Kitami Station (喜多見駅; Kitami-eki) is a minor stop on the

Odakyu Electric Railway , commonly known as Odakyū, is a major railway company based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its '' Romancecar'' series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone. The Odakyu Electric Railway Compa ...

Odawara Line straddling the border between Setagaya Ward and

Komae is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It is one of 30 municipalities in the western portion of Tokyo known as the Tama Area. , the city had an estimated population of 83,218, and a population density of 13,000 per ...

City in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. It is the 14th station, about , from Shinjuku Station. It was used by an average of about 32,000 passengers daily in 2005. It is serviced by local service and section semi-express trains; all other trains bypass the station.

Layout

The new station consists of two elevated side platforms and four tracks. Express trains typically bypass the station on the two innermost tracks while local trains typically stop at the station on the two outermost tracks. Kitami station's facilities are located on the ground floor. There are commercial and food establishments under the train tracks on either side of the concourse.

History

Kitami Station was opened on 1 April 1927. Throughout the 1990s it was extensively redeveloped as part of the Odakyu Line's track doubling project. Previous to the redevelopment, the platforms were on ground level and linked by an overhead bridge. Station numbering was introduced in January 2014 with Kitami being assigned station number OH15.

Surroundings

The station lies in a residential area. There is a koban immediately outside the North Exit and a supermarket to the south. A neighbourhood shopping street stretches south. The Odakyu Railway's Kitami train depot lies to the east, alongside the Nogawa river. There is a Catholic

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

to the north of the station. It was built in the early 20th century by Tsurumatsu Toshimitsu, the founder of Odakyu, for his daughter. The name of the area, ''Kitami'', is thought to originate from an ancient Ainu word meaning "flat, wooded place".

References

Railway stations in Japan opened in 1927 Odakyu Odawara Line Stations of Odakyu Electric Railway Kitami Station {{Tokyo-railstation-stub