In Japan, there are nearly 200 railway companies, large and small. Here is a quiz for you. Which company has the largest railway network? The answer is East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It has a total of 7,350 kilometers of railway lines. Was it too easy? Now then, do you know which company operates the shortest railway line? It's probably a difficult question. The answer is Shibayama Railway in Chiba Prefecture. This company operates only a 2.2 kilometers-long railway line.
The major shareholder of Shibayama Railway is Narita International Airport Corporation. The route was opened in 2002 to improve the convenience of people who live on the eastern side of the New Tokyo International Airport (Narita). Connecting Higashi-Narita and Shibayama-Chiyoda stations, the track is single. Most of the route was constructed under the airport. The train operating interval is about 40 minutes during the daytime. Every train is directly operated onto the Keisei lines.
Train set 3540 of the EMU 3500 series is Shibayama Railway's only train. It was built by Nippon Sharyo in 1973 as Keisei Electric Railway's commuter train. After operating for 40 years, train set 3540 was leased to Shibayama Railway in 2013, and has been operating on the Shibayama Railway line up to now. Its technical specification is of course the same as the Keisei 3500 series, but the colors of body stripes were changed from "blue and red" to "green and red" last year. It became easier to distinguish between the Shibayama and the Keisei trains.
