Nishinomiya Station (西宮駅) is an elevated station in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture. West Japan Railway Company (JR West) runs it. It opened on 11 May 1874 as Nishinomiya Station (西ノ宮駅).
History
Nishinomiya Station opened on 11 May 1874 as Nishinomiya Station (西ノ宮駅), at the same time as the state railway's Osaka to Kobe section opened. It handled passengers and freight. On 1 April 1895, the line was named, and the station came under the Tōkaidō Line, later the Tōkaidō Main Line. In April 1924, the station was rebuilt as a single-storey wooden building, just west of the previous one.
On 15 November 1944, a freight line from here to Susaki opened for the Hanshin Mukogawa Line. Between Nishinomiya and Kōshien-guchi, the state railway and Hanshin ran side by side. In March 1949, a north exit opened at the request of Nishinomiya city. In 1958, the Hanshin Mukogawa freight line between here and Susaki was suspended.
In 1986, the Asahi Beer Nishinomiya plant on the east side of the station, and a Sumitomo Cement service station further east, had private sidings used for freight. On 1 November 1986, freight handling ended. On 1 April 1987, the national railway was split up and privatised, and the station became part of West Japan Railway Company (JR West). On 13 March 1988, the JR Kobe Line nickname began to be used. On 17 January 1995, service was suspended after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. On 25 January 1995, service resumed when the section from Kōshien-guchi to Ashiya was restored.
On 8 March 1997, the Sazanami approach melody was introduced on the JR Kobe Line. On 28 February 1998, the current station building, the third one, was rebuilt, with elevators and escalators, automatic ticket gates and electronic display boards. On 14 March 1998, all outer-line rapid trains began stopping here. On 23 March 2002, inner-line rapid trains began stopping here on weekday mornings and evenings. On 29 July 2002, the JR Kyoto and Kobe Line operation management system was introduced. On 1 November 2003, ICOCA became usable. On 1 December 2003, all rapid trains began stopping here throughout the day.
On 18 March 2007, the station was renamed Nishinomiya Station (西宮駅). On 12 March 2015, the approach melody was changed back to a revised version of Sazanami, after the train entering warning sound was reviewed. On 17 March 2018, station numbering was introduced.
See all 22 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.