History
Shintoku Station opened on 8 September 1907 as a general-purpose station of the Imperial Railway Agency, equipped with its own locomotive depot. The depot was disbanded around 1910 and re-established in 1917. When the Sekishō Line opened on 1 October 1981, Shintoku became its eastern terminus, sharing a 24-km dual-designation section with the Nemuro Main Line. Freight handling ended in November 1982 and parcel service in March 1985, the same day the locomotive depot was closed. JR Hokkaido took over on 1 April 1987. After Typhoon No. 10 destroyed bridges east of Shintoku on 30 August 2016, replacement bus service began, and on 1 April 2024 the Furano-Shintoku segment was permanently closed.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The station forecourt holds the 'Kafu no Zō' (fireman's statue), erected in 1981, depicting a steam-locomotive fireman shoveling coal — a tribute to crews who worked the gruelling 25 per mille gradient over the Karikachi Pass on the old Nemuro Main Line.