Overview
The Kansai Airport Line (S) opened on 15 June 1994, ahead of the airport it serves: 11.1 km and just 3 stations, branching off the Hanwa Line at Hineno. The numbering starts at S45 because Hineno, the junction, brings its Hanwa Line number R45 across into the S series.
Along the route
From Hineno the line reaches Rinku Town, the waterfront development where the Rinku Gate Tower Building stands beside the station, then climbs onto the Sky Gate Bridge to cross Osaka Bay to Kansai Airport on its artificial island. Outside the two station areas it shares track with Nankai's rival Airport Line: the infrastructure belongs to New Kansai International Airport Company, and JR West runs over it as a second-category operator, its limited expresses racing Nankai's across the water.
Why play it
Three stations makes this one of the shortest runs in the game, but rinku-town and kansai-airport are chewy katakana with long vowels. Perfect for a very quick sprint.
Line data
Everything below is derived from the station data the game runs on, so it always matches what you actually type on the 関西空港線 — all 3 stops of it.
- Operator
- JR West
- Line symbol
- S
- Stations
- 3
- Shape
- Terminal to terminal
- Termini
- 日根野 — 関西空港
How much typing is this?
Typing every station name on this line takes 29 keystrokes, an average of 9.7 per station. The longest name is 関西空港 (kansai-airport) at 12 keystrokes; the shortest is 日根野 (hineno) at 6. Those counts come from running each name's kana through the game's own romaji engine, so they are what your fingers actually do — not the length of the printed spelling.
Along the way: 0 names contain a small っ, which doubles the next consonant; 0 contain a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ, where the engine accepts both the Hepburn and Kunrei spellings (sha or sya, shu or syu); and 1 end in ん, whose trailing n folds into whatever comes next rather than standing alone.
Where you can change trains
3 of the 3 stations on this line connect to another line in the game. Follow any symbol to that line's guide.
Every station on the line
All 3 stations in order, with the official station number, the name in kanji, the kana the typing is derived from, and its Hepburn romaji.
| # | No. | Station | Kana | Romaji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S45 | 日根野 | ひねの | hineno |
| 2 | S46 | りんくうタウン | りんくうたうん | rinku-town |
| 3 | S47 | 関西空港 | かんさいくうこう | kansai-airport |