History
The station opened as Sakaemachi Station on 1 October 1938 in Ōmuta's central district, and became an intermediate station on 1 July 1939 when the line was extended from Sakaemachi to Ōmuta — the same day it was renamed Kyūtetsu Sakaemachi by company notification. On 22 September 1942 the Kyūshū Electric Tramway became Nishi-Nippon Railway, and the station was renamed Nishitetsu Sakaemachi. The Nishitetsu-Ginsui - Nishitetsu-Sakaemachi section was double-tracked on 1 April 1961, and the Nishitetsu-Sakaemachi - Ōmuta section on 21 June 1961. On 28 April 1970 the station was relocated 260 metres towards Fukuoka and re-opened under its present name as a three-storey terminal building with a single 160-metre, seven-car island platform plus a name-store arcade and bus terminal — total cost 2 billion yen, in concert with Ōmuta City's redevelopment plan because the previous 60-metre, three-car platform could no longer cope with growing traffic at a limited-express stop. The first automated ticket gates of any Ōmuta-city station were installed here in 1987. Station numbering (T49) was introduced on 1 February 2017, and on 10 September 2024 a pilot of contactless credit-card payment began.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Shin-Sakaemachi has an island platform with a two-storey building whose ticket gate and station-master's office sit on the second floor, more closely resembling an elevated station even though it is at grade. The eastern side of the line — including YouMe Town Ōmuta and National Route 208 — can only be reached by leaving the station and crossing one of the level crossings to the north or south. Until 2004 the building also housed the Nishitetsu Name-Store ('Emax Ōmuta'); the site is now a car park. Of all Nishitetsu limited-express stops, Shin-Sakaemachi has the second-lowest patronage after Daizenji.