita International Airport Corporation provided substantial funding for construction of the railway as part of efforts to address these longstanding concerns.

On March 19, 1991, Keisei opened a new line providing direct rail access to Narita Airport using infrastructure originally constructed for the canceled Narita Shinkansen project. The former Narita Airport Station was renamed Higashi-Narita Station, and the route between Keisei Narita Station and Higashi-Narita became the Keisei Higashi-Narita Line.

Construction of the Shibayama Railway Line began in 1998. Construction was heavily delayed by difficulties acquiring land, and the planned route was extended by 0.2 km (220 yards) in 2000. The southern terminus, which had been provisionally named Seibijyō-Mae, was also named Shibayama-Chiyoda Station that year. The line opened on October 27, 2002.

The line opened with only one station, Shibayama-Chiyoda Station, on the southeastern edge of the airport complex. The station is in an area dominated by warehouses and airport-related offices and facilities and is several kilometers from central Shibayama, limiting its usefulness as a station for the town itself. A proposal to extend the line toward central Shibayama was made by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Although the Shibayama Railway is an independent operator, its line functions as an extension of the Keisei Higashi-Narita Line, with all trains providing through service to lines operated by Keisei Electric Railway. Keisei also provides the leased rolling stock and train crews used on the line.

Unlike most Keisei-operated lines, IC cards are not accepted on the line, and fares must be paid using paper tickets.

For most of the day, a single trainset operates the service, shuttling between Shibayama-Chiyoda Station and Keisei Narita Station via Higashi-Narita Station and providing through service on the Higashi-Narita Line, with trains operating at approximately 40-minute intervals. During the morning and evening rush hours, some trains provide through service to or from stations in Tokyo.

Narita International Airport Corporation owns a 68.4% majority stake in Shibayama Railway as of March 2019. The remaining shares are held by Keisei Electric Railway, Japan Airlines, the Chiba prefectural government, and others.