The Iida Line of JR Tokai starts from Toyohashi on the Tokaido Line. After 196 km it reaches Tatsuno near Matsumoto on the Chuo Line (here already operated by JR East). The namegiving city, Iida, is reached after 129 km from Toyohashi.

The Iida line is electrified and has single track. An exception are the first 9 km from Toyohashi to Toyokawa, which have double track and which is also the most frequently used part of the line by far. Most of the Iida line runs through a rather scenic mountain area. On some parts of the line narrow valleys have to be passed by many bridges and tunnels.

In addition to 2 pairs of Tokkyu (Limited Express) trains per day from Toyohashi to Iida, only local trains operate on the line. This already indicates that the Iida Line is not very competitive for long- and even medium-distance travel. The reason for this is that the trains are rather slow: To cover the whole line, at least 4.5 hours (including the Tokkyu between Toyohashi and Iida) or 5.5 hours (with local trains only) are needed ! To reach Iida from Nagoya, the shortest travel time is about 3 hours by train (including Shinkansen between Nagoya and Toyohashi). However, hourly highway buses operated by Meitetsu make this journey in just over 2 hours for a much lower price !

To help increasing ridership, a tourist train is operated between Toyohashi and Chubu-Tenryo on spring and summer weekends. This tourist train also features some open cars and is hauled by a historic electric locomotive (see the last 4 pictures on this page). In Chubu-Tenryo a small railway museum can be visited.

Freight service on the Iida line has nearly ceased to exist. In 1990 there were still up to 5 freight trains per day on the easternmost 62 km from Tatsuno to Motozen-Koji, carrying petroleum and cement, but these have been given up in the 1990ies. The only freight train left is a working from from (Hamamatsu -) Toyohashi to Toyokawa. However, the customer in Toyokawa is a railcar factory, so the main purpose of this train seems to be the delivery of new railcars, not really freight transport.

Local trains

A local train to Toyohashi reaches Shinshiro. Most local trains on the Iida Line
are operated by this kind of 2-car EMU (some trains with 2 units = 4 cars).

Local trains to Toyohashi (left) and Tatsuno (right) in Shinshiro.

A few trains are still operated with the old green/orange EMUs. This picture
shows such EMU as a local train to Toyohashi (left), passing a local train to
Tatsuno (right) in Mikawa-Ootsu.

Some parts of the line pass through rather scenic narrow valleys.

A nice garden right in the station welcomes the passengers in Chubu-Tenryo, where JR
Tokai also operates a small railway museum.

A local train to Toyohashi in Urakawa.

Tokkyu (Limited Express)

A Tokkyu from Iida to Toyohashi passes a local train in Touei.

Tourist train

The tourist train shortly before departure in Toyohashi

On its way back to Toyohashi, the train passes a local train in Mikawa-
Makihara.