History
Kōyōen Station opened on 1 October 1924 as the terminus of the Hanshin Express Railway (now Hankyu) Kōyō Line. The line was originally built to access the now-vanished Karubasu hot-spring resort and a Tōa Kinema film studio, which closed in the early Shōwa period; the area is now a quiet residential district. On 1 June 1965 the station introduced Japan's first "free-pass gate" for students. Service stopped after the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and resumed on 1 March. A 20 September 2008 derailment closed track 1; track 2 was retired on 7 August 2010, leaving a single bay platform. Station number HK-30 was assigned on 21 December 2013.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
On 1 June 1965 Kōyōen became the first station in Japan to install a "free-pass gate" — a turnstile-less entrance for uniformed local students who had built a trust relationship with the railway.