Furthermore, the modernization of rail cars was also delayed significantly, as seen in the long-time use of outmoded passenger cars pulled by JNR Diesel Locomotive Type DD51 for the local trains (however, with a fatal accident in the early 1980s, in which an elementary school student who was leaning out of the window accidentally tumbled off the moving train between Namaze and Takedao, passenger cars that started from and terminated at Osaka Station were replaced with the JNR Passenger Car Series 12, equipped with automatic doors, when the timetable was revised in March 1985).
加えて、普通列車は永らく国鉄DD51形ディーゼル機関車牽引による旧型客車が使用され続けるなど、車両面での近代化は大きく遅れていた（ただ車両については1980年代前半に生瀬～武田尾間を走行中の普通列車から身を乗り出していた小学生が誤って転落死したこともあり、大阪発着の客車列車に関しては、1985年3月のダイヤ改正で自動扉がついた国鉄12系客車客車に置き換えられて近代化している）。