History
Kita-Nagano Station opened on 1 September 1898 as Yoshida Station on the Japanese National Railways Shin'etsu Line. It was renamed Kita-Nagano on 1 April 1957 to avoid confusion with the nearby Nagano Electric Railway's Shinano-Yoshida Station. From 1968 it absorbed Nagano Station's freight handling, gaining a major freight yard. The station building became elevated in 1974, was relocated under elevated tracks in 1995, and Suica integrated-ticket service is scheduled to begin on 14 March 2026 alongside the closure of the staffed ticket window. With the Hokuriku Shinkansen's Kanazawa extension on 14 March 2015, passenger operation transferred to the third-sector Shinano Railway while JR Freight continues to use the yard.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Since the Nagano Electric Railway Yashiro Line was abandoned in April 2012, Kita-Nagano has been the terminus for shipped-rail (kōshu yusō) deliveries of new rolling stock to the operator, which are then trucked to the Suzaka depot.