The is the common name for the JR West

West Japan Railway Company

, also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group companies and operates in western Honshū. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka.-History:...

 rail lines in the Hiroshima metropolitan area. The network was created on 2002-10-05 and modeled after the Urban Network in the Kyōto-Osaka-Kōbe area of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Unlike the Urban Network, the Hiroshima City Network was not created in order to serve the suburbs and surrounding environs of a large city, but rather to service primarily stations within 30–40 minutes of Hiroshima Station

Hiroshima Station

is a JR West railway station located in Minami-ku, Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima Station is the terminal station for several lines, and all Sanyō Shinkansen trains stop here.-History:...

.

Between Hiroshima Station and Kaitaichi Station

Kaitaichi Station

is a train station in Kaita, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.-Layout:One side platform and two island platforms are on ground. Station office lies above the platforms and the tracks. San'yo Main Line has 4 tracks between this station and Hiroshima station...

 (which is quadruple-track), the outside two tracks are exclusively for passenger trains, while the inside two tracks are used primarily for freight train

Freight train

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...

s, allowing for expansion of the use by passenger trains according to demand.