Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 and has a geographic area of 4,017 km2 (1,551 sq mi). Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the northeast, Mie Prefecture to the southeast, and Kyoto Prefecture to the west.
The Tōkaidō Main Line is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group network, connecting Tokyo and Kōbe stations. It is 589.5 km (366.3 mi) long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallels the line.
Umeda Station is a railway station in Kita-ku in the northern commercial center of Osaka, Japan. It is the busiest station in western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005.
Ōsaka Station is a major railway station in the Umeda district of Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company. It forms as one of the city's main railway terminals to the north, the other being Shin-Ōsaka.
Kyōto Station is a major railway station and transportation hub in Kyōto, Japan. It has Japan's second-largest station building and is one of the country's largest buildings, incorporating a shopping mall, hotel, movie theater, Isetan department store, and several local government facilities under one 15-story roof. It also housed the Kyōto City Air Terminal until August 31, 2002.
Shin-Osaka Station is a railway station in Yodogawa-ku, Osaka, Japan. It is the western terminus of the high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen line from Tokyo, the eastern terminus of the San'yō Shinkansen and one of Osaka's main railway terminals to the north. The Shinkansen lines are physically joined, and many trains offer through service.
The Biwako Line is the nickname used by the operator of the West Japan Railway Company to refer to the portion of the Tōkaidō Main Line and the Hokuriku Main Line. The section, along with JR Kyoto Line and JR Kobe Line, forms a contiguous service that is the main trunk of JR West's "Urban Network" commuter rail network in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area.
Maibara Station is an interchange passenger railway station located in the city of Maibara, Shiga, Japan. On the border between West Japan Railway Company and Central Japan Railway Company, it is jointly operated by both companies, along with the private railway operator Ohmi Railway. It is also a freight depot for the Japan Freight Railway Company.
The Thunderbird is a limited express train service operated by the West Japan Railway Company between Osaka and Kanazawa or Wakuraonsen in Japan, using portions of the Tokaido Main Line, Kosei Line, Hokuriku Main Line, IR Ishikawa Railway Line, and Nanao Line.
The JR Kyōto Line is a commuter rail line in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company. The name applies to the section of the Tōkaidō Main Line between Kyōto Station and Ōsaka Station.
Keihanshin is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population of 19,302,746 over an area of 13,228 km2 (5,107 sq mi). It is the second-most-populated urban region in Japan, containing approximately 15% of Japan's population.
The Nara Line is a commuter rail line in the Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto metropolitan area, operated by the West Japan Railway Company. Its official termini are Kizu Station in Kizugawa and Kyōto Station in Kyoto, within Kyoto Prefecture; however, all trains continue past Kizu on the Yamatoji Line to Nara Station in Nara, Nara Prefecture.
The Kitaguni (きたぐに) was an overnight train service that operated in Japan from October 1961 until January 2013. Operated by West Japan Railway Company, it ran between Niigata and Osaka, taking approximately nine hours northbound and eight hours southbound. Reduced to seasonal operations in March 2012, the service was officially discontinued in January 2013.
The Kosei Line is a commuter rail line in Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, operated by West Japan Railway Company. The line was completed in 1974 by the former Japanese National Railways (JNR) to provide faster access from the Kansai region to the Hokuriku region. It originates at Yamashina Station in Yamashina-ku, Kyoto and ends at Ōmi-Shiotsu Station in Nagahama, Shiga.
The JR Kōbe Line is the nickname of portions of the Tokaido Main Line and the Sanyo Main Line, between Osaka Station in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture and Himeji Station in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. The line, along with the JR Kyoto Line and the Biwako Line, forms a contiguous service that is the main trunk of West Japan Railway Company's Urban Network commuter rail network in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area. The line also offers continuous service to the Gakkentoshi Line via the JR Tōzai Line.
The 223 series is a suburban electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR-West) in the Kansai region, Chūgoku region and Shikoku region of Japan. Multiple batches of the model have been built with varying differences, although the overall general appearance remains similar.
The Ohmi Railway Main Line is a regional railway line in Shiga Prefecture operated by the private railway operator Ohmi Railway. It connects the cities of Maibara and Koka. Its alignment is parallel with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Takamiya and Gokasho.
The 221 series is a suburban electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR-West) in the Kansai Region of Japan since March 1989.
The 225 series is a DC electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR-West) on suburban services in the "Keihanshin" Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area since December 2010.
¥1,298,913 million (FY 2013) [3] 
