Planning for the Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway began on 23 May 1966 as part of preparatory works for the
1970 World's Fair. Although the line was originally envisioned as a straightforward extension of the Midōsuji Line, the city government was unable to independently build and complete the extension because it went beyond municipal boundaries, thus raising issues of expropriation and financing. The Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway Company was established on 11 December 1967 under the as a result of the efforts of
Takeo Miki, then
Minister of International Trade and Industry, who brokered the deal creating said company as a
joint venture between the City of Osaka and Hankyu Railway. The line began construction on 16 July 1968 and was opened on 24 February 1970, to connect the then northern terminus of the Midōsuji Line, , with the grounds of the 1970 World's Fair. The Expo link was closed on 14 September, and the line was redirected to the new underground terminal station of . The temporary tracks between Senri-Chūō and the Expo Park were removed following the Expo, and the right-of-way repurposed as part of the
Chugoku Expressway. A plan to extend the line northward from Senri-Chuo to the city of
Minoh was proposed in 1989. The Minoh municipal government exchanged a letter of confirmation with Hankyu and Kitakyu regarding studies of the extension in 2011, and the government of
Osaka Prefecture joined a four-party memorandum of understanding in 2012. On 19 January 2017, construction began on the extension of the line to , which will have one intermediate station at . Completion of the extension was originally scheduled for 2020; in May 2019, the extension's scheduled opening date was delayed to 2023 because of construction problems. The scheduled opening of the extension was set for the end of 2023, but was later pushed back further to 23 March 2024. ==References==