History
Orio sits in Horikawa-chō, Yahata-Nishi Ward, Kitakyushu, and is a 'Kitakyushu City' station under JR's special-zone fare scheme; it marks the western terminus of both the Kagoshima and Chikuhō main lines. Kyushu Railway opened its Orio on 28 February 1891, Chikuhō Kōgyō Railway opened a separate Orio on 30 August of the same year on a different site, and on 13 November 1895 the two were combined at the current location in Japan's first crossing-and-cross station building, a unique two-storey wooden depot. As part of the long-running grade-separation project for the Orio district, a new consolidated station opened on 2 January 2021, replacing four scattered exits with a single concourse, and the under-track shopping arcade Eki-Machi Ichi-Chōme Orio opened with it.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The 1895 wooden depot at Orio is recognised as Japan's first rail-over-rail interchange building, predating the modern concept of a junction station; the structure was retired in 2021 when a new consolidated station opened.