Ōmika Station (大甕駅) in Hitachi, Ibaraki, is run by East Japan Railway Company and is on the Joban Line (常磐線). It opened on 25 February 1897.
History
The station opened on 25 February 1897 on the Japan Railway line between Mito and Hirama. On 8 August 1901 it became part of the Kaigan Line after a line name change. Japan Railway was nationalised on 1 November 1906, and the station came under the government railways. On 12 October 1909 the station was placed on the Joban Line. On 27 December 1928 the Hitachi Electric Railway (日立電鉄) line opened.
The Japanese National Railways was formed on 1 June 1949. Freight handling stopped on 1 September 1975. In 1985 the Tokiwa rapid train was discontinued, and this station became a stop for the Hitachi limited express. Luggage handling ended on 14 March 1985. A second station building was completed in 1986. On 1 April 1987 the station became part of JR East, which also took over ticket sales for the Hitachi Electric Railway.
Automatic ticket gates came into use on 3 March 1998. Suica became usable on 16 October 2004. The Hitachi Electric Railway line closed on 1 April 2005. A new departure melody was introduced on 1 November 2005. In 2007 the overbridge on the Hitachi side was fully removed.
In March 2015 Hitachi City drew up a plan for the area around Ōmika Station. On 1 April 2015 JR Mito Railway Service took over station duties, and on 1 July 2015 the work moved to JR East Station Service. On 5 February 2016 the second station building closed, and a temporary building opened on 6 February 2016.
In July 2018 Hitachi City and the JR East Mito office signed an agreement to rebuild the station building and add an east-west free passage. On 23 August 2018 an underground passage became part of the new station, and the overbridge linking the two platforms closed. Construction of a temporary building on the old bicycle park began in September 2018. The new station building and part of the free passage opened on 8 December 2018. Heavy rain flooded the underground passage on 25 October 2019. In 2020 the new station building and free passage were chosen for the Ibaraki Design Selection, and by April 2020 the west station square and access roads were open. The Midori ticket window closed on 17 March 2023.
See all 29 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.