History
Kobashi Stop opened on 9 July 1923 with the opening of the Saidaijichō-Higashiyama section of the Okayama Electric Tramway Higashiyama Main Line. The stop is located in Kobashichō 1-chōme and 2-chōme, Naka-ku, Okayama City, with stop number H07. Because the road is too narrow for proper platforms, Kobashi has no boarding island — only a painted safety-zone outline on the carriageway and timetables posted on nearby telegraph poles. Passengers wait on the pavement and cross the road to board only after a tram has arrived.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-25.
Notes
On 11 November 2001 a car struck a group of high-school students waiting inside the painted safety-zone outline, injuring multiple students; calls for improvement were made but the road was too narrow for proper platforms or mound-up boarding zones, and single-tracking was ruled out due to rush-hour needs. As a workaround, the bank Chūgoku Bank Kobashi branch installed a roofed waiting area on its premises, and trams now play an in-car "Mind the cars" announcement when stopping at Kobashi and similarly-built Chūnagon Stop.