Shibayama Railway

The Shibayama Railway Company, Ltd. (芝山鉄道株式会社) is a third-sector railway company in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It operates Japan's shortest independent railway line, the 2.2 km Shibayama Railway Line between Higashi-Narita Station and Shibayama-Chiyoda Station, largely underneath Narita International Airport.

Narita International Airport Corporation owns a 68.40% majority stake in Shibayama Railway as of March 2019. The remainder is owned by Keisei Electric Railway, Japan Airlines, the prefectural government, and others.

Stations and operation
Although the Shibayama Railway is an independent operator, it functionally resembles an extension of the Keisei Electric Railway; the line is operated using equipment and crews leased from Keisei, and the company has no crews directly employed by the company because of this. However, IC cards are not accepted on this route, unlike most of railway lines operated by Keisei. Most Shibayama Railway trains provide local service to Keisei Narita Station past Higashi-Narita, and express trains operate during rush hours through the Keisei Line from Haneda Airport Terminal 1·2 Station. During the run, the sign on the departure board always lists the destination as (Higashi Narita) Shibayama to avoid confusing the customers. The adult fare between Higashi-Narita and Shibayama-Chiyoda is 220 yen.

History
Shibayama Railway was founded on May 5, 1981, and received an operating permit on June 24, 1988, for the 2.0 km line between Higashi-Narita Station and Seibijyō-Mae Station (later renamed to Shibayama-Chiyoda) to use dedicated small train sets between the current Shibayama-Chiyoda Station site and the former Narita Airport Station. In 1990, the railway applied for a permit to operate through service with the Keisei Railway from Keisei Narita Station; construction of a through link was approved in 1996. The Narita Shinkansen plan came to a permanent halt around this time, and the Keisei Electric Railway built a new line towards the terminal of Narita International Airport using the abandoned buildings for the plan, making the route from Keisei Narita Station to the old Narita International Airport station a new line named Keisei Higashi-Narita Line. The line began construction in 1998. However, the completion of the railway line was delayed due to a part of the residents on the planned route refused to sell their land as they were against the project of Narita International Airport itself. In 2000, the company was forced to extend the line by a further 0.2 km to avoid passing through the private lands and the name of the new station was chosen to be Shibayama-Chiyoda. The line opened for operation on October 22, 2002.

The construction of the railway was strongly demanded by Shibayama residents and was supported by the Transport Ministry and Narita Airport Authority to appease residents of the area immediately east of Narita International Airport, as the airport property cut off Shibayama's access to Narita City and points west.

There was a proposal to extend the line into Chiyoda until 1996. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has recommended studying an extension into central Shibayama Town.

Line
The company operates a single line.
 * Number prefix Shibayama.svg Shibayama Railway Line Higashi-Narita - Shibayama-Chiyoda 2.2 km (1.3 mi)

The Shibayama Railway Line is recognized and advertises itself as the shortest railway line in Japan. However, the Kurama-dera Cable is the shortest cable car line in Japan with a length of 207 meters, and Seinō Railway operates the shortest freight-only railway line at the operational kilometer of 1.3 km.

Rolling stock
The rolling stocks used by the Shibayama Railway are all leased from the Keisei Electric Railways. The company has been using a Keisei 3500 series since 2013. In 2022, the train's wrapping was changed to use red and green stripes, resembling the former 3600 series used on the line until 2013. During the time 3600 series was used by the Shibayama Railway, the train color was changed from Keisei's blue and red color scheme to red and green, the color used in the company's logo.