Nishinomiya

History

Nishinomiya Station opened on 12 April 1905 with the inauguration of the Hanshin Main Line. Approach and departure melodies were introduced on 1 September 1990. The Great Hanshin Earthquake suspended service on 17 January 1995; partial service between Kōshien and Aoki resumed on 26 January 1995, with full Hanshin Main Line restoration on 26 June 1995. The down-line tracks were elevated on 30 May 1998 and the up-line tracks on 3 March 2001, at which time the former Nishinomiya-higashiguchi Station (between today's Imazu and Nishinomiya) was consolidated into this station and the new 'Shiyakusho-guchi' entrance was created on the east side. Station numbering (HS 17) was introduced on 1 April 2014. From 14 March 2020, the section-limited express began stopping here as two morning peak up-bound express trains were redesignated as section-express.

History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.

Notes

Nishinomiya is one of the representative stations of Nishinomiya City and the nearest Hanshin station to Nishinomiya City Hall and Nishinomiya Shrine; it is the northernmost station on the Hanshin network. Elevation work began in 1980 but took over twenty years to complete because of concern that disturbing the underlying groundwater could damage the 'miyamizu' spring used by the local sake-brewing industry. The 1908 'Hanshin Densha Shōka' (Hanshin Electric Railway Song), written by 'Tetsudō Shōka' author Owada Takeki, sang of Nishinomiya as a destination for both Ebisu Shrine pilgrims and a sea-bathing resort.