On 1 October 2026, the Kurobe Gorge Railway’s open-carriage trolley train runs the full 20 km from Unazuki to Keyakidaira for the first time since the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake damaged the line. The railway confirmed the date in its official notice: full-line service resumes from the first departure of the day, and the season runs until 30 November.
For two and a half seasons the train has been turning back at Nekomata, roughly halfway up the gorge. From October it reaches Keyakidaira again — but the reopening comes with a booking catch that most English coverage will miss entirely.
The catch: Keyakidaira is phone-only in 2026
The railway’s own ticketing page is explicit: web reservations cannot be used for Keyakidaira this year. The split looks like this:
| Section | Book online? |
|---|---|
| Unazuki ⇔ Kuronagi | Yes — web or phone |
| Unazuki ⇔ Kanetsuri | Yes — web or phone |
| Unazuki ⇔ Keyakidaira | Phone only |
Two more constraints come straight from the reopening notice:
- Boarding numbers for Keyakidaira are limited. Restoration work is still underway around the terminus, and the railway is capping admissions to manage congestion and safety.
- At Keyakidaira, only the station building and visitor centre are open. The rest of the sightseeing area is behind construction barriers for the time being — the riverside strolls older guides describe are not back yet.
Reservations open three months before the travel date and close at 15:00 the day before. Bookings for the entire post-reopening period (1 October – 30 November) have been accepted since 8 July, so autumn dates are already moving.
What the phone reservation actually involves
This is the part that matters if you do not live in Japan. The railway’s published phone-booking flow is: call the customer centre (0765-62-1011, 9:00–16:30 JST), receive an acceptance notice by post, then pay by bank transfer to a designated account by the deadline, and exchange the paperwork for tickets at the Unazuki window on the day.
A postal notice plus a domestic bank transfer is not a realistic path from overseas. The three routes that actually work:
- Stay at Unazuki Onsen and have the inn book. The railway lists Unazuki Onsen ryokan (most of them) as an official reservation channel. Email your inn after booking your room; this is the smoothest route and the one the gorge is built around.
- Use a travel agent. The railway lists agents as a sales channel, and agents handle the transfer for you.
- Queue on the day. Same-day tickets go on sale at the Unazuki station window from 7:40. All trains are reserved-seating only, and the railway itself warns that in foliage season you may not get the departure you want — on peak October weekends, treat same-day as a lottery, not a plan.
Fares for the reopened line
From the railway’s fare table for the full-line period (1 October – 30 November), one-way from Unazuki:
| To | Adult | Child (6–11) |
|---|---|---|
| Kuronagi | ¥830 | ¥420 |
| Kanetsuri | ¥1,780 | ¥890 |
| Keyakidaira | ¥2,480 | ¥1,240 |
Notes that change the planning:
- Round-trip tickets are valid for two days. You can ride up one day and back the next — the way to do it if you are staying at one of the gorge’s hot-spring inns, such as the ones at Kanetsuri.
- The enclosed Relax car costs ¥600 extra per ride. October in the gorge is cold, and the open carriages are exactly that; for an 80-minute ride, the windowed car is money well spent.
- There are no toilets on the train. The railway says so itself. Go before you board.
- If you plan to get off at Kanetsuri or Keyakidaira and come straight back, the railway asks you to allow a minimum of 20 minutes at the terminus.
Why the timing is good anyway
The reopening lands exactly on the gorge’s best season. Autumn colour in Kurobe starts high up around Keyakidaira and works its way down to Unazuki as the weeks pass — regional travel outlets commonly place the peak from mid-October into November, which is a reported pattern rather than an official forecast, so treat the exact week as weather-dependent. What is official is that the line closes for winter after 30 November, so the reopened full line gets one eight-week season in 2026, and it is the red-leaf one.
One era ends with the reopening: Nekomata, the “cat” station halfway up, stops taking passengers on 30 September. It was open only as the temporary terminus during the repair years. If a half-length ride with the Nekomata stop was on your list, September is the last chance.
Getting there
From Tokyo, the railway’s own access page gives about 3 hours: Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kurobe-Unazuki-Onsen, walk to Shin-Kurobe on the Toyama Chiho Railway, ride to Unazuki-Onsen (about 25 minutes), then a 5-minute walk to the trolley’s Unazuki station. The same routing works from Kanazawa, which makes the gorge an easy add-on to a Hokuriku loop.
Driving is possible — the station car park takes about 350 cars at ¥1,000 for the first 6 hours (¥1,500 maximum per 24 hours) — but the railway warns that on autumn weekends the car park and the approach road clog badly. Whichever way you come, be at the station 20 minutes before departure for ticketing.
How to decide
- Want Keyakidaira in October or November? Book a night at Unazuki Onsen first, then ask the inn to reserve the train. That single step solves the phone-only, bank-transfer problem.
- Happy with Kanetsuri (about 80% of the gorge)? Web booking works — reserve online from three months out and skip the phone entirely.
- Already in the region without a reservation? Be at the Unazuki window before 7:40, have a second-choice departure time ready, and expect to wait on foliage-season weekends.
- Going after 30 November? You are not — the line is closed until spring. The 2027 season dates are announced around the new year.
Official sources
- Kurobe Gorge Railway — full-line reopening notice (3 July 2026): https://www.kurotetu.co.jp/news-detail/?post=616
- Kurobe Gorge Railway — fares: https://www.kurotetu.co.jp/fare/
- Kurobe Gorge Railway — ticket purchase and reservation methods: https://www.kurotetu.co.jp/howto/
- Kurobe Gorge Railway — access and parking: https://www.kurotetu.co.jp/access/
All figures and dates above were read from the official pages listed here on 18 August 2026. The reopening date, the phone-only rule for Keyakidaira, the capacity limit and the area restrictions come from the railway’s official notice; fares, the two-day round-trip validity and the no-toilet note from its fare page; the booking flow and same-day window time from its purchase page. The foliage timing is attributed in place as a reported seasonal pattern, not an official forecast.
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