[1] The line color on maps, station signs, and train livery is golden orange (柑子色, kōji-iro, Munsell code 5YR6.5/14).
Stations also have toilets compatible with ostomy pouching systems, and, apart from Taishibashi-Imaichi, two large elevators designed with the ability to transport passengers who suffer medical emergencies.
This is a marked contrast with the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line (constructed at the height of the Bubble years), where the design of each station is different and representative of the surrounding area.
An extension southward from Imazato to Yuzato Rokuchōme in Higashisumiyoshi-ku, originally slated as Phase II of construction, has been deferred.
On 15 June of the same year, a survey conducted at the end of April was released that showed passenger numbers at the seven stations not connecting to other subway lines to be approximately 45,000 per day.
Nevertheless, many people still prefer to ride the buses, as they are more accessible than the subway stations, which are further apart and fairly deep underground, requiring them to walk a greater distance.
Additionally, while there are fewer buses than before, they continue to compete with the line for ridership, due to their flat fare and greater number of stops.
In the 10th report of the Transport Policy Committee in 1989, the plan was listed as a "line that should be considered for future construction" between Kami-Shinjō and Yuzato Rokuchōme.
Later on, as underground obstructions were discovered along the planned route, the starting point was changed in 1996 from Kami-Shinjō to Itakano, where the population was increasing due to residential development.
The ground stratum the Imazatosuji Line runs through is a "super-soft clay deposit", which is soft and has a high water content; in many instances, bulldozers were useless in excavating the soil.
If the extension of the line to its intended terminus at Yuzato Rokuchōme were to continue as planned, assessment and construction would have cost an additional ¥132 billion, substantially increasing the financial burden on Osaka city.
For this reason, then-mayor Junichi Seki ran for re-election in 2005 promising to bring the planned line extension up for review.
On 28 November of that year, the newly re-elected mayor Seki announced that groundbreaking on the Imazato – Yuzato Rokuchōme extension, planned for 2006 with a 2016 opening, would be put on hold indefinitely due to the fiscal situation in Osaka.
In addition, Osaka city had changed its future outlook for the Municipal Transportation Bureau from one of conversion to public holding / private operation to "full privatization including the possibility being listed on the stock exchange"; if this were to go ahead, the chance of the line's completion according to the original plans would go from slim to nearly none.
However, on 28 August 2014, the extension to Yuzato Rokuchōme was mothballed, and the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau has considered light rail or bus rapid transit for further expansion of public transit services within Osaka, citing the high cost of building subway extensions and eventual privatization.
[8] At the time of implementation, it was intended for the BRT service to be a five-year long test to help determine the feasibility of building the extension of the Imazatosuji Line to Yuzato Rokuchōme.