History
The JR side of Motomachi Station opened on 20 July 1934, when the section between Suita and Sanyō Main Line Suma was electrified and several new stations — Tsukamoto, Tachibana, Kōshien-guchi, Rokkō-michi and Motomachi — were added; the site had previously hosted the original (1874) JNR Sannomiya Station, which moved 600 m east when the line was elevated in October 1931. The station was renamed Motomachi after the local Motomachi-dōri district, established the same year as the old Sannomiya. The Hanshin side opened on 18 March 1936 as an interim terminus, with the predecessor station renamed Sannomiya at the same time. Service was suspended from 28 March 1945 when the station's underground tracks were converted into an aircraft-engine gear factory, and resumed in November 1945. On 7 April 1968 the Kobe Rapid Railway's east-west line opened, beginning through service to Sanyō Electric Railway. The 17 January 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake closed the JR station until reopening between Nada and Kobe on 20 February 1995; the Hanshin station reopened on 1 February 1995. ICOCA support began on 1 November 2003, station numbering was introduced on the Hanshin side on 1 April 2014 and on the JR side on 17 March 2018, and Hanshin platform-edge doors entered service in September 2025.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-24.
Notes
Motomachi is the nearest station to Sannomiya Shrine — the shrine that gave Sannomiya its place name — even though Sannomiya/Sannomiya Station does not. This is because the original Sannomiya Station of 1874 stood near the shrine, and after the 1931 elevation moved the station 600 m east, Motomachi was opened on the old shrine-side site.