Maibara Station (米原駅) is in Maibara, Shiga Prefecture. West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) run the station. The Ohmi Railway also has its own station here. Lines served: Tōkaidō Shinkansen.
History
Maibara station opened on 1 July 1889, when the government railway opened between the branch point at Fukaya and Baba (now Zeze station), and between here and Nagahama. It was an ordinary station. On 1 April 1895 it was placed on the Tōkaidō Line. On 1 November 1902 the branch from here to Nagahama became part of the Hokuriku Line. On 4 July 1931 the Ōmi Railway opened a station here. In November 1931 a Hikone to Maibara to Nagahama service began, the first railcar service of the national railways.
On 25 July 1955 electrification was completed from Inazawa to here. On 19 November 1956 the Tōkaidō Line was electrified all the way to Kyoto, and the Hikone route was moved. On 1 October 1961 the Hakuchō, the first express to run onto the Hokuriku Line, began running between Osaka and Ueno and Aomori. On 1 October 1964 the Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened with a station here. It was rare for a Shinkansen station, because it was in a town rather than a city. On 25 December 1964 electric express trains on the Hokuriku Line began running. On 15 February 1968 a freight train and a rapid train collided on the station grounds.
On 15 March 1970 the Shinkansen platform was extended for sixteen-car trains. On 1 March 1972 freight handling ended. In October 1972 three return trips of Hikari trains began stopping here, the first stop added to the Shinkansen since it opened. The trip from Tokyo to the Hokuriku area became about an hour shorter. On 10 March 1975 express trains between the Kansai and Hokuriku areas were moved to the Kosei Line, and only a few kept running through Maibara. On 1 November 1986 luggage handling ended. On 1 April 1987 the national railways were split up. JR West took the conventional lines, JR Central took the Shinkansen, and JR Freight took freight.
On 13 March 1988 the Tōkaidō Line between here and Kyoto was given the name Biwako Line, and Shinkaisoku trains were extended to Maibara. On 14 September 1991 the Hokuriku Line between Tamura and Nagahama was changed to direct current, and through services from the Kansai area began. In March 1993 Hikari trains began waiting at Maibara for Nozomi trains to pass, for the first time. On 17 March 1998 automatic gates were installed at the Shinkansen transfer gate. On 1 September 1998 the new east station building opened, and the old platforms were renumbered and some were removed. On 1 December 1998 Maibara became part of the Osaka suburban area. On 1 November 2003 ICOCA became usable at JR West.
On 8 June 2007 the Ohmi Railway station building and platforms moved west. On 5 April 2012 the new Ohmi Railway station building opened. On 26 March 2016 the limited express Shinano stopped serving Maibara, and local trains that crossed both the JR West and JR Central lines ended. On 13 March 2021 the Haruka limited express stopped serving Maibara. The station joined the TOICA area, so IC commuter passes could be used across both companies. On 1 June 2022 a new Shinkansen gate opened from the east passage. On 1 July 2022 the conventional lines' platforms became smoke-free. On 1 March 2026 the Ohmi Railway station became unstaffed all day.
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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.