Plans existed to link the prefectural capital of Aomori with the northern tip of the Tsugaru Peninsula from the time of the Meiji periodRailway Construction Act. In 1930, the privately held Tsugaru Railway began operations on the western side of Tsugaru Peninsula, and surveying work was completed by the Japanese Government Railways (JGR) to build a government-operated line on the eastern side of Tsugaru Peninsula. These plans were postponed by the outbreak of World War II, and were only resumed in the 1950s under the Japanese National Railways (JNR).
On December 5, 1951, the first segment of the Tsugaru Line was completed from Aomori to Kanita. This was extended by October 21, 1958 to the present northern terminus at Minmaya. Additional intermediate stations were added in 1959 and 1960.
All scheduled freight operations were suspended on December 10, 1984. With the privatization of the JNR on April 1, 1987, the line came under the operational control of JR East. From March 13, 1988, the tracks between Aomori Station and the Shin Naka-Oguni Signal Base are jointly used by JR East, JR Hokkaido's Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line, and Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight).
In 1988 the Aomori–Shin Naka-Oguni Signal Base section was electrified in conjunction with the opening of the Seikan Tunnel and associated Tsugaru-Kaikyō Line.
After the section between Kanita and Minmaya was washed away in heavy rainfall in 2022, JR East and the town of Sotogahama closed the section indefinitely. The affected town of Imabetsu agreed to transition access to bus service in May 2024.[1]
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