Hanshin Electric Railway
About
About Hanshin Electric Railway
Hanshin Electric Railway operates rail services between Osaka and Kobe as part of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, alongside property, leisure and regional-development activities. Its autonomy work is a public-transport deployment programme in Nishinomiya, where Hanshin coordinates routes, passenger service and local operating processes with the city, bus operators and autonomous-driving technology partners. It does not manufacture the trial vehicles or their driving systems.
A roughly 90-day autonomous-bus trial around the Koshien area carried about 2,000 riders before the next phase was announced. Hanshin's 24 August 2026 release scheduled a Level 2 electric-bus trial to begin on 31 August, expanding service to Koshien Station and operating two routes. The programme's stated goal is Level 4 authorization within fiscal 2027, so the current work remains supervised testing and service preparation and has not reached authorized driverless operation.
Timeline
Events
- 2026-08-24 - Demonstration - Hanshin and Nishinomiya expand Koshien autonomous-bus trial
Vehicle operations are scheduled from August 31, 2026 through January 30, 2027, with public rides planned from mid-November. The programme uses a TIER IV Minibus 2.0 vehicle and involves Hanshin Bus and autonomy-technology collaborators. The project is working toward Level 4 authorization in fiscal 2027; the Aug. 24 event is the trial announcement, not Level 4 approval or an active public service.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- TIER IV
Autonomous Bus Technology Provider - Hanshin’s expanded Koshien autonomous-bus trial uses a TIER IV Minibus 2.0 and associated autonomy technology.