History
Sekiya Station opened on 15 November 1913 as a station of the Echigo Railway. On 1 October 1927 the Echigo Railway was nationalised and the line became the government Echigo Line. The first-generation station building, on the south side, was completed in 1932. A Shin'etsu Main Line freight branch from Niigata to Sekiya opened on 1 November 1943. Freight service between Sekiya and Mandai began on 5 April 1951 and passenger service between Niigata and Sekiya started on 25 June 1951. On 15 December 1951 the Niigata–Sekiya section was integrated into the Echigo Line and the old line between Sekiya and Hakusan was abolished. Freight handling ended on 5 November 1982 and parcel handling on 1 February 1984. The station passed to JR East on 1 April 1987 at the JNR privatisation. A Midori no Madoguchi reserved-ticket counter opened on 1 October 1991. Automatic ticket gates entered service on 13 January 2005, and on 4 December 2005 a temporary station building opened during overhead-station construction. Suica became usable on 21 January 2006, and the overhead station building was completed on 9 December 2006 with a new north exit opened the same day. The Midori no Madoguchi counter closed on 30 September 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The area around Sekiya Station was once home to the old Niigata (Sekiya) Racecourse, opened in 1906; weekend racegoers used the Echigo Line in large numbers, and racehorses were brought in by rail from the national stables at Tokyo, Nakayama, Yokohama, Naruo, and Kyoto. The racecourse was closed in 1964 to make way for the Sekiya Diversion Channel of the Shinano River, and the operations moved in May 1965 to what is now Niigata City Kita-ku. The name lives on in the Sekiya Kinen race; level-crossing names like "Race Track Crossing" west of the station still bear witness to the old course. A short walk southwest from the south exit stood Higashi-Sekiya Station of the abolished Niigata Kōtsū Electric Railway; the buildings have been removed and the site sold, but the bus stop name "Higashi-Sekiya" preserves the memory.