Akabane Station (赤羽駅) is an elevated station in Kita Ward, Tokyo. East Japan Railway Company runs it. The lines served are the Saikyō Line, the Takasaki Line, the Utsunomiya Line, the Keihin-Tōhoku Line and the Shōnan-Shinjuku Line. It opened on 1 March 1885.
History
On 1 March 1885 the Nippon Railway opened the station as a ground station, at the junction with the line to Shinagawa, which later became the Yamanote Line. On 1 November 1906 the Nippon Railway was nationalised. On 12 October 1909 the station was assigned to the Tōhoku Line. On 1 April 1958 the south exit opened.
On 30 July 1963 a footbridge linking the Akabane Line platform and the Tōhoku Line platform was completed. On 27 December 1968 the south elevated station building came into use. On 15 July 1972 the line sections were changed, and the Yamanote Line between Ikebukuro and Akabane was separated as the Akabane Line. On 25 February 1976 freight handling ended. On 1 October 1978, with the work to extend the Tōhoku Shinkansen to Ueno and to elevate the Akabane Line, the freight line near the station became single track.
On 2 March 1983 the Akabane Line elevated structure was completed, and a platform moved onto the elevated track. On 2 October 1983 Akabane Line trains went to longer formations. On 1 February 1984 morning express trains began running from Ōmiya on the Tōhoku freight line and ending here. On 30 September 1985 the Musashi-Urawa route opened as a commuter line, and it was named the Saikyō Line. On 1 April 1987 the station became part of JR East. In 1990 elevation work began to end the chronic traffic problems caused by the level crossings.
On 19 April 1998 the up Tōhoku Main Line was elevated, and on 26 April 1998 the down line was elevated, which completed the elevation project and removed all level crossings. On 6 December 1998 the elevated structure for the up Tōhoku freight line was completed, and a platform came into use. On 18 November 2001 Suica became usable. On 26 March 2011 Ekute Akabane opened. On 23 September 2011 the north concourse was renovated and extended, and Ekute Akabane fully opened.
On 25 March 2017 platform doors came into use on the Keihin-Tōhoku Line platforms. On 16 November 2018 the departure melodies on some platforms were changed to songs by Elephant Kashimashi (エレファントカシマシ). On 29 October 2020 STATION BOOTH opened outside the south gates. On 29 July 2024 Ekute Akabane Minami opened on the south concourse, and the north Ekute was renamed Ekute Akabane Kita. On 1 October 2025 the Ekinet Q Ticket service began.
See all 35 dated events in the Data view →
Written by an AI from this station's own sourced facts (the dated events in the Data view), nothing else, and checked by a program for dates and numbers that are not in those facts. It can still be wrong. Found a mistake? . Adapted from Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0; this text is shared under the same licence.