History
The tram stop opened on 1 August 1924 as Suizenji-eki-mae Station (水前寺駅前停留場) when the Kumamoto City Suizenji Line opened. In February 1935 it was renamed Suizenji-ekidōri (水前寺駅通停留場). When JR Kyushu opened the new Shin-Suizenji Station on the Hōhi Line between Suizenji and Minami-Kumamoto on 13 March 1988, the tram stop became its transfer point but kept its old name despite the mismatch. To unify the names, the stop was renamed Shin-Suizenji-Ekimae (新水前寺駅前停留場) on 1 March 2011. The new Shin-Suizenji JR station building was rebuilt as an elevated structure on 19 June 2010, and on 1 April 2011 a relocated tram stop opened directly beside it, with a connecting footbridge added in July 2011. A turn-back siding was added on the Kokufu side in April 2018.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-25.
Notes
Morning rush-hour trams from Kengun-machi toward Karashimachō are typically full by their starting stop, leaving little room for boarding at Shin-Suizenji-Ekimae; this prompted a trial of trams turning back at the stop in November 2021, which became a permanent timetable feature from 11 April 2022.