Fukuhoku Yutaka-sen 福北豊線 (福北ゆたか線)
Class 813 (no. 116) leaving Keisen in the direction of Sasaguri. (2016)
Nôgata station. The former JR Ita-sen is today part of the third sector operated Heisei Chikuhô Tetsudô. On the right Fukuhoku Yutaka-sen JR class 817 (no. 1009), on the left Heisei Chikuhô Tetsudô no. 406. (2013)
This line is a new fast connection with suburban electric trains, since 2001 linking the industrial region of northern Kyûshû with Kyûshû's capital city Fukuoka via the former coalmining centres of Nôgata and Iizuka and then the pass route via Sasaguri. The Fukuhoku Yutaka-sen is electrified with AC 20 kV / 60 Hz and starts at Kurosaki on the Kagoshima Honsen, passing on to the Chikuhô Honsen after 5, 2 km. It then becomes the successor to the old Chikuhô Honsen, where the frequent modern services make it hard to imagine that once endless heavy coal trains and rather grubby diesel cars characterised the line. At Keisen, after 34, 5 km, the Fukuhoku Yutaka-sen branches away from the Chikuhô Honsen with its sparse services down to Haruda and tackles the steep descent over the Sasaguri-sen (25, 1 km) through the mountains. The tunnel on the way down to Sasaguri (4, 55 km long) was opened in 1968. The continuation from Sasaguri to Yoshizuka (just outside Fukuoka) had already been used for coal trains as from 1904. From Yoshizuka there follows a last short run into Hakata station (1, 8 km) on the Kagoshima Honsen.
The name of the line can only be understood through reference to the characters. Fuku (福) stands for Fukuoka (福岡), hoku (北) stands for Kita Kyûshû / North Kyûshû, which is written 北九州. Finally, yutaka (豊) refers to the old province of Buzen (written 豊前), which is present-day northeast Kyûshû. The character yutaka (豊) by itself carries the meaning "affluent, abundant, fertile, rich".