Osaka Station (大阪駅
Ōsaka eki) is a station on the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) located
in the Umeda district in Kita-ku,
Osaka,
Japan. It is the city's main rail
terminal in the north.
Although it is officially served by only the JR Kobe/Kyoto Lines (Tōkaidō
Main Line) and the Osaka Loop Line, Osaka Station is the starting point of
JR Takarazuka Line service, and serves as the terminal for trains bound for
the San'in region via JR Takarazuka Line and the Hokuriku region via JR
Kyoto Line, while offering connections to trains bound for
Nara, Wakayama and
Kansai International Airport via the Osaka Loop Line.
Umeda Station (Hankyu, Hanshin, and Osaka Municipal Subway Midosuji Line),
Nishi-Umeda Station (Subway Yotsubashi Line) and Higashi-Umeda Station
(Subway Tanimachi Line) are directly connected to Osaka Station, and
Kitashinchi Station on the JR Tozai Line is within walking distance.
Osaka Station and Umeda Station are the busiest station in Western Japan,
serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005, and it is the third- busiest
train station in the world.
Osaka Station also houses a large freight terminal complex (Umeda Station of
JR Freight) and a terminal for overnight bus services to other cities in
Japan.
Osaka Station History
Osaka Station opened
on May 11, 1874 as one of first railway stations in the Kansai region when
the railway between Osaka and Kobe started operation. It was electrified
along with the Tōkaidō Main Line in 1934.
The existence of the station naturally made the area the primary
transportation hub of the city. Railways that set Osaka Station as the
terminal or built their terminal around Osaka Station include Osaka Railway
(present-day east half of the Osaka Loop Line) in 1895, Nishinari Railway
(west half of the Osaka Loop Line) in 1898, Hanshin Electric Railway in
1906, Minoo Arima Electric Tramway (Hankyu Railway) in 1910, and Osaka
Municipal Subway in 1933. The regional railways tended to name their
stations Umeda, the name of area, rather than the city name.
The air raids in World War II flattened the blocks in front of the station.
Immediately after the war the area turned into a huge black market, the
atmosphere of which remained until the redevelopment in 1970s.
The station building was rebuilt in 1901, 1940 and 1979 (north building). In
1983, a high-rise building, Acty Osaka, which housed a department store and
a hotel, was added to the south of the station. Currently (as of 2008) a new
building is under construction to replace the north building; when completed
in 2011, the station itself will also have an atrium above the platforms
connecting the two buildings, and a glass dome covering the complex.
(Article
based on
Wikipedia article and used under the
GNU Free Documentation License)
