Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi

History

Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station opened on 16 July 1920 with the inauguration of the Hanshin Kyūkō Kobe Main Line in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, and a year later the Saihō Line (now the Hankyu Imazu Line) was extended to meet it. From 1926 the Kobe Line and the Imazu Line crossed at the station on a flat 90-degree diamond crossing — the only such junction between two high-speed railways in Japan — until the crossing was removed in 1984 and the Imazu Line was split into separate north and south segments. A new bridge-over-track station building was completed on 6 April 1987. The 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake destroyed the Kobe Line viaduct to Shukugawa; full restoration took until 12 June 1995. Station numbering as HK-08 followed on 21 December 2013.

History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.

Notes

Until 1984 the Kobe and Imazu lines met at the station on Japan’s only diamond crossing between two high-speed railways; preserved rail sections are now on display at the Kobe Subway’s Tanigami depot and at Takamatsu-Hinata Park beside Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens.