is a passenger

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

located in the city of Takarazuka

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is operated by the private transportation company

Hankyu Railway , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Gr ...

. It is located near JRA

Hanshin Racecourse is located in Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan. It has a capacity of 139,000 and is used for horse racing. The land was originally owned by Kawanishi Aircraft Company, which manufactured combat planes during World War II. After World War II, GHQ orde ...

and

Kwansei Gakuin University , colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 underg ...

. It is also an entrance station to Mount Kabutoyama, the east end of the Rokkō Mountains.

Lines

Nigawa Station is served by the

Hankyu Imazu Line , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...

, and is located 4.5 kilometers from the

terminus Terminus may refer to: Ancient Rome *Terminus (god), a Roman deity who protected boundary markers Transport *Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination *Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end des ...

of the line at and 18.8 kilometers from .

Layout

The station consists of two opposed ground-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

s, with an addition side platform on the inbound line in the direction of Nishinomiya Kitaguchi. Each platform is connected by underground passages in two places, north and south, connecting to two ticket gates, east and west. The main entrance is the east ticket gate, which has a window, an automatic ticket vending machine, a shop, and a toilet. Since it is also the exit for the racecourse, there are many automatic ticket gates, The additional side platform has its own temporary ticket gate,

Platforms

Adjacent stations

History

Nigawa Station opened on December 28, 1923. The name 'Nigawa' is originally the name of the river on the border of Takarazuka city and

Nishinomiya 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 1985 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218,948 households and a population density ...

city, and today Nigawa is used as the name of a town along the river of both cities. During the times of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(12/15/1943 - 9/21/1945), there was a station between Nigawa and Obayashi named . The station was in front of the factory of

Kawanishi Aircraft Company The was a Japanese aircraft manufacturer active during World War II. History The company was founded as Kawanishi Engineering Works in 1920 in Hyōgo Prefecture as an outgrowth of the Kawanishi conglomerate, which had been funding the Nakajima ...

, a predecessor of

ShinMaywa is a Japanese industrial conglomerate descended from the Kawanishi Aircraft Company. Founded as Shin Meiwa Industries in 1949, the company was rebranded as ShinMaywa during 1992. Prior to this, the company was also known as ''Shin Meiwa Industry ...

Industries, Ltd. The factory was closed after GHQ ordered the company to stop manufacturing aircraft. In 1949, JRA Hanshin Racecourse was built on the vacant lot. In 2002, the station installed barrier-free facilities for the elderly and the disabled.

Passenger statistics

In fiscal 2019, the station was used by an average of 24,998 passengers daily

Surrounding area

*Kwansei Gakuin Junior High School *Kwansei Galuin Senior High School *Nigawa Gakuin *

References

External links

Nigawa Station (Hankyu Railway)
Railway stations in Hyōgo Prefecture Hankyu Railway Imazu Line Stations of Hankyu Railway Railway stations in Japan opened in 1923 Takarazuka, Hyōgo {{Hyogo-rail-station-stub