The Flower Nagai Line (フラワー長井線, Furawā-Nagai-sen?) is a Japanese railway line in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. It runs from Akayu Station in Nanyō to Arato Station in Shirataka.
The Flower Nagai Line is the only line operated by the third sector Yamagata Railway Company (山形鉄道, Yamagata Tetsudō?), which took over the former JR East line in 1988.
In 2005, Yamagata Railway was in danger of having to shut down due to low volume, leaving many residents, especially the young and old, without a mode of transportation from their farms. The only option available to the company was to try to attract more tourists to the scenic views. Lone train operator, Tatsuo Asakura, working without the knowledge of his superiors increased out-of-town passengers from 350 in 2005 to 7,000 in 2006, and in September 2008 had entertained more than 20,000 tourists with his uplifting guided tours, spoken in local dialect.
Read more about Flower Nagai Line: Operation, History, Station List
Famous quotes containing the words flower and/or line:
“Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.