is a railway station in

Arita, Saga is a town located in Nishimatsuura District, Saga Prefecture, Japan. It is known for producing Arita porcelain, one of the traditional handicrafts of Japan. It also holds the largest ceramic fair in Western Japan, the Arita Ceramic Fair. This ...

, Japan, jointly operated by

Kyushu Railway Company The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan and the JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait ...

(JR Kyushu) and the third-sector

Matsuura Railway is a third-sector railway company in Nagasaki and Saga Prefecture in Japan. Lines The railway company operates the 93.8 km Nishi-Kyushu Line from in Saga Prefecture to in Nagasaki Prefecture, with 57 stations. Principal investors * Nag ...

and is a transfer station between the

Sasebo Line The is a railway line in Kyushu, Japan, operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). It connects Kōhoku Station in Kōhoku, Saga Prefecture to Sasebo Station in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. It is part of the route connecting Sasebo wi ...

and the Nishi-Kyushu Line.

Lines

Arita Station is served by the JR Kyushu

and is located 28.2 km from the starting point of the line at . Besides the Sasebo Line local services, the JR limited services ''

Huis Ten Bosch Huis ten Bosch ( nl, Paleis Huis ten Bosch, ; English: "House in the Woods") is a royal palace in The Hague, Netherlands. It is one of three official residences of the Dutch monarch; the two others being the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague and ...

'' from to and ''

Midori Midori (みどり, ミドリ, , , ) is the Japanese word for "green" and may refer to: Places * Midori, Gunma * Midori-ku, Chiba * Midori-ku, Nagoya * Midori-ku, Sagamihara * Midori-ku, Saitama * Midori-ku, Yokohama People Given name * M ...

'' from Hakata to also stop at the station. The station is also the terminus for the Matsuura Railway Nishi-Kyushu Line.

Layout

The station consists of a side platform and an island platform serving three tracks. Platforms 1 (side platform) and 2 (on the island) are used by Sasebo Line trains while platform 3 (also on the island), whose track is a dead-end siding, is used by Nishi-Kyushu Line trains. A through-track runs between the two platforms. The station building is a modern structure with a distinctive circular skylight. It houses a waiting area, staffed ticket windows for both JR Kyushu and the Matsuura Railway, an Arita tourist information centre and a cafe. Access to the island platform from the station building is by means of a footbridge. Paid parking is available at the station forecourt and car rentals are available.Blog entry with detailed photographic coverage of station facilities. Management of the JR facilities at the station has been outsourced to the JR Kyushu Tetsudou Eigyou Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of JR Kyushu specialising in station services. It staffs the ticket counter which is equipped with a ''Midori no Madoguchi'' facility. To the north of the station, beyond platform 3, are multiple sidings, some of which are used by the (Arita ORS), a JR Freight facility for the transhipment of container freight by trucks.

Platforms

file:View from overpass of Arita Station (east).jpg, A view of the station platforms and tracks from the footbridge. Note the through-track between the platforms. file:Platform of Arita Station.jpg, View of Platform 1 looking west, in the direction of . Note there is a siding branching off the track. file:View from platform of Arita Station.jpg, View of platform 3. Note the sidings and containers of the Arita ORS.

Adjacent stations

, - , colspan=5 style="text-align:center;" , JR Kyushu , - , colspan=5 style="text-align:center;" , Matsuura Railway

History

The private

Kyushu Railway was a company that built and operated railways in Kyushu, one of four main islands of Japan. Most of its lines came under the control of Japanese Government Railways following nationalization in 1907, and many are now operated by Kyushu Railway ...

had opened a track from to and Takeo (today ) by 5 May 1895. In the next phase of expansion, the track was extended further west with Haiki opening as the new western terminus on 10 July 1897. Arita was opened on the same day as an intermediate station on the new track. On 7 August 1898, the private Imari Railway opened a track from Imari with Arita as its southern terminus. The Imari Railway merged with the Kyushu Railway on 28 December the same year. The Kyushu Railway was nationalized on 1 July 1907 and

Japanese Government Railways The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

(JGR) took over control of the station. On 12 October 1909, the line to was designated the

Nagasaki Main Line The , or simply Nagasaki Line, is a railway line owned by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) connecting Tosu Station in Saga Prefecture to Nagasaki Station in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. There is a separate branch of this line from Kikitsu S ...

while the branch to Imari was designated the Imari Line. On 1 December 1934, another route was given the designation Nagasaki Main Line and track serving the station from to was redesignated the

. On 1 March 1945, the track to Imari was designated as part of the Matsuura Line. With the privatization of

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

(JNR), the successor of JGR, on 1 April 1987, control of the station passed to JR Kyushu. On 1 April 1988, the Matsuura Line was divested to the third-sector

and the line was renamed the Nishi-Kyushu Line.

Passenger statistics

For the JR Kyushu station, in fiscal 2016, the station was used by an average of 888 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), and it ranked 178th among the busiest stations of JR Kyushu. For the Matsuura Railway station, in fiscal 2015, there were a total of 142,266 boarding passengers, giving a daily average of 390 passengers. See table 12-7 at section under Transportation and Communications.

References

External links

Arita Station (JR Kyushu)
{in lang, ja Railway stations in Saga Prefecture