When aiming to ride every rail line, even shortcut lines that trains normally just pass through become targets. Near Seibu-Chichibu Station, there are two shortcut lines. Regular services run only on weekends and holidays, with very few trains — so completing both in a single day requires careful planning.
Route Map Around Seibu-Chichibu Station
Orange is the Seibu Chichibu Line; blue is the Chichibu Railway Chichibu Line.
Seibu-Chichibu Station and Ohanabatake Station are within walking distance, but the two lines are not connected on the track map. In practice, however, there are two connection points (shown in red and green) that allow Seibu trains to enter the Chichibu Railway.
Red: A line from Yokoze Station to Ohanabatake Station, bypassing Seibu-Chichibu Station. Used by through-trains from Seibu toward Nagatoro.
Green: A line from Seibu-Chichibu Station toward Mitsumineguchi. Used by through-trains heading in the Mitsumineguchi direction.
As of July 2023, regular services on both lines run only on weekends and holidays.
The Plan
As of July 2023, the following route completes both shortcut lines in a single day. The plan starts from Hannō Station, where the Seibu Chichibu Line train originates.
Train No. 1 is bound for Nagatoro and Mitsumineguchi, splitting at Yokoze Station. The Mitsumineguchi portion takes the green route; the Nagatoro portion takes the red route into the Chichibu Railway. In this direction, the red route has 2 trains per day (No. 1 and No. 5), while the green route has only 1 (No. 1). The Chichibu Railway train numbers are S1 (Mitsumineguchi) and S2 (Nagatoro).
Since No. 5 later provides a chance to ride the red route, we first take the green route on No. 1 and get off at Kagemori, the first stop on the Chichibu Railway.
No. 2 returns to Ohanabatake Station. No. 3 is a walk from Ohanabatake to Seibu-Chichibu Station — about 5 minutes on foot. Seibu-Chichibu Station overlooks Ohanabatake from a higher elevation.
The key train, No. 5, doesn’t pass through Seibu-Chichibu Station, so No. 4 backtracks one stop to Yokoze Station.
No. 5 is the Nagatoro-bound train originating at Yokoze. We ride just one section. Its Chichibu Railway train number is S6.
Note: there are no trains running the red route in the reverse direction (Chichibu Railway → Seibu).
This completes both the red and green shortcut lines.
Rejected Alternative Plan
What happens if you take the Mitsumineguchi-bound portion of Train No. 1 instead?
Ohanabatake and Seibu-Chichibu are walkable, but a 3-minute transfer is not realistic.
Running through stations and during transfers is dangerous — don’t attempt this.
As of now, the first plan presented above appears to be the only viable method.